This article reminds of another Canadian university prof named David Noble who doesn't give grades either. He seems to have found a way to do it without getting fired though.<p><i>Giving Up the Grade</i> - David Noble<p><a href="http://www.policyalternatives.ca/MonitorIssues/2007/05/MonitorIssue1639/" rel="nofollow">http://www.policyalternatives.ca/MonitorIssues/2007/05/Monit...</a><p><i>Throughout the 30-odd years of my university teaching career I have always found ways around grading, primarily by giving all A’s, thereby eliminating grades de facto, if not de jure. Last year for the first time, after long bemoaning my “anomalous” practice, York University officials formally prevailed upon me henceforth to designate my courses “ungraded “ (a pass/fail option without the fail), thereby taking them off the radar screen and perhaps unintentionally establishing a promising academic precedent.</i>
As someone intimately involved in the art of assigning grades in a university setting (I'm a TA), let me let you in on a little secret...<p>Around 10 years ago, universities across the country awoke to a surprising new fact: they we're no longer bound by the expectation of being a benefactor of humanity. No! They were free to become thriving enterprises. And what was the product they should sell?<p>Grades
If he wants to teach his students that grades "poison our educational environment", why is the solution to give everyone an A+? He's just using grades as currency to buy his students' support for his experiment in anarchy. I wonder how many of them would have still participated in his class if he had announced on the first day that everyone would get a C, a D, or an F?
Good for him. The idea that trying different techniques in education (i.e. Not giving grades) seems silly. The system will not fall apart. College is not vocational school, although you can hardly tell the difference. Imagine if science had a rule: we'll do things the old way so it doesn't cause problems.
The important sentence in that story is <i>Prof. Rancourt's suspension is the most serious step in a long series of grievances and conflicts with the university dating back to 2005</i>.<p>Still, even if one-third of his colleagues have complained about him, I doubt they'll be willing to set the precedent of tenured profs being fired, they'll strike for him if the union requires it.
I'm not sure arresting him was justified but other than that I agree with the University.<p>He might not like grades but they are a basis by which employers judge job candidates. They represent a skill (hard work among other things) that employer's value. By doing away with them in his classroom he is compromising that whole system.<p>University teachers like this one need to realize that they have two tasks. To open student's minds AND to ensure they are qualified to function in society. He's completely ignored the second task and thinks he's a hero for having done so.
One of the professors during my degree used a different method. It was difficult to fail his subjects; he could not fail a student because of a poor showing in a three-hour test. But to get an A, you had to show him that you knew exactly what you were talking (writing) about.
<i>He has also been an outspoken critic of “Israeli military aggression” and is not shy about expressing those views with students.</i><p>I am certainly seeing a pattern here, first victims of the aggression are critical, world doesn't listen to them. Then neighboring countries are afraid and criticize Israel for being an aggressor. Then slowly decades pass by, smart people of other developed-countries start criticizing them for human-rights violation and then slowly most people will listen to the smart people of their own country and change their mind about Israel. So according to me, it is just a matter of time before everyone is critical of Israel (you can't fool all the people all the time).