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I used to be against grading on a curve because it has the potential to undermine individual achievement. If I scored 91% on a test, I wanted the assurance that I had an A...
Now I prefer the curve because achievement isn't some static thing; it's in relationship to your peers; a hierarchy of competency if you will. If everyone did "poorly" in a class, that's an indication of a problem with the instruction, not with the students. A curve will even that out, which may or may not be desirable. You don't want to penalize a student for having been given poor instruction, but at the same time they need to meet the same standards of competency among other classes that study the same material.
Grading on a curve requires sufficient participants to work correctly though. In a classroom of 5, it wouldn't work correctly.
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