When Chemists Attack

Warning – rant coming up!

Occasionally, at the end of the semester, I will get e-mails like this:

I just looked up the grade and saw that I had a “D”. I would like to talk with you face to face and see if there is anything that I can do to get a “C”. Please let me know.

As an instructor, this is probably one of the most annoying kinds of e-mails I ever receive. It’s more annoying than finding out you have a 7:30 AM meeting on the same day you have a night class that meets until 11 PM. It’s more annoying than the bazillion e-mails generated by my blog software when a spambot hits my filters – et cetera.

Why are these sorts of e-mails so annoying? Look at what the student it actually saying. The student isn’t saying that I made an error calculating grades or anything like that. The student knows full well that (s)he earned a “D”, and would like me to just, well, “give” out a grade that wasn’t earned – to certify that a student has certain knowledge when I know (s)he doesn’t.

That’s insulting, because it implies that the student thinks that I am dishonest enough to simply change a student’s grade because they whine loudly enough.

If you’re a student reading this, let me clue you in – most of us instructor types value our integrity. We will do our best to help you earn a good grade in our courses. We will sit with you in our offices or in the lab and help you wrap your head around the course material. Many of us offer nearly 24-hour-a-day access via e-mail, if you need help outside of school hours. At the end of the term, we will record a grade that is in line with your mastery of the course content. If you do “D” work, you’ll get a “D”. If you do “A” work, you’ll get an “A”. Very simple. if we screw up calculating your grade, we’ll correct it – but we won’t just “give you a C” if you flunked. So don’t ask.

This concludes the rant.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 11th, 2006 at 12:48 pm and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.