In a once-in-a-lifetime bureaucratic glitch a student got onto a list of people who placed out of the Spanish 101 course by mistake. The way this works is that people who place out remain on the list of students who are enrolled in the course. They don’t have to attend (because it’s a waste of time for them to attend a course that contributes nothing new to their knowledge). At the end of the course, they are automatically assigned an A for it.
Last semester, a student who simply didn’t attend somehow ended up on the list of people who placed out. I take full responsibility because this was ultimately my course and everything happening in it is on me.
What really stunned me, however, is that the student in question wrote me an email saying, “Dear Professor, I was given an A for this course but I don’t deserve it. I didn’t attend because I was lazy and irresponsible. Please change the grade to reflect that I failed the course. I will take it again and I promise to do well and deserve a good grade in it.”
Everybody complains about students begging for good grades they don’t deserve, so I wanted to share this story about a student who actually asks for a low grade she does deserve.
It is very heartening to see this kind of robust mental health in such a young person.
Clarissa's Blog 
Not just robust mental health but a sound moral foundation too. Very heartening!
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Good for her.
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The danger of admitting liability in any public setting, rather than a private one, is that people will leap on and proclaim that this person has admitted to being a lazy and irresponsible person in general and that nobody should give her a chance in the future.
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I tried telling this story to some of my colleagues and the consensus is that they would admire this student if they could bring themselves to believe this story. 🙂
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ha.
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