[nabs-l] professors and preferential treatment

Thu Apr 21 04:21:30 UTC 2011

Hi Kurt,
I'm a little confused-did the final already happen for the rest of the
students? If so, were you planning to take it later because of
alternative testing procedures? Or, has your section's final not
happened yet?
You're definitely in a tough situation and I admire you for seeking
the fair path rather than the easy one. I do have a couple of comments
based on my past work as a teaching assistant. First, nowadays there
is a lot of external pressure on professors to be lenient (sometimes
overly so) in their grading. It does sound like this guy is generally
very lenient in his grading for all students. Since he did say he
offers grade adjustments to all students who repeat the class, it
doesn't sound to me like blindness was a factor at all in the
decision, unless, as I asked about above, you are taking the final
later than everyone else because of your particular testing
accommodations. This brings me to my second observation from teaching
and that is that oftentimes professors don't like dealing with late
tests. We tend to grade tests (and especially finals) all at once and
so it takes some extra effort to grade the tests that come in later
and add the new grades to the gradebook. I have TA'ed for professors
who have waived students' late finals in order to avoid this extra
hassle. So if you are needing to take the final exam late because of
alternative testing procedures, it may well just be easier for your
professor to not have to grade it.
One way to avoid having to take tests late, if you don't already do
this, is to request to take your tests on your laptop in the regular
classroom. Your prof can email you the test, or give it to you on a
thumb drive, and you can email it back. In my experience about 95% of
professors are fine with this arrangement. This has the advantage that
your test is received and scored at roughly the same time as everyone
else's.
Best of luck!
Arielle

On 4/20/11, bookwormahb at earthlink.net <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Kirt,
> How good of you to ensure your grade is fair rather than out of sympathy or
> something because you're blind.
> I'd say if the final would raise your grade then take it. But if it would be
> lower, just go with the work you've already done.
> Also another idea to earn the grade is extra work or doing the homework you
> missed for some credit.
>
> Ashley
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kirt Manwaring
> Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 11:53 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] professors and preferential treatment
>
> Dear nabs list,
>   So here is my professor's reply to my email.  I'm accepting it, but
> I feel a little guilty about doing so.  He offered to let me not count
> the final exam because he offered the same to other students who were
> taking the exam late.  I want to hear your guys' thoughts, I'm still a
> little bit hesitant to do this even though I know I probably will.
>   (message begins below)
> Ahoy Kirt:
>
> Thanks for your e-mails. Honestly, I can't say that your blindness was
> not a factor in deciding your grade, but if it was, it wasn't
> decisive. On your exams you averaged a B. True, you didn't do the
> homework. That would have lowered your grade a full letter. But I
> almost always raise, by one grade, the grade of any student who is
> repeating the class--after listening to my corny jokes for two
> semesters, I think they deserve it. So that brings us to the final. On
> Monday, while we were grading the exams, two students who had medical
> excuses to take the exam late, were just about to get started. I
> basically told them, what [teachers aid name omitted] probably told
> you, namely: I'm willing to give them the grade they had already
> earned in the course so they didn't need to take the final unless they
> wanted to or unless they thought they could improve their grade by
> doing so. One of them got an A the other a C+, but they were both
> content with the grade I offered them and neither took the final. So
> if I cut you some extra slack on account of your blindness, it wasn't
> much. You were graded pretty consistently with everyone else. If, at
> some point, you would still like to take the final, you can tell
> [teachers aid name omitted]--she has a copy just in case you want to
> take it.
>
> Hope that clarifies things a bit.
>
> Cheers
> [professor's name omitted]
>
> On 4/20/11, Serena Cucco <serenacucco at verizon.net> wrote:
>> Hi Kurt,
>>
>> I think you're doing the honorable thing by making sure your prof. isn't
>> giving you a B just cuz you're blind and you might well be correct that
>> he/she is.  I hope he/she learns from your honesty.  BTW, what
>> accommodations did you use or know you should've used?  I'm wondering cuz
>> I'm taking Stats this summer online through Rutgers.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Serena
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf
>> Of Kirt Manwaring
>> Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 7:35 PM
>> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
>> Subject: [nabs-l] professors and preferential treatment
>>
>> Dear nabs list,
>>   So I'm currently retaking a class I took last semester.  It's a
>> logic class, which involves a lot of tables.  Last semester I took the
>> class, I got a d+, mostly because I was lazy and didn't do all the
>> homework, which made me bomb a few tests.  This semester I did enough
>> in the class to probably get a grade in the C range...but today I
>> found out the professor isn't requiring me to take the final and he's
>> giving me a flat B in the class.  I'm putting a copy of the letter I
>> sent this professor below my message here, I'd love to know what you
>> think of it.  If he's giving me the B just to be merciful, as I know
>> some professors do to students who struggle in classes (especially
>> this professor, he gives students breaks and errs on the side of
>> compassion when handing out grades to all his students), but I want to
>> make sure him cutting me this slack has nothing to do with my
>> blindness.  And I fear blindness is a factor...I'm not sure if this
>> letter will prompt him to change his mind and give me the grade I
>> deserve, but at least I tried.
>> -------------
>> Dear [professor's name omitted],
>>  [teacher's aid's name omitted] just told me I'm not required to take
>> the final and I'm
>> getting a B in the class.  I apreciate the sentiment of what you're
>> doing...and, honestly, a B would look much better on my GPA than what
>> I probably deserve.  It would certainly be more advantageous for me to
>> get a B in the class.  But I can't help feeling it's cheating me of a
>> valuable learning experience, and here's why.
>>  In retaking the class, I knew exactly what I was in for.  I still
>> chose to be lazy and not do most of my homework.  In retaking the
>> class, I was totally aware of the accomodations I needed to make with
>> the course...and those accomodations were made in such a way as to
>> pretty much make my blindness a non-factor.  Or at least a very
>> minimal factor.
>>  I knew exactly what I needed to do in the course to be successful,
>> and I didn't do it all.  I did do better the second time around...but
>> I honestly think my homework score the second semester taking the
>> course was worse than it was the first time I took it.  If we're going
>> purely by points, I'd probably deserve somewhere in the C range.  And
>> I'm totally aware a B looks much better on my GPA.  But I didn't do
>> the work to deserve that kind of grade.
>>  If you're cutting me a break to be compassionate...I'm really not
>> going to argue because I like having a B on my transcript.  But I feel
>> a little uneasy about it because I know I don't deserve it and, were I
>> not blind, I doubt you'd be quite so kind.  And I can honestly say my
>> blindness wasn't the reason I gave you C quality work.  I know you've
>> had blind students do amazing in your class before.  I know how to be
>> successful as a blind student...I just didn't do everything I needed
>> to to get a B grade.  And, although it's really attractive to me and
>> I'm kicking myself for asking you this, I hope you'll reconsider and
>> give me the grade I deserve rather than the grade I want.
>>  Take care and thanks for the class,
>> Kirt
>>
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-- 
Arielle Silverman
President, National Association of Blind Students
Phone:  602-502-2255
Email:
nabs.president at gmail.com
Website:
www.nabslink.org