Aug 27, 2026 · 12 min · 5 segments
The University of Michigan recently announced it would go pass-fail for freshmen and remove SAT and ACT requirements, all in the name of protecting mental health. Donald Thompson isn't buying it. In…
Jason GillikinHost
[upbeat music] So, I wanna get your take on this, and you're laughing already, and I'm curious to know why.
[laughs] Like, it- it's... [laughs] Right? Like, okay, so standardized tests have challenges with them.
Some people have the ability for tutors and some don't, and I get all of those things, but that's not what we're talking about.
What we are talking about is removing barriers for high achievement and scoring, and then expecting to prepare young people to go into an environment that is all about scorecard.
Pressure and how you handle it matters, right? Because everything in today's business environment is a stress test on resiliency.
And so by continuing to coddle generation after generation, and then frustrated that we're dealing with young people that don't know how to overcome mistakes, that don't know how to take criticism, whose fault is that? And so when you said the University of Michigan was doing it, I started to r- working on my resume, um, for the, um, chancellor of the University of Michigan 'cause they gonna fire that per- That- that's not gonna work.
[laughs] And the reason it's not gonna work is what is the goal of a university? It's to prepare people for their future careers and profession.
Well, if you think about any profession that is making a significant amount of income, okay? Let's say it's sports.
I mean, for students, but are you changing the amount of academic journals that professors have to be in to start to qualify for tenure? Well, wait a minute.
W- why, why wouldn't you have it both ways for new professors? So new professors, you don't have to worry about the first year or two.
Right? You're still charging kids the same amount of money to go to University of Michigan or wherever else, but you're not giving everything you can to prepare them.
Here's the thing they should be doing, and you know what? It doesn't matter if people like it or not.
Why do we wait to have group projects till they're juniors and seniors when when you get people out in the world, everything at work typically is a group project? I think we're solving for the wrong problem because here's how you reduce...
If you think about my sports background, or you think about, um, me buying and selling companies over my career and different things, right? You learn by doing and being measured.
[upbeat music] So, I wanna get your take on this, and you're laughing already, and I'm curious to know why.
[laughs] Like, it- it's... [laughs] Right? Like, okay, so standardized tests have challenges with them.
Some people have the ability for tutors and some don't, and I get all of those things, but that's not what we're talking about.
What we are talking about is removing barriers for high achievement and scoring, and then expecting to prepare young people to go into an environment that is all about scorecard.
Pressure and how you handle it matters, right? Because everything in today's business environment is a stress test on resiliency.
And so by continuing to coddle generation after generation, and then frustrated that we're dealing with young people that don't know how to overcome mistakes, that don't know how to take criticism, whose fault is that? And so when you said the University of Michigan was doing it, I started to r- working on my resume, um, for the, um, chancellor of the University of Michigan 'cause they gonna fire that per- That- that's not gonna work.
[laughs] And the reason it's not gonna work is what is the goal of a university? It's to prepare people for their future careers and profession.
Well, if you think about any profession that is making a significant amount of income, okay? Let's say it's sports.
I mean, for students, but are you changing the amount of academic journals that professors have to be in to start to qualify for tenure? Well, wait a minute.
W- why, why wouldn't you have it both ways for new professors? So new professors, you don't have to worry about the first year or two.
Right? You're still charging kids the same amount of money to go to University of Michigan or wherever else, but you're not giving everything you can to prepare them.
Here's the thing they should be doing, and you know what? It doesn't matter if people like it or not.
Why do we wait to have group projects till they're juniors and seniors when when you get people out in the world, everything at work typically is a group project? I think we're solving for the wrong problem because here's how you reduce...
If you think about my sports background, or you think about, um, me buying and selling companies over my career and different things, right? You learn by doing and being measured.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
