To all students who earned a B, but wanted an A:
A little note from me to you
regarding final grades.
My Dear Students,
- Everyone wants an A. That doesn’t mean instructors are obliged to issue them to everyone.
- Everyone is concerned about their GPA. Your GPA concerns are not relevant to the instructor's grading process.
- Your Grade is based on merit, not on the instructor's desire to please each student, or worse, on a fear of disappointing the student.
- I can't speak for all instructors,
but I won't compromise my ethics and risk repercussion by offering special,
secretive assignments to individual students after the semester is closed. So,
please don’t ask! After all, everyone could bring up their grade if given
the chance to do extra assignments!
- There are many others in the class who ended up with the same total points
as you, and received Bs; Should I also give them As? If so, where
should I draw the line? The grade margin would then cease to mean anything, and
grades would become nothing but a random whim.
- In my world, As and Bs are both
good grades. And it’s too
bad SMC doesn’t allow half grades because that would allow me to assign a B+
where applicable.
- Finally, congratulations on your B! But sorry you’re disappointed with it. It’s
your choice to be disappointed.
- If you truly liked and benefited from my class as you say you did, you would have learned the ideas of acceptance and humility.