/sci/ - Science & Math

>>7238374

In a perfect world where all teachers teach the content competently, honestly, and efficiently, sure. If one has half a class of fuckwits, they should get the grade they deserve.

All that goes out the window the moment you realize some professors truly don't care about their students or derive pleasure from failing kids because they can.

I'd argue that philosophically, learning an average amount of content relative to the class should represent an average grade. Course content is usually static, randomness nearly guarantees a representative and average student sample, and classes usually are not new. If students failed to learn, the one variable in the room is the professor.

So as a school, how do you protect against shitty or sadistic professors? Enforced curve. No shit you're not entitled to a pass, that's not what the curve's for.

Lastly, all A's are seen as equal. An A in Dr. "Gives no homework or exams" Hanson's math class is treated as equal to Dr. Failum's class. Even if Failum teaches 30x harder (and maybe better), the lack of differentiation of A's hurts students who would benefit most from his style, those ambitious enough to make a good faith effort in a hard class.

Enforced curves also allow professors who truly care to push students to the field's limits without having to worry whether their content is too intense: the curve will sort that out for them.

So curves are a good thing. Fail the kids who didn't learn it, but leave the rest alone.