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Originally Posted by rainheart
I always thought it was a good idea to view C's as bad grades, because knowing that C's are in the range of 60%-69%, that means that the opportunity of a university education for whatever it is you want to do is closed.
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I don't know of any teacher at any level who gives a C for 60-69%. The standard scale in US public schools uses a 10 point range, with 90-80-70-60 being cutoff points for A-B-C-D. My grading scale skews a little higher than that. The cutoff for a passing grade in my middle school classes is 67%, and in my University classes 75%.
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Overall, I'm not impressed with school (excluding colleges and universities). It's not hard to get an A if you really try, because all you do is follow formulas that are either given to you or ones which you have to figure out on your own (and for every subject too, like the process of putting together a good essay can have it's own 'formula' if you get me)
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I agree with you at least partly here. I'm not impressed with any school or class where getting an A isn't difficult.
I'm not sure what your other objection is. Certain classes, particularly physical science and math, are about learning step by step procedures and how to apply those prodecures to a novel situation. As you say here, this can even apply to writing an essay. Knowing the basic procedure for how to perform a task is the foundation on whichs students can build and develop advanced skills.
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I've met so many students who are actually intelligent but perform poorly in school, and tonnes of dull and unperceptive students who sacrifice everything to get more time to study and perform well in school, and I get disappointed everytime I see something like that.
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We're just the opposite here. I celebrate hard work that results in outstanding performance. We can't control how smart we are, but we can cotrol how much effort we put into things. Smart people who don't work hard don't deserve to succeed solely because they are intelligent.
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Besides that point, I think (or maybe my parents thought and therefore I think) it's necessary for C to be seen as a bad grade to force students to study harder and achieve more in school because they may not be able to judge the consequences of putting less effort in school as well as adults.
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My experience is that there are a great many students who will do what is necessary to get a C- to keep parents off their backs. There are high achivers who will do whatever is necessary to get a minimum of a B for personal reasons or to please parents, and there is a tiny minority for whom A is the threshhold of acceptible.
This is exactly the reason why I think we should raise the standards students need to meet to get these grades and expect students to meet high standards rather than lower standards to match student performance. If we expect more work to get a C, students who want a C will do better work to get that C, and so forth for A's and B's.