Grade inflation merits changes
Jan. 6, 2004In the academic economy of the university, grades used to be the gold standard. For their studies in libraries, classrooms and laboratories, students were repaid with teachers' evaluations, which they could present to anyone as proof they'd done a good job. But in the 1960s and 70s, as the draft plucked college-age men in the United States from high school and deposited them in southeast Asian jungles, professors adhered less and less to the old work-evaluation exchange rates. Giving higher grades meant students could stay longer and keep their college draft deferments, and the phenomenon of grade inflation was born. But even though the draft is no more and college students' workloads are relatively unchanged, inflation continues. Things are no different in Athens.
