The Seventy-Four Percent Solution

According to MLive, an online news source which concentrates on statewide issues here in Michigan, 74 percent of students at Michigan's public universities get 'A' grades. That's 3 out of 4.

That's also patently absurd. Outside of a classroom full of Einsteins and Mozarts there's simply no way 74% of kids deserve such high grades. I read one wag who said that it's the college equivalent of participation trophies. It isn't a bad comparison.

This is wrong on many levels. To begin with, the students who are actually good at mastering and applying subject matter should be insulted. They're set right down with the slackers. I wonder too whether such a system gives the others who can't, uh, make the grade, feel a certain superiority. Y'all ain't so hot, y'all that can earn better reviews of your work. We smart too.

But as colleges aren't actually teaching that much which is true and worthwhile, as they've become too often glorified high schools, perhaps it doesn't really matter.