Today I was waiting for some of my friends to go grab lunch, when I heard some undergrads talking just outside their calculus class. I was mostly not caring what they had to say, but then I overheard that they were discussing the curve in their class. They were going over various scenarios that would lead to an A, or a B, or what have you, and then one remarked

I guess if you’re failing half your class you have to do something.

This comment struck me as a rather strange attitude to have. Why is it the responsibility of the professor to insure that a certain fraction of his class reached a certain minimum grade?    I’ve spent  a long time trying to figure out what attitude it was, exactly, that led to such poor performances being acceptable out of students. Perhaps I’ve found it. That one phrase embodies the entire attitude of unjustifiable entitlement held by so many students. The clear implicit meaning there is that “it’s not OUR fault that half the class fails”, and perhaps they might be right. But a professor is entirely within his discretion to fail half of his class if he sees fit.

The curve embodies so many evils of the educational system, and of course I’m going to take this opportunity to list them one by one.

A curve allows students to aim low, so long as everyone else is hitting lower. It encourages students to “get by” with the bare minimum required, on the assurances that as long as they are more studious than 85% of the class, they will surely get an A. This completely removes the point of having standards: why say “you have to know this this and this by the end of the class” when it’s possible to pass a course because nobody knew those things.

On the flip side, in the very rare class full of good students, curves turn A work into B or C work because there is a large cluster at the top.  In both of these two scenarios, you find yourself giving grades inaccurate to the actual level of the students involved.

Curves also remove the need to set  clear standards on what “passing” means. At some point, the instructor has to set down a list of standard things every student passing a class should know. This is the definition of passing a class: you have attained a sufficient level of knowledge from the course that you should not be compelled to learn it again. I have heard stories of professors that would begin a class by listing the four things a student can do to fail the class. If the student was able to do these four things, then they had a great likelihood of passing. This sets a standard for students to live up to, which is perfectly acceptable, and indeed should be of some comfort to students.

Finally, curves create the impression that a certain percentage of the class should pass, or should get a B, with the actual quality of the student being unimportant. A class full of students who cannot take derivatives should not be able to pass a calculus class, but if the professor declares 75% of you will pass, minimum, then that’s 75% of a class of 200 students who cannot take a derivative, but who are certified as being able to do so. Would you want only 75% of doctors being able to accurately practice medicine?

Perhaps it would be best if we were to kill the curve entirely, to simply stick to rigid standards. This at least lets everyone know where they are, and where they are supposed to be.