Date: Sat, 10 May 1997 17:18:45 -0400
From: Thomas F Brown <tombrown@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu>
Subject: Re:  questions
To: socgrad@csf.colorado.edu
Message-id: <97May10.171854edt.1075-2@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu>
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT

>I don't have a problem with that, but there
>is a feeling among some of the students here that it might hurt your
>grades if you disagree with this way of thinking. 

You're in grad school now--you can stop obsessing over
grades. Continuing to obsess on grades will only inhibit your
experience, as it seems to be doing in this situation. If you
don't argue with your professors you won't get the full value
of the grad skool experience. Argument is a way of life among
intellectuals. As long as it doesn't get personal and
abusive, then argument is something to value and seek out,
not to avoid. It's the only way to float your original ideas 
and find out how they work. 

In fact, failing to argue with your professors might even hurt 
your reputation with them more than agreeing with everything they 
say, assuming you have a good argument to make. I'm not talking 
about contentious behavior; I mean a good exchange of ideas. If 
everybody agrees about everything, that indicates that some people 
probably aren't thinking things through very far.

How seriously do other socgrads take their grades? I went
to an undergrad school that used written evaluations instead
of grades. When I took my first grad school essay test and it 
came back with numbers written on it instead of meaningful 
feedback I was pretty astonished and disgusted. Also, this school
is largely a premed factory, and the undergrads here are
grade-obsessive almost beyond belief. All TAs quickly learn
never to give their home phone numbers to their students, unless
they actually enjoy being harassed about grades at all hours.
So maybe my perspective is a tad skewed....