Some colleges in this country have decided to coddle students to the point where they no longer will hand out failing grades. Are we becoming a nation that is so spoiled and privileged that we can no longer accept our own shortcomings? Mike Papantonio is joined by Independent newspaper publisher Rick Outzen to discuss.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: Some colleges in this country have decided to coddle students to the point where they no longer will hand out failing grades. True story. We’re becoming a nation that’s so spoiled and privileged that we can no longer accept our own shortcomings. Here’s your trophy, Johnny. And Johnny says, what’s the trophy for? Well, you showed up. You didn’t win.
Rick Outzen: You paid your tuition.
Mike Papantonio: You didn’t win a thing. Didn’t win a game, you know, never scored anything. But here’s your trophy. Isn’t that the thinking here? Isn’t that what’s going on?
Rick Outzen: It is, and it’s snowflake world. This is where we’re paying a lot for this and if I can’t pass the class, then the teacher may lose their job. They have to give ’em extra credit to get caught up because they wouldn’t do the basic assignment. I mean, Mike, there was a time when, I know at Florida, even at Ole Miss, where I went, is that you had, you knew there were gonna be tough teachers. And to get through that class, you worked your tail off, but you accomplished something. Now, in this world, everybody’s gonna get through that class.
Mike Papantonio: Okay. So, Oregon, I’m not making this, I could not make this up. Oregon University says, little Johnny, we’re never gonna give out D’s or F’s. So just show up and you’re gonna make a C. Here’s your trophy, little Johnny. That’s what the hell’s happening. It’s just like when MIT, you had MIT and what was it, Purdue? Dartmouth. Okay. MIT and Dartmouth had a policy that they put in place about a year and a half ago. You don’t have to take an SAT or an ACT to get in. Well, they just changed that because they thought it was an absolute disaster. The kids that they were letting in without the SAT or the ACT, hell, they couldn’t write a sentence. And they couldn’t make it through the class. And so all of a sudden they decided, well, maybe we ought to go back and find out whether this person can read or write a sentence before we let ’em into Dartmouth. You understand what I’m saying?
Rick Outzen: Well, it impacts on the workforce, who you hire. You want, y’all want the best attorneys you can get outta college. You want ’em. If they’re able to, you know, if everyone gets passed, now the next thing they’ll do is they’ll lower the standards on the law exam.
Mike Papantonio: What if you’re a nurse? Okay. Don’t you want a nurse who actually knows, that might have gotten an F, but went back and did it again and got an A. Or what if you’re an engineer? I mean, if you want your engineer to be able to calculate, is this building going to fall on us? Or you certainly want your doctor to pass an anatomy test, don’t you?
Rick Outzen: Right.
Mike Papantonio: And you’re saying, oh, well look, doc, we never gave you your D or F and when you came out here to practice, you didn’t realize really where the kidneys were.
Rick Outzen: Well, you just think about, you have all the things you have to pass to make it to med school. If you pass everything, you’re just, the quality of worker. We keep saying we want better workers, we need more educated workers. We need thinkers.
Mike Papantonio: Hell, we’re having to bring ’em in. We’re bringing them in from Asia. We’re bringing them in from Europe just to fill some of the slots where they still give out D’s and F’s in Asia and Europe. And this is such a bad policy, and I’m hoping it’ll die on the vine. It seems to already be doing that with at least Dartmouth and MIT said, boy, did we screw up. What a big mistake. At Oregon University, though, you might, if you have problems passing class, enroll at Oregon University, and they’re gonna provide failure. They’re gonna teach you how to fail without ever really having any suffering because of it. That’s kind of the story. That’s the headline. Oregon University, sign up if you got problems making classes.
