[ohazi]

Catch-22:

After he got the amendment ratified, there's a strong argument that the paper probably should have been given a higher grade. But had he been given that higher grade in the first place, he probably wouldn't have gone through the effort to ratify the amendment.

You could argue that the paper did deserve the initial C grade, because that's what it took to get him angry enough to go and get the amendment ratified.

[hvdijk]

Poor grades are supposed to be for poor work. What you're talking about is intentionally giving good students bad grades for good work just to piss them off, hoping that something good comes out of pissing them off. That's not what grades are for.

[newsyyswen]

Couldn't you make a case that grades should reflect how people will actually be evaluated in their adult lives?

I.e. capriciously, arbitrarily, and often based on a random person's mood at some random time?

[vladTheInhaler]

I give your argument a B-. Not for any particular reason. I just felt like it. Was that a good use of your time?

Many different groups have mutually conflicting expectations about what grades are supposed to be for. But one thing I think students, teachers, and prospective employers would agree on is that they should be rooted in some measure of performance or ability. Otherwise they serve no socially beneficial purpose at all. What is the point in taking a calculus exam if you'll just get 0/100 because the professor doesn't like your handwriting?

[watwut]

This way you will produce students that act even more capriciously and arbitrarily toward others.

[youeseh]

Yeah, no reason to instill a sense of fairness in students, eh? :P

[exhaze]

This is literally not at all what happened.

[wahern]

Apropos HN, I'm reminded of a quote recounted in Portraits in Silicon (Robert Slater, 1987) and attributed to Howard H. Aiken, original designer of the Harvard Mark I:

> Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats.

https://books.google.com/books?id=aWTtMyYmKhUC&pg=PA88

[paxys]

Maybe the paper did deserve a C when it was handed in. Maybe it was poorly written, too short, too long, irrelevant to the topic at hand or just about anything else.

[exhaze]

Maybe it's better to just spend 5 minutes looking into that question instead of coming up with random reasons.

The paper was originally graded by a TA who gave the "C" grade. Watson appealed the grade to the professor. The professor reviewed it and upheld the "C" grade, stating that he had not sufficiently convinced her that the amendment was still alive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-seventh_Amendment_to_th...

[kd5bjo]

It is entirely possible for this paper to contain a "C" quality argument even though its conclusion turned out to be true-- The purpose of an academic paper is to present a convincing argument rather than simply making a true assertion.

[jszymborski]

I mean, it could have just as easily discouraged the student and lead them to think that there's nothing there.

I hardly doubt being given an A+ and being encouraged and told that he had quite an idea there would have led him to abandon the enterprise.

Too often exceptional students perform despite poor teaching practices, and then we look to the poor teaching practices as the root of the success.

[renonce]

What constitutes the root of success is up to the reader and I don't think the article mentioned that. The student happened to put his paper into action, sent letters to legislators and got responses and caught one of the chances to change the history. I think that's just life.

[jszymborski]

I mean, the whole article is framed to indicate that the poor grade is what resulted in this mans pursuit to amend the constitution.

The headline is literally "The Bad Grade That Changed The U.S. Constitution"

The teacher goes on to say of herself "You have, just by making this fellow a grade he didn't like, affected the U.S. Constitution more than any of your fellow professors ever thought about it, and how ironic is that?"

The article also insinuates that Watson only began lobbying to change the grade. "Most people would have just taken the grade and left it at that. Gregory Watson is not most people."

[croes]

Is that really a Catch-22?

[JetAlone]

Yes, I'd say that the C was providential.