I was not at all uncomfortable with being graded blindly in any of my classes last semester. However, after hearing Eben discuss the grading possibilities for our third writing assignment in class today, I found myself prickling at the idea of being graded "with a bag over my head." This prospect is particularly prickly since we happen to have a professor who seems to be investing a great deal of effort in individualizing the learning process. In the class following Theo's HowToFixHealthcare post, Eben explained that his responses to Theo were engineered to best help Theo learn and develop his piece. The discomfort for some of the rest of us had come from the fact that we learn and are motivated differently, but could still see Eben's comments. I was struck by this explanation because not only did it make sense, but it seemed to be effective. Having gotten to know Theo a bit over the poker table, I suspected it was true that he would step up his game if challenged in the way that Eben challenged him. Given his re-write of the topic, it seems that he did just that.

If we were talking about grading options for one of my typical 1L classes, I might lean more towards blind grading; I haven't been to any of my professors' office hours this semester, and would feel at a disadvantage compared to those students who have become BFFs with the professors. But we're not talking about a typical 1L class, we're talking about this class. In this class, I think I have the faith to take the bag off.

-- MolissaFarber - 31 Mar 2009