Grade Inflation? Thank Goodness!!

This article written by Michael Berube highlights the recent effects that a constant rise in grades over the past few decades has had on schools across the country. These universities consist of Ivy League schools as well as small town community colleges all the way to public schools. Mainly at the collegiate level, however, professors have reported that their students have been scoring higher grades than in years past but that also the grades might not be as hard to get. Berube states that critics believe we are close to a system right now that minimally showcases the hard work and effort that “A+” students should receive. Berube also goes on to detailing a potential plan as to how to handle the grade inflation. He added that Princeton claimed to only allow the top 35% of each class receive an “A”. As drastic as this sounds, he explained that just a couple of years ago, 90% of graduating students from Harvard did so with Honors. This is hard to believe considering Harvard is globally one of the most prestigious schools.
I think this entire situation is very attractive because I think I have seen the same flow of grades as I have increased in my schooling career. Not that I have been able to take a cross sectional look at the increase in national grades since I have been in school, from what people have told me about how grades used to be, everyone does actually perform better now. Many of my professors even claim that they had no care about what grade they made in a course at the time of their studying. Regardless, due to the fact that millions of job-hungry students graduate in the same week every year, it is easy to see why these students want to make good grades to stand out from the countless other graduates.

Can the Internet Change You?

Jaron Lanier is a renowned web researcher and a pioneer in the realm of virtual reality. In this short passage, Lanier effectively uses the classical scheme of argument in that his organization definitely helps the reader to understand his point of view and it sums up the point with detailed support in a concise manner. His introduction was strong in that he revealed a little about himself and he highlighted the main topic of his argument. From that, his body paragraphs are each compacted of details that show both the pros and the cons of the Internet and how it is helpful as well as dangerous. He also goes on to elaborate that the web has allowed advertisements to specifically target certain groups as well as how the Internet can help to increase efficiency by losing the need for human workers. After several examples of confirmation in his body paragraphs and his refutation to the “reducing the human aspect leads to impersonal behavior”, Lanier asks readers to give their insight on what they think about how the Internet could be changing how humans act every day.

Personally, I know from experience that the web allows people to mob together in certain influenced groups. An easy example is YouTube; If you actually go through and read the viewer comments on most of the videos, it is unbelievable how many racial slurs and curse words one might see just because someone doesn’t like a person in a certain video. The thing that Lanier speaks of that I also believe to be a bit true is that these comments can influence other people to act out and say things they normally wouldn’t maybe in public or to their parents. However, people can anonymously say just about whatever they want on the Internet without any concern of being punished for it. The Internet lacks these rules. It makes sense that certain people would say things after being influenced by others because there is no repercussions of “mobbing” up on anything.