Ed,
What a great thread to begin the new year!
When I was in grade and highschool in Pittsburgh, PA, our grades were A
B C D E, and E was the failing grade. Imagine my surprise when I met
someone from another part of the country who was proud to have received
an E! Of course, in that person's school district, E stood for
Excellent.
When I went to college at Carnegie-Mellon University (well, when I
started it was Carnegie Institute of Technology), the grades were A B C
D R! R was the failing grade and meant Repeat. To make matters even
stranger, you could also receive a grade of X which meant conditional
failure. Of *course* I never received an X, but I think a conditional
failure was something like an incomplete. If you didn't hand in
required work, you'd fail. But, you could also get an I for incomplete,
so your guess is as good as mine.
In today's vernacular, I think we should give the grade of S for
failure. The S, of course stands for "sucks." Forgive me!
Lonna Smith
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