Last week I posted the following post asking for opinions: https://cosmicpathways.org/2021/02/09/we-need-to-draw-a-line-in-the-sand-somewhere-when-is-easy-too-easy-and-when-is-hard-too-hard/

I got a lot of opinions back, including some that were very strong. One person’s response was very thought through. I want to share it with you.

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Disclaimer: Describing myself as an educator or teacher is generous. I attempted teaching for two years. It was very difficult and I was not that successful in helping students learn high level math concepts.

Privilege check: I don’t know what it is like to struggle financially. I have never been responsible for helping provide for my family. I have not dealt with true trauma and I’ve never experienced lasting depression or anxiety. That makes it hard for me to truly understand the toll that those things take on a person’s mental capacity for work, motivation, and overall demeanor. Pandemic has also been my ideal. I work from home, I never have to see people, and I’m so happy.

Thought #1: The world isn’t fair – and expectations/grading shouldn’t be either. Not everyone should be held to the same standards. A physics major who wants a career in physics (or Engineering or meaningfully related field) benefits in no way from dropping our expectations. Regardless of what happens in the next 12 months, if you don’t learn anything in your E&M class and you want to be an electrical engineer of circuit boards, you will be underprepared for your goals and you will regret it. If you are a med student who needs physics on your transcript and is going to pick up some critical thinking and soft skills in your physics class, tailoring expectations and requirements to understand this moment of history feels appropriate. What does that mean? Per the usual. More work for teachers. And. more liability. Because you are holding your students to different standards.

If I were teaching: my solution would be to break down assignments into the “required” and “advanced” tracks. And do the same with exams. Explain to the students the benefits of each. Let them choose their own fate. In college you are teaching adults. Give them the appropriate options and let them make their choices as they will.

Thought #2:Survival of the Fittest: Personally, I have never grown when someone was kind or gave me extra time to complete something or lowered their expectations. It just taught me that I can be successful without putting in my ABSOLUTE best. I could stay up until 3am finishing this homework and study for 5 hours a night. But my professor was nice enough to give me an extra two days. So, I’ll work a little less hard and take the extra time. Hold everyone to the highest standards. Survival of the fittest. The world is hard right now, it’s hard for everyone in different ways. Once again, the world isn’t fair. Step up to the challenge or choose something else. The world sucks. But time doesn’t pause. You are paying a lot for these classes. Personally, the only thing I regret from college is not working harder and committing more things to memory. Not being a better student. Not reading all my textbooks the way I read the Quantum book (which was reading every chapter at least twice and working out all the problems slowly and meticulously). I paid a lot (haha who are we kidding. I’m still paying for that education — and will be for quite some time) for that. I could have done more to get my money’s worth. Competition is absolutely a good thing. Whether or not you want to be compared to others, everyone is. No one says – Look at how much Jeff Bezos has grown as a person and improved on his own. They compare his accomplishments to Bill Gates. No one just says hey Michael Phelps consistently lowered his butterfly time. They say, Michael Phelps has the most medals and is faster than everyone else. Competition is correlated with drive. [strongly consider my lack of personal experience with real struggle/external obligations when considering this path)

Perspective from teaching in Rural/high poverty region: This struggle between understanding personal circumstances and setting high standards/expectations has been brought to the forefront for all teachers during COVID-19, but was a regular topic of conversation in various rural and low SES regions in the US. How do you reconcile understanding that a student is homeless/working 25 hours a week to support their family/dealing with an abusive or alcoholic or drug addicted parent / etc while still understanding that by lowering your standards you do a disservice to that student.

How did I approach this as a high level math teacher — I recognize that for 99% of students, the content taught in Algebra II does not matter to them and will never matter to them. So my primary role was making sure that my students practiced SOME math, got some experience solving problems and thinking critically, and felt they had someone they could come to for support if needed (unless it was about their boring high school relationship drama… cause i can’t help and don’t really care).

If I was teaching English — a more universally important skill – if you can’t read fluently or speak coherently, you are in much deeper trouble than if you can’t factor a quadratic equation — I would likely have had a different perspective.

Perfection is Boring Response: Yes. This is an interesting point to consider. Do we want breadth or depth? I sell myself as having a breadth of experiences and perspectives, which is what will make me successful in grad school. But I don’t know if I have ever really believed that philosophy. Aren’t the people who make the most progress and shatter records those that are experts or specialize in one thing? On the flip side: where does ingenuity come from if you are only well versed in one thing? The world doesn’t happen in isolation, so shouldn’t our studies and experiences do the best to mirror the wide range of experiences available to us? Easy and topical anecdote. If I had more experiences of trauma and struggle I bet I wouldn’t deign to have written my dystopian perspective.

Point of View Response: I agree that making classes Pass/Fail is not the answer. That doesn’t solve the problem. My vote: give everyone grades, whatever grade they earn. In 2 years when they apply to grad school, allow the student a paragraph to explain any COVID related grades as they wish and allow the application reviews to weigh that as they choose. But with that, no longer make scholarships contingent on grades for this crazy point in time.