The Success of Failure

It is always more pleasant to talk about success than failure. The boss conducting performance reviews much prefers to tell staff members that they have done a good job than a poor one. It is less confrontational. The teacher-student relationship is not one of boss-employee, of course, but similar dynamics can be in play. Performance reviews naturally take the form of assigning grades. Time was, as every academic knows or suspects, when grades assigned were relative to the cohort known as a class. In college courses, only the very best-performing student or students got A's, the majority of the class got C's, and those who brought up the rear actually got D's and F's. Grading was never a pleasant experience, but awarding an honest distribution of grades was considered part of the responsibility that came with the privilege of being a professor. Accepting an honest grade was part of the responsibility of being a student. The student who tried unduly to influence a teacher's grade was called an apple polisher, or worse.