Richard Evan Schwartz


grading policy


Brown allows us the option of making our courses
"Mandatory S/NC". I have decided to take this option
for the courses I will teach in 2027. I am doing this
2 main reasons.
  1. I think that the grading system is
    nearly broken. Ideally, the purpose
    of a grade is to give feedback to students about how well
    they understood the material and performed in class.
    At best a grade is a kind of diagnostic tool.
    In practice, grading has become part of a huge
    credentialing process. Students use their grades
    to help them with their post-college careers. In
    particular, for students who plan to go to graduate
    school in mathematics, even a B feels like the kiss
    of death and the pressure to get an A is enormous.
    I don't want to contribute to this system anymore.

  2. I think that the pressure of getting a grade creates
    a huge temptation to take shortcuts with the class.
    Now that we have powerful AI, students can use it to solve
    practically any homework problem. Ideally, the point of completing
    class assignments is to struggle with them and gradually
    develop insight into the material. In practice, the
    assignments become one more chore that needs to get done
    in order to help get a good grade in the class. Without the
    pressure of grades, students (who want to learn) might be more
    likely to engage with the material and learn from it.
I mention all this explicitly so that you will know what
you are getting into if you take one of my classes -- at least
in 2027. This is an experiment, and I am not positive that it
is the best approach. But I want to try it. I apologize
if the timing of my experiment causes you inconvenience.
Also, in case you do take one of my SN/C classes, I want you
to be able to explain to anyone who cares to know why you
got an S in a normally graded class.

Current Class


none - on leave at IHES

Past Classes

Graduate Undergrad Seminar Classes