Place where I work is hiring IT interns for the summer. Good Program, in the past it's been a good feeder program to get us some decent people.
I usually sit in on the interviews. This year I received the dubious distinction of sorting through the resumes. Whee.
So this week, I'm looking over a stack of resumes from these kids. First one I picked up looked great. Such-and-Such Scholarship award winner. Deans List. Etc. I said "hmm" and set it to the side.
Next resume... "Recipient of the so-and-so Award. Dean's List. Etc" I thought, "hmmm. Two in a row." and set it to the side.
There are several dozen resumes. The Awards and Scholarships differ, as does the work experience, but one thing is the same. Every single student is on the Dean's List. Just to be sure, I asked the HR wonk who handed the stack to me if she'd culled any resumes out. Nope.
Sez me, what's the point to grading if everyone is exceptional?
They’re all exceptional. Some are just more exceptional than others. At some point phoney degrees in nonexistent fields of study and sciences are going to evaporate like fog in sunlight when these kids are hit with the reality of life and the working world and no amount of self-esteem, ‘’gender studies’’, ‘’intercultural/multicultural communication studies and the rest of this nonsense is going to help these kids in anyway and they and society at large is going to be in big trouble. I value and respect higher learning but it seems to me the more kids stay in school the dumber they get.
Might be bad for their self-esteem if you had some way to distinguish between them based on merit, dontchaknow. This is how it goes when everybody gets a trophy. I bet you aren’t allowed to cull them in the interview process, either.