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 rofessor
Harvey C. Mansfield is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Government
at Harvard University. An eminent
political philosopher, he has long been an outspoken critic of political
correctness and declining standards, both at Harvard and in American
education more generally. On campus, he is notorious for being a
tough grader — students have nicknamed him "Harvey C-minus
Mansfield." Recently, however, he has attracted attention for his
new grading system, currently being implemented for the first time
in his course "The History of Modern Political Philosophy." Mansfield's
latest book is a new translation of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy
in America.
Editor's note: Mr. Martinez,
a former National Review summer assistant, is a student of
Mansfield's.
Roman Martinez: What exactly is your
new grading policy?
Harvey Mansfield: The new policy is
to give every student two grades. One is the official, more or less
meaningless, inflated grade, and the other is our — I say "our"
because I have grading assistants in my course — our judgment
as to what they really deserve.
Martinez: What will the first of these
two grades be based on?
Mansfield: The first grade — the
inflated grade — will be based on the present Harvard distribution
of grades for the most recent year which shows about 25 percent
A's, about 26 percent A-minus, so 51 percent A and A-minus. The
top two grades are a majority of the grades given to all Harvard
undergraduates. Then, 22 percent B-plus, 16 percent B, and so on
down.
Martinez: What about the argument that
Harvard students are special, that by making it here they have distinguished
themselves relative to their peers, and therefore deserve high grades?
Mansfield: I think the students here
are all special, but that therefore they deserve to be graded
by a major-league standard. They're not in the pony league anymore,
they're in the big league, and should be graded in comparison to
other Harvard students. We should stop giving our students the same
grades they used to get in high school. They're not in high school
anymore.
Martinez: When you mentioned this policy
to your class, you said that the inflated grade would be the "ironic"
grade. What did you mean by that?
Mansfield: Ironic means "I don't fully
mean it." So, it's a kind of lie. It's a conformity to the prevailing
practice, in order to stop having to punish my own students.
Martinez: Is that the main reason behind
the new policy — to stop punishing your students?
Mansfield: Yes. And also because in
my own mind, it seemed to me that I was violating my own conscience
and giving grades higher than I wanted to give.
Martinez: What do you think is driving
grade inflation in American education today?
Mansfield: What's behind it I think
is the evil notion of self-esteem in American education. You see
it in higher education as well as in high-school and elementary
education, where it's attracted more attention. But in higher education
it's there,
| “We
should stop giving our students the same grades they used
to get in high school.” |
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and
it's just as powerful. It says that the end of education is to make
a student feel good about himself, or herself, and to make him feel
confident and feel empowered. And this is at the cost of applying
strict standards of judgment about how well that student has done.
So it always leads — it inevitably leads — to the relaxation
of academic standards.
Martinez: In the past, you've mentioned
a number of historical reasons why this has come about — the
Vietnam War, for example, when professors didn't want to give students
grades that might make them eligible for the draft. You've also
noted the rise of affirmative action in the late 1960s.
Mansfield: Yes, the influx of black
students. The Harvard faculty, perhaps understandably, didn't want
to give them a rough welcome, and for that reason stopped giving
black students C's. They therefore also stopped giving white students
C's, so as to be fair.
Martinez: The last time you made that
claim some accused you of racism. No doubt that charge will be made
again. How do you respond to your critics?
Mansfield: I haven't any statistical
evidence, and, according to Harvard, there isn't any. It's a strong
impression I have, about on the level with my impressions that sympathy
with protesters against the war, and in general the notion of self-esteem,
are causes of grade inflation. In [an interview with the Boston
Globe] what I said was that white professors, not wishing to
give black students C's, also didn't give them to white students.
So the fact that black students were still a small fraction of total
students is not decisive.
Martinez: Do you think students at
Harvard are aware that they are the beneficiaries of grade inflation?
Is grade inflation Harvard's dirty little secret?
Mansfield: Well, it can't be to anyone
who's been around — perhaps to students who have only been
here a year or two. It seems pretty obvious to me. And yet it also
seems to me a pretty obvious scandal. I can see why professors and
the administration don't talk about it, and it's nothing they particularly
want to defend. And when they do defend it, it's with lame excuses.
Martinez: Your critique of grade inflation
has been part of a larger, conservative argument against declining
standards in American education. What do you think about the current
state of that debate?
Mansfield: Well, I don't think it's
necessary to emphasize the partisan aspect of it, because in the
last election it was clear that education was the number one concern
of the voters, and there was concern about lowered education standards
in both the Bush and Gore campaigns. I think they were in agreement
that this is a problem for us, and that we need to do something
about it. They were not talking about higher education, but the
problem's also there.
Martinez: In 1997, you wrote that the
grade inflation of the past 30 years "is the clearest sign that
teachers do not take their job seriously." Now you have decided
to give high grades to0. Are you caving in?
Mansfield: No — well, only ironically.
If I'm surrendering, then it's an ironic surrender. I'm trying to
provoke controversy and solve a problem both for myself and for
my students.
Martinez: What do you think the long-term
response will be?
Mansfield: I don't know. But we're
getting a new president at Harvard soon, and maybe a new administration,
which will take a different view on this. The reason why this isn't
like all my other lost causes is that I don't think that the status
quo is tenable. I don't think it can last for very much longer,
because it is so scandalous that over half the grades we give are
A's or A-minuses. Nobody who sees that can really think that it
makes sense.
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