George Bush, Margaret Mead, and Grade Inflation

Kelley kwalker2 at gte.net
Fri Feb 15 13:09:44 PST 2002


<forwarded>

Hi Folks,

I can't resist passing on this anecdote from the current issue of Anthropology News, where contributing editor Jonathan Marks writes:

"And on the theme of history, I'd like to share with you a parting anecdote from the AAA meetings. Sidney Mintz (Johns Hopkins) taught intro cultural regularly at Yale in the 1960s, a very popular course....Anyway, one year (1966?) he was up for sabbatical leave but had difficulty getting any of the regular Yale faculty to jump in and teach his intro class. So on the suggestion of the dean, he got a visitor to come in and teach intro cultural at Yale that year.

"So Margaret Mead commuted up from New York and taught intro cultural. But Mead didn't like grading, so she gave the class all As.

"And one A became enshrined as the only A on the undergraduate transcript of the new President of the United States, George W Bush."

Enjoy. Bob Wood Rutgers-Camden



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