FIRST-PERSON: Making the grade

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FIRST-PERSON: Making the grade

October 25, 2004

Published on Baptist Press

I remember a faculty meeting back at Wheaton College around 1980. The Long-Range Planning Committee, on which I served, had brought its report, and discussion turned to salary structures. In the midst of it, a New Testament prof stood to say, “Dr. Armerding (our president, Dr. Hudson Taylor Armerding), I want you to know I teach for free; but you still don’t pay me enough to grade.” We laughed, but, inside, many nodded assent. Grading and tussling over grades can be the bane of the profession, so I thought I’d distill ten observations on the task. I wrote this as a columnist for the Illinois Baptist years later, when I was back at Wheaton as an adjunct while planting a church over in Evanston, on the lakefront. BP picked it.