I teach an online marketing class from time to time. I was recently asked to arbitrate a conflict between two students at the end of the course. They were members of a learning group that had the task of creating a detailed marketing presentation. The course assignment requirements specifically directed the students to each complete a portion to be combined later as a final presentation.
Unfortunately, one member of this particular team did not do his assigned part. He did not respond to their repeated inquiries. As a result, the others had to scramble at the last minute to research, write, design and complete the missing material before the assignment deadline.
Before grading the presentation, I reached out to the student who was AWOL to get his side of the story. He said he did not communicate with his group during the week because he was busy and didn’t understand what he was expected to do. I asked him why he didn’t make the effort to respond to his team. He offered a few feeble excuses, but he eventually admitted that he didn’t have a legitimate reason for not helping out when his team needed him most. He apologized, then, astonishingly, said he felt he still deserved points for the assignment!
During my 20+ years as a university instructor, I’ve noticed among some of my students a growing distaste for capitalism and an affinity for socialism -- simply because it’s a more “fair system.” Capitalism is ugly. Why should those at the top be paid so much when workers get so much less?
If I had implemented a “fair” grading system in this course and rewarded all students of this learning team the same grade, would that be fair? Absolutely not.
American economist Milton Friedman (one of the most prominent advocates of free markets) once said: “One man may prefer a routine job paying a higher salary; another man may prefer the opposite. If both were paid equally in money, their incomes in a more fundamental sense would be unequal. Similarly, equal treatment requires that an individual be paid more for a dirty, unattractive job than for a pleasant rewarding one. Much observed inequality is of this kind.”
John Stossel reported that Ben and Jerry of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream company once said they would limit the amount their CEO could make. They felt they couldn’t justify somebody making $1 million or more a year when their line-level worker can’t make enough to afford a house.
They announced their highest paid workers would make no more than five times what the lowest paid workers got. However, it didn’t work. Ben and Jerry were not satisfied with the people who applied. They ended up hiring a CEO at a salary not five times but 14 times more than other workers got.
That didn’t work out, so Ben and Jerry paid even more to hire another CEO. Then they sold the company.
Some might ask, what purposes do grades serve? According to Vanderbilt University, grades serve the following purposes:
Evaluation of student work
As a means of communicating to students, parents, graduate schools, professional schools, and future employers about a student’s performance in college and potential for further success
As a source of motivation to students for continued learning and improvement
Motivation was the apparent challenge faced by my student who failed to contribute to his final team assignment.
George Bernard Shaw expressed it best when he said: “Liberty means responsibility. That’s why most men dread it.”
Sources
Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman, The University of Chicago Press, 2002
Give me a Break, John Stossel, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2004
Vanderbilt University
Grading Student Work, https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/grading-student-work/
Great article!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Emma!
DeleteI liked the example shared about the student who was not accountable to illustrate the point being made.
ReplyDelete