The University of Hull, a school on the north-central eastern shore of England, raised a bit of a kerfuffle with a policy declaration that “[s]tudents studying at the University of Hull will not be marked down for poor spelling, grammar and punctuation in exams because it would be ‘elitist’.” This plan is born, it is reported, because “insisting on good written English discriminates against ethnic minorities and those who went to “underperforming” schools.”
It is beyond doubt that those for whom English is a second language have additional challenges in academia, and it is beyond doubt that those who came from “underperforming” schools have a greater probability of being less prepared than those who came from top-tier secondary schools. Requiring a high level of proficiency in written English is, they tell us, “homogenous, North European, white, male, and elite,” but given that most of Northern Europe doesn’t have English as a primary language, and given that just over half of Northern Europe (and the world, for that matter) is not male, this reasoning reeks of social-justice pretzel logic far more than reasoned thought. But, set that aside.
What is the point of reducing standards in the awarding of degrees? At some point, most individuals will leave academia and have to perform in the marketplace. Are we to believe that the failure to teach “good written English” will not adversely affect these individuals in their career endeavors?
Or are we being told that the reduction of expectations is to be extended beyond the education years? Is this disparity in expectation to be part of the broad career landscape? Is the message that ‘ethnic minorities’ and those who went to shitty schools (not all who did are ‘ethnic minority’, by the way) need to be granted preferential treatment ad infinitum by all others in society?
This is the worst sort of racist condescension. Rather than demanding excellence, as has been the norm for premier education throughout history, this particular university is telling some students “we expect less of you.” It is, when you cut through the highfalutin rhetoric and lofty proclamations, the underlying truth of the typical rich white social justice type.
It’s also perpetuating the divisive and destructive narratives that being white-European is by default a Bad Thing and that being a minority locks one in subordinate cultural status forever. And, it is a cop-out response to the failure of progressivist philosophy in primary and secondary education. Rather than fixing those underperforming schools (made so by their policies), they apply a social justice band-aid, and continue to under-serve those they purport to champion.
Meanwhile, I wonder if the students who actually were there to achieve were consulted?
Pressure makes diamonds, and people rise up to challenges. One need only look at the performance of the Success Academy charter schools in New York City to understand that being an ‘ethnic minority’ does not doom one to also-ran status, nor does it require the easing of academic standards.
Hull is not an elite university (global rank: #822), but it does not appear to be a degree mill either. If it wants to be the latter, this is a quick way to get there, but it won’t serve its students if it goes that path. If it wants to produce graduates well-prepared for success in the world, it should not be promulgating a message of mediocrity. Pressure makes diamonds, while pablum makes mush.
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As usual, you nailed it, Peter.
“This is the worst sort of racist condescension. Rather than demanding excellence, as has been the norm for premier education throughout history, this particular university is telling some students “we expect less of you.” It is, when you cut through the highfalutin rhetoric and lofty proclamations, the underlying truth of the typical rich white social justice type.
It’s also perpetuating the divisive and destructive narratives that being white-European is by default a Bad Thing and that being a minority locks one in subordinate cultural status forever. And, it is a cop-out response to the failure of progressivist philosophy in primary and secondary education. Rather than fixing those underperforming schools (made so by their policies), they apply a social justice band-aid, and continue to under-serve those they purport to champion.”
It’s not hard to conclude that someone who filters everything by race is a racist…
Having done poorly in English in HS and College, I can sympathise with the decision, but I know it is wrong.
The purpose of writing is to be able to get your point across.Poor grammar, spelling and punctuation are a distraction when reading, If there are too many (not sure if one counts as too many) you can miss the point the writer was trying to make. And often some of these can change the meaning of a sentence.
I think of Homer Simpson and Archie Bunker, who often misuse words ending up saying something that they didn’t intend. (some might include GW Bush in this…) In my forties I went back and got my Masters in Liberal Studies, and one Professor was an expert at catching writing errors. She made me a better writer (I know it doesn’t show…). My wife was an Administrative Assistant for the college and was the person assigned to going through the student reviews of the professors, this Professor was hammered for this by the students. I for one expected it, and used her grading as a lesson to improve my writing. We had to write four papers in a semester, so one every four weeks, plenty of time to do some editing, (unless you waited to the night they were due.) I believe she was eventually forced out because of the students laziness. Should we be mocked by the Internet Trolls for poor English on a post (yes I know – don’t start a sentence with “And”) no, but a College paper should not be written in under 5 minutes either.
Many students need to go to some form of intermediate schooling between HS and College to help them with some of the fundamentals, in the States that is probably Community College. My Alum requires students to take courses on University Life, Diversity… a course on basic study habits and writing would probably be more useful.
now to send without re-reading and doing a final edit…
My junior year English teacher in high school had a policy that certain grammatical errors earned an automatic D. One paper, I added a semicolon where a comma was appropriate – that extra dot turned my A paper (her words) into a D. A lesson I never forgot, and she was the first/best step in my long journey as a writer.
On the other hand, my college had no English requirement whatsoever in my engineering curriculum. At the time, I felt “good, what does it matter?” but after working across decades to improving my writing
Good communication skills are vital to success in more and more areas of life. We should be putting more emphasis on teaching them well, rather than dumbing them down.
I too as an engineering student took pride in my poor English, I also had a Freshman (First Year?) college English Professor that didn’t grade on grammar, spelling, etc. wanted us to express our thoughts and not get caught up in those details, (it was a film class I took rather than Litterature) so I just think he wasn’t good at those items. I keep going back reading the classics that I might have missed with this decisions.
And, yes ( 😉 ), I start too many sentences with “And.” I plead artistic license and an attempt at a narrative style, though.