Grading

This is not a task I enjoy. It's not so much reading the papers and making comments, but more the somewhat subjective nature of it all. Fortunately for the last two assignments I developed grading rubrics which will make things easier, and less subjective.

In a perfect world, students would all get perfect grades. And since this is graduate school I expect a certain degree of perfection. Are my expectations too high? Perhaps.

As an undergraduate I had a professor that had high expectations and did not demonstrate that he met his own expectations. Another professor was the opposite, whatever has asked of his students he did twice the work. The first professor didn't seem too keen on his students' success; the second professor basked in the successes of his students. Although I enjoyed and learned from the first professor, I respect and value the second professor in a profound way.

This is a good lesson. Do I want to be a professor that students have an enjoyable class with? Or do I want to also be a professor that students respect? Do I want to be remembered for a laugh or a single lesson? Or do I want students to feel that I cared about them as learners and individuals? I believe it is the second, although the first seems the easier path.

And now, back to grading . . .