We must “celebrate our differences,” yet never acknowledge that any differences exist. See the Larry Summers fiasco.
Obesity is a national emergency, yet so is mass starvation–and the solution to both, of course, is more nanny-statism.
Bush (or Rove, or Cheney, or the RNC) is too stupid to tie his shoes, yet masterminded 9/11, Katrina, etc.
Bush (or Rove, or Cheney, or the RNC) masterminded 9/11, Katrina, etc., yet couldn’t manage to plant WMDs in Iraq.
And the list goes on and on . . .
Crossposted on Kitchen Table Math.
Science Goddess is discussing the idea of giving Incompletes in secondary school (thanks to Joanne Jacobs for pointing it out–I’m not sure how I missed it on my first read through the Carnival this week). In the comments, I said that I’d have to think about it, but that my first reaction was that this was a remarkably bad idea.
The more I thought about it, the worse it seemed. It would have been bad enough if it were assigning an Incomplete for the whole class, but it’s even more disastrous because it’s assigning Incompletes for assignments. So if little Jimmy doesn’t do his homework, instead of getting a zero for it, he gets an Incomplete (and we’ll ignore the fact that Jimmy has earned an F, or perhaps leave it for another day).
We university types know something about Incompletes. Students ask for Incompletes all the time, and nearly always, the answer is “No,” and for very good reasons. I’ve had this conversation with so many faculty members and grad students that I know it’s not just my, or even a minority opinion. Incompletes are bad all the way around, for lots of different reasons. And the best example that the university–not just me or a handful of us–knows that Incompletes are bad is your nearest university policy on giving Incompletes. The typical university states that they should be given only in extraordinary circumstances beyond the control of the student. As another example, many universities also have policies that convert Incompletes into Fs after a specified time limit, usually a year.
Certainly, there are a handful of faculty who hand Incompletes out like candy, but they are a very small minority (or newly-minted PhDs who have next to no teaching experience). Incompletes are trouble all the way around, for the faculty member, for the university administration, and most of all, for the student.
Several commented that giving Incompletes sends the message that deadlines aren’t important, and that’s a valid objection, though by no means the only one, or even the major one. More importantly, it sends the message that deadlines–and assignments–aren’t to be taken seriously, that work isn’t important, and that managing time isn’t important. Worst of all, it is grossly unfair to those students responsible enough to have done their work and turned it in on time–unforgivably unfair. Any teacher who would have handed out Incompletes in any class where I was a student to others who couldn’t be bothered to do their work would have earned my undying, intense, cold hatred, the type of hatred that makes fantasizing about that teacher’s gruesome, painful, tortuous death and screams of pain an erotic experience. And if I had children in a class and found out that the teacher was giving lazy little Jimmy an Incomplete instead of an F, you had better believe I would be in that teacher’s office raising hell until he changed the policy.
But all that aside, there are other excellent reasons not to give Incompletes under these circumstances. A student gets an Incomplete because he is behind. If you could wave a magic wand and stop the passage of time so Jimmy could get caught up, it wouldn’t be a problem–but you can’t. What invariably happens is that as the class moves on, Jimmy either forgets about the Incomplete and stays behind, or doesn’t, and gets further behind the rest of the class.
Most of the time, Jimmy forgets about the Incomplete, and never finishes it. This is why universities have implemented time limits on Incompletes, turning them into Fs if they aren’t completed within a specified time. Or if Jimmy doesn’t forget the Incomplete, he invariably turns in the paper or report or project at the very end of the semester, when the instructor is snowed with many hours of grading, recording grades, and turning in grades.
Jimmy assumes that his Incomplete will be given highest priority, but reality is the opposite (for obvious reasons). His report is put on the bottom of the already huge stack, or in a drawer so it won’t get lost, and all too often, the instructor is so snowed with grading and end of the semester duties that, well, Jimmy’s report falls through the cracks and turns into an F.
Jimmy’s Incomplete then becomes an administrative nightmare. Rarely is the problem going to be noticed by the instructor; after all, had the instructor remembered, he would have graded the report. No, Jimmy or his parents will discover the problem when the grades come, and then (pardon the French) seventeen different kinds of hell will explode. The administration will call the department chair onto the carpet, and the department chair will then chew out the instructor. The instructor will then have to find Jimmy’s report (where did I put that?), grade it, calculate a final course grade, file a change of grade form, and then explain to Jimmy that it can take the university up to a year before the grade change will be reflected on his transcript (ain’t bureaucracy wonderful?)
And those are university Incompletes, given as a course grade. The proposal under discussion is giving Incompletes as assignment grades. Say the teacher gives twenty assignments. Multiply the problems mentioned above by twenty.
The best thing I can say about this idea is that any teacher who implements it will drop it after he recovers from his nervous breakdown.
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