University of Oklahoma Paper Controversy

[freeloader]

I think the real question is whether similar slapdash work was also given a zero if it endorsed an more liberal viewpoint that also didn't appear to read the paper very closely.  In order words, if the "personal reaction" cited a different belief-based system other than the Christian bible, would it also have received a zero based on this rubric? 

I can only relate my experience from serving as a TA in history courses at a top-50 national university (public) and a top-25 national university (private), the conversations that I had with fellow TAs and junior instructors, along with my experience teaching at a couple of community colleges.  Religion, particularly Christianity, was sort of a 3rd rail when it was mentioned in a student's paper.  Pretty much everyone I knew (and actually, this included many long tenured faculty) bent over backwards NOT to criticize students on their argumentation or content when they roped in religion, especially Christianity.  There were similar "considerations" about some other minority groups, including LGBTQ, but that wasn't third rail.  I GUARANTEE that at the schools where I did my graduate studies in history, lower quality papers that invoked Christianity received higher marks than comparable papers that did not mention Christianity.

Papers like this get 0's every day from college instructors.  I genuinely think it really is only the right-wing, anti-academy press that makes situations like this a big deal when Christians are "targeted."  The author clearly deserved a zero.  They did absolutely nothing to critically engage with the essay.  There was zero evidence that the author of the paper had read the paper or even dumped it into an AI program to get a summary of it.  Paper deserves a zero, whether their criticism is grounded in Christianity, Buddhism, Marxism, breatharian, flat earther, Cherokee, trans, Irish, or bicycle rider.

I will acknowledge that I never gave a student a zero when they turned in an assignment, particularly if they did so timely.  Giving a zero achieves very little pedagogically.  If I give most students a 50, it makes the point as much as a zero, maybe even more so because they are more likely to bring it to me in office hours or take it to the writing center.  Hopefully they learn from their mistake.  That is (or at least should be) the goal of higher education, right?