Some work stinks

Eduhonesty: Telling underperforming students that their work stinks lacks political correctness in these times. We are always supposed to be encouraging. Unfortunately, the alternative is letting kids think they fooled you. Most kids won’t work harder than they have to work in order to get a decent grade. Many kids are perfectly satisfied with a passing grade, even if that grade is a D- and only 60%. In this situation, I think it’s perfectly reasonable when you know a student blew off an assignment to say, “This is absolutely awful. Here’s another copy. Start over.”

There’s a judgment call here. If a student tried to meet expectations, that requires a different response than an assignment that was done in 3 minutes on the bus without a moment’s review at the end.