11 Comments

Fellow English grad school student here. THANK YOU for articulating my feelings perfectly.

Equal opportunity for all is a noble and necessary goal. The insistence that everyone deserves to pass a difficult class is not.

Expand full comment
Oct 12, 2022·edited Oct 12, 2022

Indeed. Failing at something typically has greater pedagogical significance than success. Amazing how advanced educators seem to ignore this fundamental principle.

Expand full comment

Given the general trend of abandoning rigor in favour of feel-good diploma mills, it's going to be interesting to see how certain job markets respond. How will law firms recruit and hire, if they figure out that half the law school graduates out there just don't know much of anything about the legal system and don't have what it takes to succeed as lawyers?

Will certain schools become worthless on resumes? Will companies start leaning more heavily into skill testing? Tough to say at this point how it will all shake out.

Expand full comment

The general point is well-taken, but having just read the NY Mag piece you link, asserting that the “weed out” element of organic chemistry exists to perpetuate the doctor cart, there seems to be some merit to that argument. And if so we are just artificially restricting the supply of doctors when we need more. And we could have more, with no loss of quality.

Expand full comment
Oct 12, 2022·edited Oct 13, 2022

Great essay and a well written one too :) It also reminds me of one my mom wrote when I was a kid titled, "You are never gonna be a surgeon, not with those sausage fingers". Seriously, though my parents supported me and encouraged in whatever endeavor I tried, banging up against limits is indeed part of life.

Expand full comment

Agreed, sans one quibble:

𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘢 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘢𝘶𝘭𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰-𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘥𝘶𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 “𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘳” 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.

You can know about the 𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 from reasons that the academics themselves give, but I doubt that any of them makes an outright claim to wanting to be "the cool professor". That's your assessment of their inner workings. It may be correct, but you can't know it the way you do the other.

Expand full comment

Failing is the best measure of success...a motto current generation knows nothing about.

Expand full comment

I agree with the article's argument, but I don't think that professors at research institutions, such as NYU, are easy on students because they want to be "the cool professor." In many, if not most, of these institutions spending time on undergraduate teaching is not encouraged. The focus is on the graduate students and the professor's research. The undergraduates are considered mostly a source of tuition, cynical as this sounds. The dean who dismissed the chemistry professor with the explanation that their parents are paying tuition seems to share this view of undergraduates. The students who rebelled against the tough chemistry professor were likely not aware that they were reenforcing this dynamic. The only solution that I see here is tuition-paying parents insisting that their children are taught rigorously.

Expand full comment

We have become a society that values inclusion and participation, and that is a good thing. For example, youth sports have multiple levels - recreation, competitive and select - to match each child's interests and abilities. However, I suggest that a downside is some young men and women, especially those from more affluent backgrounds, will not face exclusion from something they want until after they get to college or, worse yet, they join the workforce.

Expand full comment
Oct 14, 2022·edited Oct 14, 2022

Why can't this professor be at fault? Because it doesn't fit your narrative? The average score on one test was 30%, it's being reported. That suggests the professor was unreasonable. The student's futures are indeed at stake and perhaps they are completely justified in protesting. I suggest the author and others look into situations more thoroughly before using them as launchpads for their screeds. As for supporting the concept of weed-out classes, there's a case for that if the subject matter actually pertains to the work they will be performing. Often, it does not. Rigor for rigor's sake isn't a virtue. It limits the talent pool in crucial sectors and thereby harms society, not just the students whose futures are curtailed.

Expand full comment