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Being Fair

An illustrative example of killing the messenger in higher education - this story about a non-tenured professor getting fired because his class was too hard. There is ofcourse the other side of the story - the students are being punished unfairly by a professor who takes pride in failing just about the entire class. Where grades determine where the student goes next in their career the consequences cannot be underestimated. Reading this made me wonder if a neutral, third party arbiter of level of difficulty and fairness to the student. 

An auditor of the class and the the exam who can validate that students are being a fair shake while the professor is pushing them to perform not just creating conditions for them to fail - in the exam and in life. In this instance, the fact that would be doctors are failing out of their organic chemistry class and the remedy is to fire the professor is cause for additional concern. What if the students are not qualified to enter the profession and what if the professor is right to fail them. 

This is not any different from a bunch of petulant middle schoolers asking for a do-over on their science quiz because everyone did poorly and no one was prepared. A teacher may score popularity points by acquiescing to the demand and there are no earth shattering consequences for anyone. Those rules of engagement don't even apply in high school so this event is newsworthy.

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