Practical Perfection

First solid week, Readers!

As you know I work a part time job tutoring public speaking at BYU- Idaho. Today I tutored someone in a class taught by a man who told this poor student he would never get an A in his class. He didn't give A's. The best this student could get on any one assignment was an 80%. He went on to tell me that his speech was a subtle rebellion against such a ridiculous grading scale, and I had to agree. I was in a similar situation not too long ago with a teacher like that, and I can tell you with gusto there is nothing more infuriating.

The most shocking part of this story today is what this student told me happened when he honestly confronted his teacher about grading. In so many words he was told that only Jesus Christ could get an A from this teacher. In their class they watched videos of General Authorities of the LDS Church, absolutely flawless presenters and master speechwriters; this teacher wouldn't give even them an A for their presentations.

It is a good thing to set the bar high; that is one thing the Latter-Day Saints are known for. Setting the standard this high, however, is laughably stupid. The standard is set so high not even the standard setter can achieve it. This goes against common sense in the worst way. What value is a standard that no one can reach? Can you imagine The Savior taking a class from this teacher, and this teacher trying to give Him an A? Christ is so far beyond the teacher in every capacity that getting an A from him would be worse than useless. It would be like a self-righteous 1st grader critiquing a speech given by an Ivy League speech professor, and the toddler condescending from his high horse to give out an A.

Students come to college trying to improve themselves and earn academic high marks through their hard work to be considered for a career position. Teachers too high minded to teach only get in the way of this. Grading this way doesn't facilitate learning, it cripples it. Even your best efforts can be considered failure, so why bother? Your teacher will never be truly impressed with your work. You can never be more than a B student. You can never be more than a B employee. Teachers of this type effectively antagonize their students against themselves and selfishly, arrogantly, lock themselves away from actually being helpful. Teachers must go to where their students are and lift them to their own higher understanding, not hang an impossible ideal over them, crush them with its weight, and expect them to struggle upward to where you are intellectually.

What I'm asking for is Practical Perfection; expect your students to rise to the challenge, but understand where they are and how they are moving forward. Care more about how they improve and THAT they improve than you do about firmly establishing their inferiority. If you don't, you delude yourself as an educator. You are teaching them nothing but to hate the educational system. In short, calm down and give deserving students an A for heaven's sake!