Scenario 1: Purport to "school" a room-full of young people on a "curriculum" for a few months. At the end of that, suddenly "refuse" to provide something you've allowed them to believe they would receive at the end of it, with or without an explanation of the basis for said refusal. For the sake of discussion, let's call this a mild form of sociopathy.
Scenario 2: Engage a room-full of young people for a few months around a particular subject matter, including a discussion as to why you deem "grading" of their engagement with that subject matter to be inappropriate. Maybe even - I'm going out on a limb here, corrupting the youth and all that - allowing them to arrive at the conclusion that a sit-down strike against grading would be a fine culmination to the semester. For the sake of discussion, let's call this whatever the f*ck you want, because it doesn't much matter what you call it, frankly. But you knew that.
The response to Scenario 1 is pretty simple: When the grader unexpectedly "refuses," I send an email to her / him confirming her / his refusal, with a reasonable time frame for response, noting that I'll feel obligated to send an email to the students in question, if no reasonable response is offered, as to why their grades won't be provided in time. I call her / him to let her / him know the email has been sent (to avoid post factum protestations of ignorance). Paper trail, fair notice, etc.
The response to Scenario 2 is inevitably, infinitely more interesting.
Incompetence needs support, but unprincipled recalcitrance only needs a firm tactical hand. If there are genuine competency gaps in play - or, even better, a principle - well, then maybe we can have a really interesting discussion.
On May 25, 2010, at 11:33 PM, Michael Smith wrote:
> On Tue, 25 May 2010 14:07:35 -0700
> Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu> wrote:
>
>> when
>> we're trying to get things done in an educational organization,
>> turning a blind eye to people who don't do their work causes all
>> kinds of problems for students, faculty, and staff. One example: a
>> faculty member at a vaguely unidentified college I've worked at
>> refused to grade final papers for a number of terms
>
> This is a pretty unconvincing example, to my way of thinking. Anybody
> who refuses to "grade" is a hero in my book.
>
> --
>
> Michael Smith
> mjs at smithbowen.net
> http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org
> http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com
>
> "I am in favor of leaving people alone,
> no matter how imperfect their polity may
> seem." -- Stephen Maturin, MD
> ___________________________________
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