The word excellent is bandied about a good deal, as I have noted on another Page in these volumes. It is the most repeated word I have encountered in higher education in answer to the question: What is your purpose in education for your particular institution? The answer in almost every case is: That we might have excellence in what we do as an educational institution. By that they mean not only that they have excellent education, facilities, faculties and supporting services, but by gaining an education from the institution students will presumably graduate committed to excellence. I have encountered many institutions deserving of the honor of excellence, and some institutions, claiming excellence that are not really there yet – and may never be. There are analysts and forces that push institutions to acknowledge the areas in which there is excellence, and areas in which they are working on that status objective.
During my early years in education as both a student, and then a professor on the college level, we followed a rather useful pattern of general evaluation of anything whether a book, a building, a program, or a student as Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent or Superior. Shorthand for word terms was – F, D, C, B, or A. Sometimes the formulas for application were varied so that readers of transcripts could not be sure of the meaning. I had some teachers who used the bell curve which did not translate as it was meant to be for most persons in the non-academic world. The bell curve meant that six to eight percent of the students in this class would receive the ‘A‘ grade, and the same number the ‘F’ grade. Fifteen to twenty percent would receive the ‘B’ and ‘D’ grades respectively, with forty to fifty percent of the students receiving the ‘C’ grade – with the uses of the plus (+) or minus (-) to enhance/diminish the meaning of the grade. With increased student numbers, including increased money investments, and some loss of scholarship grading to accommodate students of lower potential or preparation, grade inflation increased so that student grades became casually higher and uncertain guides to evaluators. Some institutions tried pass and fail for grades. This never proved popular with instructors, students or public. Currently, placement services are not confident of many collegiate evaluations. Corporations looking for personnel have developed their systems for evaluating incoming employees. Grade inflation became a scandal. No perfect system has emerged. Uncertainties I found with ministers, doctors, lawyers, business persons, and some others inform me that we have graduates who are, at present, the best students ever, and some so poor that they should not be in their chosen fields, and may not have graduated college in previous eras. It is likely these could have been perceived and redirected in some beneficial way in evaluations personal and professional.
Excellence in Scripture may be larger than we believe. The Scripture relates excellence to values, virtues qualities and truth. The implication is that excellence means one strives for more excellence (something better than the present context) – fitting to our idea of superior. It is something to be gained, not assumed. It is to be a part of the spiritual life of the individual – to be better, to do better – no matter how far the progression to this point. Some excellent institutions admit to having no values other than those found in the general society. In a graduate school I learned that there were no rules. It was assumed that the students would keep city/state laws. Failing that, they would deal with police, and it had nothing to do with institutional evaluation. So what happened with students in morality, in drugs and alcohol abuse, and other conducts had nothing to do with the school. Formerly there was an in loco parentis duty placed on the college to act parentally to young emerging adults. That concept has been virtually abandoned in public institutions and greatly diluted even in religious contexts. Nevertheless, in Christian education excellence relates to values, to conducts, to attitudes – guided by growing wisdom that persons with whom the student has to do are drawn into the educational purpose of influencing others for good, not only for excellence in professional and intellectual pursuits but for holistic life – hopefully, under God. This relates to biblical excellence that incorporates the whole person, not only to the cultivation of the mind and skills. The word excellence indicates more to the Christian student than the naturalist. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020