[waterside81]

Anecdotal evidence: My brother was doing a PhD at Yale and was a TA for a 1st year chemistry class. He was marking papers and gave a few of them an 'F' because they were terribly done. The professor told him to re-mark them because the school motto is "You don't fail at Yale"

[pjscott]

I had a professor once who had did something vaguely similar, but actually helpful: if you did badly on a paper, he wouldn't mark the grade on it. Instead he would write "Please see me after class."

After class, the (usually slightly terrified) student would go and talk to him -- and this guy, bless his heart, would do his best to figure out what the problem was, and how to get that student back on track. It worked, too. For a lot of students who get demoralized and let their studies slip, it's enough just to know that someone in charge cares about them, personally.

Ever since then, I've always thought that was how it should be. Grade adjustment is a pretty sad substitute.