Definitely silly, and arcane.

And this is from a school prez from the Ivy League?

Almost makes me think he has some Northern “arrogance” to him. :>

Meep – I always appreciate your take on these issues. You are right about this stuff correcting itself. It’s a natural process, but socialists always push the unnatural thing, and people rebel! And those who are supposed to benefit from wrong-headed policies are hurt in the long run.

But don’t tell that to John “Section 8 Housing” Kerry.

“‘Our library director is very frustrated that she has this lovely new library and it has all these misspellings in front,’ said city councilwoman Lorraine Dietrich, one of three council members who voted Monday to authorize paying another $6,000, plus expenses, to fly artist Maria Alquilar up from Florida to fix the errors.”

(Article from USA Today: “A $40,000 ceramic mural was unveiled outside the city’s [Livermore, CA] new library and everyone could see the misspelled names of Einstein, Shakespeare, Vincent Van Gogh, Michelangelo and seven other historical figures.”)

Having had read some “enlightened” papers from those schooled in the postmodern way, where a facility for pumping out obfuscated prose is taken to be a marker of intelligence, and having talked to some of those guys – I think these people don’t really understand why =somebody= has got to actually =know= stuff that’s =true=. As opposed to “everyone has their own truth” kind of foo-foo.

So, my “charitable” take on all this is that the people pushing these policies are just plain dumb, don’t really know anything of use themselves, and don’t see why anybody else should have to prove they know anything of use. Thing is, those in charge of college accreditation aren’t this stupid. And when people realize the diplomas being handed out by an institution are completely meaningless, the institution will get no more students. A self-correcting problem, I’d say, but I’m sorry for the students who have gotten caught in the middle of this.

SC has many decent schools, like Fuhrman, Clemson, and USC – and my cousins in SC go to a local school, Francis Marion University, which was pretty decent last time I checked (my grandma got her masters degree there about 15 years ago). I would recommend transferring to one of these fine institutions.

Reflects back on our past arguments about lowered standards and affirmative action.

If the policy isn’t followed at all during the student’s junior and senior years, does Benedict experience an out of proportion failure or withdrawal rate for students reaching their 3rd or 4th year? If not, why not? If substandard performance is acceptable during a student’s first 2 years, what happens when substandard work is no longer acceptable after the grading policy reverts to normal standards the last 2 years?

The problem for superior students, who attend Benedict is that their degree is diluted by crutching less able students along. The perception becomes that a degree from Benedict has less value because of this type of policy.

Say I were an employer, and knew of Benedict’s grading policy, and were faced with choosing between 2 applicants fresh out of school, one of whom holds a degree from Benedict, the other from another school. Common sense would tell you that I might be more likely to choose the other applicant, based on the perception that their degree was more of an indicator that they possessed the knowledge and ability that the degree purports to represent.

Even if the Benedict student I was dealing with was not the recipient of this type of help, but made it through the old fashioned way, the PERCEPTION would be that they got a degree by being “helped along” without really doing quality work.

Does anyone doubt the “No Child Left Behind” program of testing for proficiency will be dismantled with a democratic win.

The Democrats are pro ‘Teacher’s Union, not pro children. Teacher’s in general do not like ‘quality control’ testing of their ‘product’.