It's time to cancel rigor. The word, and presumably the concept as well. Lowering standards enough will certainly lead to more "student success." Where does it stop? Why even have education. then?
It's time to cancel rigor. The word, and presumably the concept as well. Lowering standards enough will certainly lead to more "student success." Where does it stop? Why even have education. then?
3 comments:
Do people really mean tramposo and punitive by the word rigor? To me it just means seriously scientific. My student's proposed essay sounds like it may be rigorous: "Lorca's work criticizes patriarchy yet does not escape enacting it." Or something like this, he has some reading according to which patriarchy is critiqued at one level but cemented in at another. This, if he pulls it off, may be a rigorous analysis. I mean: right?
Rigor seems to mean two different concepts/practices: The thoroughgoing-ness of the curriculum (here rigor is expected of the teacher in terms preparation *and delivery*) and the exactingness of assessment (where the onus is on the student, at the mercy of the teacher). When professors lag on the former, they sometimes believe they can make up for it in the latter. It's unseemly.
Rigor in scholarship is a third thing altogether.
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