Malvern: Good For Something?

As everybody who reads this knows (or should know), I criticize Malvern Prep quite frequently.  One thing Malvern brags about is preparing people for college (e.g.) writing.  I used to figure that this was, like much out of Malvern, made up to improve the school's image.  However, I'm not not so sure.

We got our first Humanities 1 papers back Wednesday.  Professor Groves noted before handing them back that everybody could use improvement, which didn't surprise me.  However, I got mine back, turned to the comments sheet, and was surprised to read positive comments:

"The New Media Meets the Old: A Blog and a Newspaper Compared"

Grade: Pass

Martin:

You've composed a well-written, engaging comparison of two news providers.  This paper will be, I'm sure, a cornerstone of your portfolio after you put it through another round of revision.  In that revision, I would suggest that you most fully consider two related points:

[here is two paragraphs of criticism that I don't feel like retyping]

See my inserted comments and editorial marks in your paper, and see me if you have questions about them or about what I've written here. This paper represents a very good start in Humanities 1, Martin, and I look forward to reading the revision.

I boggle in surprise.  And by listening around, I discover that many people either failed or passed with comments indicating that it was a very low pass.  These are not stupid people, either, unlike your typical Malvern failure.  Obviously I'm going to take some credit for this, but I recall my high school English classes and have to give them substantial credit for helping me with my writing.  Or of course maybe this is just because I had awesome English teachers.  Meh, either way, it's a good thing