Immediately after posting this smug missive, I submitted a failing grade for a graduating senior. No matter what your grading scheme is and how carefully you document your course policies, the failing no-longer-a-graduate will make your life a never-ending hell in the hours before commencement looking for loopholes and accusing you of being capricious and unfair (or just a bitch). Tales of woe, including how hard he worked over the quarter, his full-time job, the cap and gown he purchased, and the family who have flown into town just for commencement, rain down upon your head.
(Why a single course could keep a student from graduating has always been a mystery to me. Why it always seems to be my course is another mystery.)
After I posted my grades I ran from my office at top speed and swore I wouldn't check my email. But who can do that, really? And his desperate messages, sent one after the other and stacked up in my inbox for as far as the terminal window could see, were so full of misunderstandings and misinformation that I had to respond.
I feel bad. I keep telling myself that if he were a freshman I would have failed him without question and without agonizing over it. Therefore, he still deserves to fail as a graduating senior. Why should I compromise my standards just because of a student's class standing? Maybe I am a bitch, after all.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
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26 comments:
"Rubric Hubris" is fun to say, and would make an excellent album title.
I say, "Embrace your inner bitch!"
I'm curious how a "graduating" senior can do so poorly in a course as to actually fail it.
I mean, that takes serious incompetence [at either the course subject or college-level study skills].
"Maybe I am a bitch, after all."
You say that like it's a bad thing.
My last year of teaching high school, I had to flunk a couple of seniors (this at a Catholic school, so no fifth year for them, as they'd flunked high school). Man, that hurt. I'd tried to yank them through that year, bully them, do everything I could think of, but they were quite determined to fail. You can't make zeros on homework never turned in add up to anything.
I hated being the senior English teacher for many reasons, but that was a big one. It's hard being the one who kills the dream.
I agree with The_Myth! Not only how does he do so poorly that he actual fails but also, how could he not know it's coming until you post the friggen grade. In my book, he doesn't deserve to graduate.
I'm curious how a "graduating" senior can do so poorly in a course as to actually fail it.
I mean, that takes serious incompetence [at either the course subject or college-level study skills].
I agree.
Are you sure that the student really is a senior?
A few times in the last decade, I have had students tell me that they CAN'T get a C- or a D or an F or whatever, because they're seniors and must graduate this year. It's always my course that will hold them back and destroy their lives.
Little do they know that their class standing is right there on the roster. I always double check with the administrative assistant to be sure, but it's so satisfying to tell a whiny sophomore, "I know you're not a senior, so stop the bull."
I'm with the_myth. A senior who fails a class has issues. Feel bad for a short time, but don't compromise your standards.
Maybe something to add to the grading scale:
One E-Mail: A request
Two E-Mails: An annoyance
Three E-Mails: A whiner
A terminal window full of E-Mails: Harassment
Harassment gets reported.
"I need to pass this class to graduate"....
Oh, I hate those words. But it's so easy to pass if you just do the work that I feel no guilt about failing seniors if they deserve it.
That said, I rarely get these kinds of complaints. Not sure why? Maybe they think I'm much more of a bitch than AP?
From Harvard Magazine
"The able-bodied C man! He sails swimmingly along.
His philosophy is rosy as a skylark's mating song.
The light of his ambition is respectably to pass,
And to hold a firm position in the middle of his class."
"1907 Educ. Rev. Apr. 386 The saying that ‘C is a gentleman's grade’ is evidently an imperfect defense for the idler in Harvard College.] 1922 C. BRITTEN in H. E. Stearns Civilization in U.S. 127 He crams through a few febrile nights of cloistral deprivations and flagellations; and the sun shines again on his harvest of gentlemen's C's. 1952 L. W. FERGUSON Personality Measurem. xv. 400 A person who decides that he is going ‘to make’ Phi Beta Kappa has a higher level of aspiration that the student who decides he is going to be satisfied with a gentleman's C average. 2000 New Yorker 24 Apr. 18/2 The ‘gentleman's C’ of yesteryear has magically turned into a B-plus today, thanks to the craven indifference of Ivy League professors."
I was wondering if you saw this. I was always curious about that Gentleman's C.
Having gone through the soul-sucking rigid, largely arrogant-bastard, male-dominated hierarchy of asshole physical scientists, I would never have begged like this kid did for a grade. I'm saddened by these personal pleas for undeserved favors. YOU didn't flunk him - he did it to himself. He likely did it to himself in MANY courses.
I don't like the old guard who dominated physical sciences, but it did result in greater fear of your instructors and occasionally respect. It did, unequivocally, prevent these pathetic acts.
Assuming your a good teacher, you don't GIVE grades, students EARN them (or don't). You can't let the stress from a student facing the consequences of his/her actions make you think you're a bitch.
Being a bitch would entail something more like laughing in the student's presence, rather than outside of it.
Passing people who don't successfully complete course requirements is one of countless factors that has led our dear nation to fill over the brim with morons and assholes. On the chance that you teach at Harvard, you may have just prevented, or delayed, the ascent of another G.W. Really.
If, on the other hand, you didn't put any effort into making your course material understandable to students at your course level; or if you didn't provide students with some form of assessing their performance in the course throughout the semester, then you should feel guilty.
Beyond that, it's summer. Forget it all and go find a hammock in Cancun or somewhere.
Given that the angry professor apparently teaches stats to social science types, one might assume that this would be true in this case. Also, given that the social sciences depend on stats for everything they do...
Methinks that perhaps social science majors should take stats FIRST instead of LAST so they might better understand a very large body of the work in their field.
just a thought...
Last year, my graduating senior who was not going to graduate because he failed my course was also failing the course taught by a professor down the hall. He did not know I knew. After all the extensions and pleading he handed in plagiarized work and failed again. In the hearing, he asked what I was doing to him. I responded, I don't know allowing late registration an extension on everything he submitted and every chance possible. He responded you're right.
As long as you're letting the students know all along how they're doing, I see no reason why he should be shocked that he failed your class.
OTOH, I did have a professor this past year who only gave us back one grade on something we'd submitted early in the semester and then failed to grade anything else before the end of the semester. He promised that no one who had fewer than 4 absences would fail but it sure felt hairy not knowing WHAT my grade would be!
I have that problem surprisingly frequently. This quarter, I told a supposed-to-graduate senior to drop the class because I didn't think she would be able to get the necessary 2.0 required by the major. Last quarter, a student emailed me just before the final exam to tell me that she needed a 2.0 and hoped that I could help her out. I sent an email in response explaining that I do my best to give students the grades that they earn and then detailing all of the classes that she had missed that quarter.
It does suck, but they should see it coming. I mean, if they really need to pass, why not put in the extra effort? And, at my university at least, there are often online courses they can take to get the credits they need.
But the truth is, some students deserve to fail. A college degree should mean something.
I agree with meteechart. You didn't "give" this student a failing grade, he earned it. There are people in this world that will always blame others for their failures, and this student will probably continue to do this in the "real" world. You're doing him a favor by making him answer for his own actions.
@ liz I went through the same thing!!! except he said no absences would exempt you from the final exam. so I didn't miss any classes. nor did we have any homework assignments. he graded on class participation, and the final paper. I came to every class and apparently got a b+ on the final paper. so imagine my surprise when I got a C!!! And a C=F for a graduate student. So I apparently had to harass him to find out the situation. Apparently there was some miscommunication and he changed my grade.
Hmmm..
About thirty years ago this happened to me with a kid in ROTC. The "colonel" came to plead for the kid.
I said no dice. He knew this was coming from the first quiz and did nothing to prevent it -like studying. I guess someone had told him that the graduating senior ploy never failed.
It did this time.
Hang in there.
Bonzo
(If you are a bitch, then I guess this makes me a bastard.)
Anonymous -
I hear you. I also once got a lower course grade than I'd received on any assignment. Go figure. I didn't bother arguing. The prof was known for his random marks anyways.
(I think it was a B-. If I'd gotten a C in grad school, I would've thrown a fit.)
And then there was the course in which I was ecstatic to have passed 30% on the final (best score all semester!). I got a B+ for the course. Even though I was one of the top-scoring students, I fail to see how I've demonstrated competency...
Anyway, off topic. Angry Prof, don't let him make you feel guilty. That's all it is, a guilt trip. His grade is not your problem. (I wish I could *actually* be as cold-hearted as I sound here. The end-of-term guilt is the thing I like least about teaching.)
Grades are earned. If the student had been keeping track of his/her scores, they knew it was coming....they were counting on guilt to save their asses.
Don't feel bad, AP -- you handled it correctly.
You are by no means are you a bitch. You gave this senior and an adult the syllbus, you had office hours, you were avalible for him to ask questions or seek help.
You taught him that the world does not cater to those who do not work. It is a tough lesson to learn but one he will not soon forget.
I had a student pull this on me this year. He said he didn't attend the last 8 weeks of the semester because of mono and turned in answers to all of the exam questions for the tests he missed in the "hopes" that I would pass him. I told him that if he brought me documentation of his blood tests confirming mono, we could talk. Never heard from him again. And the saddest part? On the first test he had the top grade in the class. His answer was a work of beauty but the kid has got to learn that being rich and smart doesn't stand in for not showing up. Hold firm!
I had the President of the Senior Class in a 300 level history class this Spring. He flunked his first two tests and if he failed the class he not only would have not graduated, but he was the scheduled student speaker (as voted on by his class) and would have lost that opportunity. I dutifully told the Dean that the student was flunking. Fortunately he did well enough on his term paper that, with his good attendance and participation, I could tell the Dean at the last second that the student would pass, IF he passed the final. He did pass the final (with a solid B) and graduated. I don't know if he was allowed to give his speech or not.
In this case the student was not a history major. This was the first history class he'd taken since the freshman survey but his exams were so awful there was no way I could have done anything except flunk him.
When I was an undergrad, way back when, we had so-called "August graduates" who went through the June commencement, but were given an empty folder without the diploma. They took summer school and then officially graduated. Too bad your failing Senior couldn't go that route but if they failed, they failed.
I was in this situation in my senior year of college. I was failing a concrete structures course. My mid term grade was a 29 out of a passable 100. Even if I got a 100 on the final I still would not pass the course. I had to pass this course or I would not graduate. I did not complain to the professor or ask for special treatment. I solved the problem.
The problem was demonstrating to the professor that I knew the material. If I could demonstrate proficiency with the material, I figured he would let me pass the course.
I had 6 weeks to figure out what to do. It was a wonderful learning experience that taught me how I learned and taught me to trust how I think and approach problems.
I wound up rewriting the entire chapter on concrete beams in tension. I reduced a 40 page chapter with who knows how many equations and formulas in to a single equation. I showed it to just before the final exam. He looked at it asked a few questions, then said he said, “You get an A, there is not need for you to take the final.”
All the student needs to do is meet the standard. You holding up the standard does not make you a bitch. it makes you a demanding professor. Students today don't realize what a gift that is.
was this situation ever resolved?
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