Feb
15
85% Moral.
I was going blind into the end of last semester. Feedback throughout the term was minimal, so I really had no idea what to expect grade-wise. Thus, I was mildly nervous last week when I logged onto the campus network to check my grades. To my initial surprise, although I had only taken three classes, I had managed to log four grades. Three of the class names were easily translatable from Chinese and I was happy enough with my grades. But the first grade on the list – 85% – was beside a class name I didn’t recognize. Curious, I cut and pasted the class name into my Chinese-English dictionary: Caoxing: Moral Conduct.
So I’m 85% moral? Does that make me 15% immoral? Amoral? What sort of metric was used to quantify my morality? With these questions in mind, I headed to the program secretary’s office.
- “So what’s the deal with that morality grade? I’m 85% moral?”
- “Oh, everyone gets 85% on that.”
- “Really? Well what’s the point?”
- “Well, it’s Chinese tradition.”
- “Is it possible to get a different grade?”
- “I suppose so. If you do something really bad, or really good.”
- “Like what?”
- “Oh, I dunno. Undergraduates all have to take a class in morality.”
- “So maybe I’m morally disadvantaged because I haven’t been taught how to be moral?”
- “haha”
- “Who graded me?”
- “Your mentor.”
- “Who’s my mentor?”
- “Dr. Zhu”
- “And he just gave everyone he graded 85%?”
- “Yeah, that’s how it works.”
- “So does this go on my transcript?”
- “Yep.”
- “So my grade point average is going to be pulled down by my morality?”
- “I suppose so.”
- “That’s screwy.”
So now that I know my morality is being graded I’ve made it my goal to break out of the 85% trend. Although apparently “everyone” gets 85%, I want a different grade. I’d even be happy with 86% just to know that its possible to log a different grade. The problem is I have absolutely no idea how the grade is assessed. What is ‘moral’ in this context? Is it a level of Confucian respect for my teachers? A helpful attitude in the classroom? Saving wild dogs? I’ve no idea.
