To the Editor:
Michael Belinsky suggests that "competition in the classroom would generate knowledge and promote learning," proposing this be accomplished by making it hard to get good grades. I'm pretty sure that's how school works.
Nonetheless Belinsky, understanding how radical and controversial the ideas he presents are, braces himself for the inevitable backlash from "our mostly liberal community" of close-minded "neo-Marxists," imploring us not to "cast him to Harvard." Cornell, more likely: his suggestions that we implement "stricter grading" or "bell curve grading" are not revolutionary, they're age old methods of fighting grade inflation -- a serious problem at Harvard, not Dartmouth.
In his article, Belinsky does not present a single example of a non-competitive classroom environment at the College, and even admits that the solutions he proposes for this non-problem are "terrible."
Finally, to suggest that Dartmouth students don't think grades are important, let alone that they are considered "the least important thing in college," is preposterous. Disagree?
Try finding a place to study in Baker at the end of the term.
Apparently, the only place competition needs to be fostered is the editorial submission field for The Dartmouth. In fact, let me start that by assigning a grade to this article. I'll be generous and give it a D-, because you did use a few big words, Michael.
