College grades, sin, and choices

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This is sort of another “Is this a sin?” question.

I had a philosophy professor in college who told the class, at the beginning of the semester, that each of us was allowed to pick our final grade. Whatever grade we asked for we would receive, regardless of how we performed in class.

Of course, I picked “A.” I have no idea whether I did A work by the end of the semester. 🤷

But I got an A on my report card. So: would it be a sin to pick an A and then not put the effort into earning the A?

(regardless, it was a brilliant lesson: 27 years later, I’m still pondering it 🙂 )
 
on_the_hill said:
This is sort of another “Is this a sin?” question.

I had a philosophy professor in college who told the class, at the beginning of the semester, that each of us was allowed to pick our final grade. Whatever grade we asked for we would receive, regardless of how we performed in class.

Of course, I picked “A.” I have no idea whether I did A work by the end of the semester. 🤷

But I got an A on my report card. So: would it be a sin to pick an A and then not put the effort into earning the A?

(regardless, it was a brilliant lesson: 27 years later, I’m still pondering it 🙂 )
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Well, anyone who doesn’t choose and A needs to flunk anyway.

There are probably rules at the college about what grades he can and cannot give out on a whim. So are you saying this man gave every single person the grade they said at the beginning of the year all the time? How would you even know that?

It is not a brilliant lesson. In fact it is cheating a student body out of an education. And should be grounds for a refund. 27 years later, you are still questioning this issue. Brilliant? I think not.
 
Hoosier_Daddy said:
Well, anyone who doesn’t choose and A needs to flunk anyway.

There are probably rules at the college about what grades he can and cannot give out on a whim. So are you saying this man gave every single person the grade they said at the beginning of the year all the time? How would you even know that?

It is not a brilliant lesson. In fact it is cheating a student body out of an education. And should be grounds for a refund. 27 years later, you are still questioning this issue. Brilliant? I think not.
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Well, it was a philosophy class, and I am still wondering what the deeper meanings of it were…:o
As for the grades people asked for, I have no idea. I only know I asked for an A. .I didn’t have good grades in college, and needed all the help I could get. I probably did C+/B- work in the class.
 
on_the_hill said:
Well, it was a philosophy class, and I am still wondering what the deeper meanings of it were…:o
As for the grades people asked for, I have no idea. I only know I asked for an A. .I didn’t have good grades in college, and needed all the help I could get. I probably did C+/B- work in the class.
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I think you were cheated. But 27 years? No getting that one back. That guy is probably retired and maybe dead…😉
 
There are certain classes that are pass/fail. But they are usually not philosophy classes.

But to answer the underlying morality question. A professor is paid to evaluate the student. If the professor decides (however foolishly) to award you whatever grade you wish like he was some sort of collegiate genie then no, it would not be immoral to claim an “a” Because in truth you did “A” work if that is what you received.
 
I thinking assigning yourself an A, if you had no intention of trying to do A work, would be a sin.

It’s essentially lying – just you’re lying to yourself.
 
on_the_hill said:
This is sort of another “Is this a sin?” question.

I had a philosophy professor in college who told the class, at the beginning of the semester, that each of us was allowed to pick our final grade. Whatever grade we asked for we would receive, regardless of how we performed in class.

Of course, I picked “A.” I have no idea whether I did A work by the end of the semester. 🤷

But I got an A on my report card. So: would it be a sin to pick an A and then not put the effort into earning the A?

(regardless, it was a brilliant lesson: 27 years later, I’m still pondering it 🙂 )
Click to expand...
Are you sure that there weren’t prerequisites for each grade? I mention this because I had a course like that, we could pick our grade, but each grade had different requirements.

For Example The A required two 15 page papers and a presentation
The B required two 10 page papers
The C required 1 10 page paper, and to not miss class

It is 27 years ago, memory might be fuzzy.
 
QuasiCatholic said:
I thinking assigning yourself an A, if you had no intention of trying to do A work, would be a sin.

It’s essentially lying – just you’re lying to yourself.
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But " A work". Is what it takes to earn an A. And in this case the requirement is just to say you want an A. That is A work as defined by the infinitely wise professor.
 
There could be a lot going on behind the scenes. Maybe the professor actually was keeping records and was performing an experiment to see how many people might over-grade? If this is the case then you actually earned that A.

In the end I can’t say, I wasn’t there. And I don’t know what it takes to be considered sin. But from what I can see from an ethical point of view, you did fine. The legitimate grading authority told you to grade yourself, and you did. Even if you were dishonest, the parameters of grading were established and you conformed to them. Whether or not the professor conformed to the school’s grading convention is another matter, but that’s between the professor and the dean.
 
on_the_hill said:
This is sort of another “Is this a sin?” question.

I had a philosophy professor in college who told the class, at the beginning of the semester, that each of us was allowed to pick our final grade. Whatever grade we asked for we would receive, regardless of how we performed in class.

Of course, I picked “A.” I have no idea whether I did A work by the end of the semester. 🤷

But I got an A on my report card. So: would it be a sin to pick an A and then not put the effort into earning the A?

(regardless, it was a brilliant lesson: 27 years later, I’m still pondering it 🙂 )
Click to expand...
haha, you lucky ******* 😃

Nar, I doubt it’s a sin on your part, his part maybe, unless you intentionally mislead others with it, than that I believe wouldn’t be right.

I wouldn’t worry about it, other than a good laugh. 🙂
 
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