Williams is going to implement a universal pass/fail grading system this semester! It’s low-key helpful for me because all my classes are kinda tough right now, but looking at it from a broader perspective it was the most reasonable (do I daresay the only?) choice. My friend brought it up last week, and Maud explained it in her email as well, but with students living in varying circumstances navigating their own difficulties, it’s impossible to accurately assess a student’s learning “longitudinally or cross-sectionally”. I’ve been very impressed by the college’s response to the pandemic so far, and I’m glad they made the right choice with P/F grading.
But what about the incentive to get good grades? Won’t people slack off when it’s not there? Case in point, some people I know decided to hold off finishing their lab report because it didn’t matter anymore. The thing is though, they’re not abandoning it completely. They’re just going to do it at their own pace, unconstrained by arbitrary time limits and the stress of grades impacting grad school prospects. Which is a healthy way to learn I think! Too bad society dictates the necessity of grades and quantifying/ranking people as a whole.
To celebrate this announcement (and to seek retribution for yesterday), we ordered some two objectively-mediocre but subjectively-amazing pizzas from Dominoes. Abu really wanted to watch Us, and he assured me that it was very good and not that scary so I agreed. It was indeed very good and now I have to process the meaning for a couple of days, but it was also very scary so I’ve been half-tricked. 😡I survived though, and even though I’m scared to look out the window as I type this, it was a positive experience that I would recommend to others. 8.5/10
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