Kurt Wiesenfeld Making The Grade Summary

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Recommended: Procrastination in student academic life

“Making the Grade” by Kurt Wiesenfeld Newsweek magazine, June 27 1996 brings to light an issue that has been glazed over by society for some time, grade inflation. It’s highly disturbing that “we lament that schoolchildren get “kicked upstairs” until they graduate from high school despite being illiterate and mathematically inept, but we seem unconcerned with college graduates whose less blatant deficiencies are far more harmful, if their accreditation exceeds their qualifications”. The issue of grade inflation is not simply an issue of students feeling entitled to higher grades than they have earned, it is a problem that directly impacts our society in a multitude of negative ways. Perhaps the “gold star” mentality started out with the good intentions of creating children with positive self-esteem, however, a direct result is lazy adults with a sense of entitlement for no reason, who lack qualifications to adequately and safely perform their jobs. In the Newsweek article, Wiesenfeld describes his “rookie error” as being in his office the day after he posted final grades, and then was subjected to a barrage of pleading, begging, and demanding from students who had slacked off for the semester to be given better grades. He is specifically speaking about …show more content…

Spending money, time, and effort makes no sense, a person might as well just pay for a degree and not attend if that becomes a normal practice. It is unfair to the professor to be put under this pressure, especially when students try to place the blame for losing a scholarship or getting a lower GPA onto the professor. They take no responsibility or action for themselves. Not only is it unfair to the teacher, but also to the students who have studied every night, turned in assignments on time, and struggled to fit tutoring into their schedules, and gone above and beyond to earn their

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