The Truth About Harvard

Douthat made the point that higher grades are being given out more freely in today's universities not because students are becoming more intelligent, but because professors are feeling pressure from students, colleagues, and themselves. They are beginning to realize that grades are much more than numbers or letters in today's world. They are increasingly becoming the keys to better jobs, getting into law school, and any other aspect of a student's careerism. If you asked a group of students if they would rather have a C on a paper rather than a B, I am quite certain that the general consensus would be no. I do not believe that Douthat was complaining when he got an A on his 10 page paper about two artifacts from the great frontier era either. However, is this the correct way to go about things? By in fact giving out higher grades in an attempt to assure their students good jobs, are professors actually selling their students short? To be quite honest I would rather be given the truth about my knowledge on a certain subject. If my paper on World War II is horrible then I need to become more knowledgable on the subject. There is nothing more harmful to a student who will shortly be going into the real world than leading them to believe they know more than they really do.