I object to your insouciant criticism of William B. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield's views on grading ("Harvey 'C-Plus' Mansfield?", Feb. 9). While you may think yourselves entitled to cast Professor Mansfield as woefully atavistic in his belief that it is a professor's job "to point out how little a student knows," The Crimson should show more respect toward the man who has spent half a century at Harvard and secured a reputation--among his students past and present--not merely as a tough grader, but also as one of the finest educators at this university.
The Crimson is interested, is it not, in fine education? Just last week the Editorial Board treated us to a host of editorials on how the deans might better serve the cause of liberal arts education at Harvard--including one presumptuously entitled "The Closing of the Harvard Mind," after the late Allan Bloom's outstanding critique of American universities. If the Crimson is as earnest about curriculum reform as it postures in these editorials, it will take lessons, not cheap rhetorical devices, from great educators such as Bloom and Mansfield. Belittling so casually the pedagogical views of such men does little more than illustrate further the point Mansfield makes with his new grading scheme: Harvard students can, despite their big talk and their impressive transcripts, be sadly ignorant men and women.
Bronwen C. McShea '02
Feb. 9, 2001