The problem with grade deflation

So this whole grade deflation crusade Princeton's on seems to me like a way to ensure that people don't take risks in choosing classes. After all, why take a class in a subject you know nothing of when you're likely to end up with a C?

Why is this being mused on now? Because I'm trying to write a paper on a subject I know nothing about. A few months ago, I said to myself, "Hey, self. You've never taken a classics class before. Or anything in medieval studies. Here's a cross listed medieval studies/classics class on sex and gender in the ancient world. Let's take it!" And now I'm trying to compare Ragegund's The Fall of Thuringia to the Aeneid or Old English elegies like the Wanderer. The problem? I've read neither the Aeneid nor the Wanderer.

And it's a four person class. Which has both its good and very, very bad points.

Sigh.