College Student Alleges Her Grades Improved When She Became Critical of Republicans
“My writing style or sources didn’t change at all”
Does anyone doubt that this really happened?
The Washington Examiner reports:
A’s for liberal papers only: A conservative’s college experience
Leah Keller, a graduating senior at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., is only now choosing to speak out about her early experiences as a conservative on campus, 3 1/2 years later.
Keller told Red Alert Politics in a phone interview about a freshman year history course for which she was assigned a paper on Dwight D. Eisenhower. After writing a favorable portrayal of the former Republican president, Keller received a C grade and a suggestion that she see her professor.
“The professor said that I should reread the articles because ‘my opinion of Eisenhower might change,’” Keller said. “What was implied was that I didn’t write the opinion that he wanted or was expecting to see.”
Her professor allowed her to rewrite the paper, and she did so, giving a more negative portrayal of Eisenhower than she had done before.
“My writing style or sources didn’t change at all,” Keller noted, “just my opinion of Eisenhower.”
After resubmitting the paper, she earned an A minus and says she “stopped making my opinions clear to my professors.”
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Comments
Not a single doubt in my mind, considering I have heard and experienced the same in my college career. The most recent being a paper for a course on Healthcare Administration where I was critical of Obamacare. The highest grade given to a paper critical of the program was a C+ the lowest grade for a paper that supported the program was A-. This was backed up by a class discussion on the topic where it was basically the 3 of us vs the 5 of them and the prof.
Not much has changed. Once the mantle of ‘Professor’ has been donned, everyone else is a peon, (or is that to be peed on.)
Had a conversation with my thesis advisor in graduate school. He asked me what I had done to Professor ‘shit-for-brains.’
My crime: I corrected the Profs statistics twice in the same day. (Okay, I know I was a dumb-shit to have done it, but gee…..)
My advisor laughed, but then told me to never class from S-F-B. I didn’t. Transferred schools instead.
This is not unusual. Although many professors avoid letting their personal opinions sway their teaching and grading, some of the more strident ones (especially Social Justice Warriors) grade on conformity rather than quality. This happens most often in required “diversity” courses.
When my advisees complain about being downgraded for their non-leftist writing, I explain to them how easy it is to get good grades from those profs. Just look at the references and sources that the prof respects highly, and use that language to parrot back those opinions. It’s amusing when the student gets a good grade for a pile of crap that does nothing but repeat all the right “woke” language and support the prof’s left-wing politics.
Very hard to be objective in a subjective field of study. It’s why it’s important to have balance and diversity of politics in academia….something the left has scoffed off and overlooked for far too long.
After resubmitting the paper, she earned an A minus and says she “stopped making my opinions clear to my professors.”
So, she learned a lesson. Perhaps a useful one.
In all fields—not just the goofy ones—a student should be able to transcend his professors. Otherwise, they’re not so much teachers as limitations. All teachers are mere rungs on a ladder, tools to help one move upward; they’re not themselves the final heights.