The idiotic lockdown can be blamed for lots of things, but I’d look elsewhere on this one: try DEI, and die.

The Harvard Math Department will pilot a new introductory course aimed at rectifying a lack of foundational algebra skills among students, according to Harvard’s Director of Introductory Math Brendan A. Kelly.

The course, titled Math MA5, will run alongside two established math courses — Math MA and MB — with an expanded five-day schedule.

Kelly said that students in MA5 will meet with “one of two instructors all five days” with “a variety of different activities” on Tuesdays and Thursdays. [finger painting, finger pointing, and wailing about injustice? — Ed]

He said the Covid-19 pandemic led to gaps in students’ math skills and learning abilities, prompting the need for a new introductory course.

“Students don’t have the skills that we had intended downstream in the curriculum, and so it creates different trajectories in students’ math abilities,” Kelly added.

These Harvard students - despite their incapacity for college-level work - will likely graduate with straight-A grades, since that is pretty much the only grade that Harvard gives out:

Harvard gave 79 percent ‘A’ grades in recent academic year

A newly released report revealed 79 percent of grades given to Harvard students in 2020-21 were in the A range, nearly a 20 percent increase from a decade ago.

Approximately 60 percent of grades given in the 2010-11 year were in the A-range, The Harvard Crimson reported Thursday.

A faculty-administration meeting was held to discuss what, to outsiders at least, might be considered a problem. Here’s one proposed solution, an obvious cure that just restates clearly what has always been understood, at least in Cambridge: “All Harvard students are exceptional, so there’s no need to distinguish among them — to hire one is to hire all.” Looking at the quality of the people Harvard has unleashed upon corporations, politics and the country’s new fourth branch of government, the Administrative, I’d say that policy has been in effect for at least the past 100 years.

During the meeting, faculty brought up several strategies to address grade inflation and compression.

Romance languages and literatures Professor Annabel Kim suggested the “abolition of grading” and the institution of “narrative-based” evaluations, according to The Crimson. 

That’s all well and good, but is there room in our schools and in our government to accept still more of these illiterates? To make sure there is, the Charles River Trouts have created yet another specialty, one that will produce a new place to slot useless hires

Harvard to Train 'Planetary Healers' to Save World From 'Climate Change' and 'Structural Racism'

Students in this concentration will also learn about the health inequity born out of environmental degradation. Structural racism and international economic policy have exacerbated the climate crisis, with communities of color, poor communities, and the Global South being disproportionately impacted. You will be equipped to use research, leadership, advocacy, and policy to implement solutions that better serve these populations.