Simon Said by Sarah Shaber Read Free Book Online Page A

the development of the South, Reconstruction did. It was a hundred years before the South recovered. It gave Simon a headache to drive past the capital on Robert E. Lee's birthday and see the Confederate battle flag flying.
    But Simon was smart enough to say very little on the subject. He did once suggest mildly to Andrus while he was holding forth on states' rights that he really ought to read the Constitution. But he didn't want to get ridden out of North Carolina on a rail. Just because he thought the Yankees' victory was inevitable, he didn't want to have to go live with them.
Simon sat down next to Marcus. Everyone looked at him. Although Simon knew he was the focus of this meeting, he was relaxed. He was right and Andrus was wrong. Walker Jones called the meeting to order.
    "I really dislike holding a faculty meeting when we have so few of our people here," he began, "but I have come to feel that it is necessary to keep a certain situation from becoming out of control." He looked at Simon directly. "Vera tells me that she mentioned the purpose of this meeting to you earlier this morning."
"Yes," Simon answered. "Bobby Hinton's senior thesis grade is being appealed."
    "That's correct," Jones said formally. "Let's summarize the situation briefly." He looked at his notes. "Mr. Hinton was a senior history major, one of our best students. Along with nine others, he was selected to participate in the senior honors seminar, which requires the writing of a long research paper over the course of the year. This paper is expected to be of graduate-school quality. Last year, the seminar was taught by Simon. In addition, every student has a faculty adviser who is a specialist in the period he or she has selected. As Mr. Hinton's topic was the Civil War, Alex Andrus was his adviser. At the end of the year, Hinton received a C from Simon. The other grades in the class were six As and three B-pluses."
"It was absolutely ridiculous—" began Andrus.
     
"Hold on, Alex. I'm not done yet," Jones said. "Please tell us, Simon, your rationale for that grade."
    "A senior thesis of the quality we expect must be written to graduate-school standards," Simon said. "We tell the kids that when they sign up for the course. Most of them live, eat, and breathe this paper for the course of the year. It gives them a huge edge in graduate school. They all know that. All the senior faculty take turns teaching the seminar, and we emphasize critical reading and thinking, and the use of primary sources. I repeatedly warned Hinton after reading his drafts that his primary research was unacceptable. In fact, it was practically nonexistent. He ignored me. He writes very well, and he did an excellent survey of the literature on his topic. But he didn't add an iota of original knowledge or thought to the subject. So he got a C. It would have been unfair to the other students to give him anything else."
"I hope you realize that he will lose his spot in graduate school because of this," Andrus said.
    "That's completely irrelevant," Vera Thayer said.
"Hold on, please," Jones said. He turned to Andrus.
"Now, Alex, did you know of Simon's comments on Hinton's drafts?" he asked. "Of course I did. And I referred him to a number of sources."
"And did he make any use of these?"
"Yes. But he said that they didn't add much to his discussion."
Jones turned to Simon. "Simon?"
    "All the students are supposed to make sure there are sufficient sources for their topic before they formally select it and begin work. In fact, his bibliography referred to a number of primary sources. But there was no evidence at all in his paper that he actually used any," Simon said.
"Listen," Andrus said. "The boy was carrying a huge load. He was taking an extra course, and doing research for me at the same time."
     
"Then he shouldn't have signed up for the senior seminar," Vera said.
    "I think," Simon said, "that Hinton expected that his writing facility would see him through. He expected a B