THE ORIGINAL PURPOSE OF "PASS-FAIL" AND ITS RELEVANCE TO AB

"We should use this moment to recapture some of the initial spirit of the option." - Jonathan Zimmerman.

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"....Citing 'concerns about the shift to remote learning,' Penn announced it would let students designate any course pass-fail. That’s different from the students’ original petition, to make all courses pass-fail, which was revised after some students complained that it would disadvantage people who were working toward a high grade.

And that speaks volumes about our academic culture, which values individual achievement -- and credentials -- above all. In the remainder of the term, as we squint into our laptops, let’s see if we can rejuvenate the idea of learning as an end in itself rather than as a route to status and success. I don’t know if that can happen online, to be honest, but we should try. Nobody’s job prospects are going to change radically over the next eight weeks, anyway.

But maybe their approach to education will. The coronavirus has existential implications, of course, which could reorient us around shared moral questions rather than narrow personal ones. Why are we on earth? What's the best way to live when we all know we're going to die? And how can education prepare us for it?

Maybe, at this strange and scary moment, pass-fail can inspire us to frame new answers. It doesn’t have to be just another way to get ahead. It can help us get outside our heads, too, and to imagine something bigger than ourselves."