One of the things I will be looking for as I attend Scott Bartchy’s (my advisor) lectures for his course on the historical Jesus is his style of teaching. On the opening day, I thought he made a wonderful speech about grading. Bartchy told this story from his graduate work at Harvard of this cocky young professor, fresh out of his Ph.D. program, who tantalizingly told the class of Harvard graduate students, “One of you will get an A. Who will it be?” Of course, all of these students were accustomed to getting A’s all the time. Bartchy says he received his worst ever grade in that course.

He used the example to illustrate how silly that sort of grading is. He also said that educators who grade on a curve haven’t figured out what their standard for excellence is. If someone does superior work, they should receive an A. Here’s where I thought it got really interesting. This is loosely what he told the students:

If I gave an A to every person in this class—and I’m not known for grade inflation—the dean would call me into his office and ask me, “Scott, What’s going on?” And I would tell him, “I have had the most fantastic class I have ever had in the history of UCLA.” I would be proud to be able to say that.

When he started talking about the dean, I wasn’t sure where he was going with the hypothetical situation. I thought maybe he was going to say he’d use the scenario to challenge the way the whole system works. I really couldn’t guess. But I thought his way of letting the students know he’s on their side was brilliant.

I have only been at UCLA for a couple quarters now, but I can certainly already attest to the pressure most students feel to make A’s all the time. It seems important for a professor to show his concern for students who feel that pressure, while also letting them know that they still have to work for it.