December 7, 2003
For the record....
Posted by
Michael Arnzen at 13:50 in
Pedablogy.
For the record....
I am not the new user named "Ped A. Blogue" on Live Journal, keeper of the blog Class. Diss. Missed. Though I do admire her name.
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It's rather interesting that those who say they believe in God often "factor" God out of equations that compute grades!
Moreover, some of the same immoral parasites who worship "bell curves" complain of "grade inflation." What gives? [This is, of course, not to say that anyone who uses a bell curve for any reason whatsoever is an immoral parasite]
I can remember one demon who proposed human perfection---his first name was Adolf. In a very real sense, he got the psychometric ball rolling toward moral disaster. He put people in their "proper places." This practice disgusts me.
Separating the "cream of the crop" from those who are "less intelligent" is a leftover from the Nazis. I don't believe there is a need for such nonsense.
Should all of those bright students at Harvard be forced under a bell curve? Why? To separate the "cream from the creamier cream?"
I can't imagine who dreams up this yogurt!
Besides, there certainly isn't REAL scientific proof for all of this bell curve lunacy. Who can prove that what happens in the physical world should be applied to human beings, as though we were coins flipping through the air?
Besides, science isn't good enough to decide such issues.
As an instructor I pray each and every day (for hours at a time) for God to assist me in my teaching, for God to guide my students to learn important spiritual lessons even as they learn more "academic" lessons.
I'm not perfect (and neither are my students), so the miracles we achieve (if these materialize) are God's doing.
A bell curve makes fun of God's presence in our lives. In a sense, it denies God's love.
If God is REALLY alive (not dead as some propose), then why shouldn't I expect the loving hand of God to guide me and my students? Who creates our destiny anyway? A bell curve? I think not.
Furthermore, don't tell me that science has all the answers, because science devised nuclear weapons and we could do without those.
Science is capable of feeding every starving child on the planet--yet it looks the other way.
What does that tell you?
It tells me that technology is only as good as the people who use it. Godless folks who use bell curves are no better than the hypocrits who look the other way when injustice goose-steps past their doors.
God bless! :^)
Posted by JC at 19:15 on December 7, 2003.
#
The Gospel does refer quite directly to separating the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:32). Then there is "mene mene tekel parsin" from Daniel -- the writing on the wall that read "numbered, numbered, weighed, divided."
It's true that in these cases we're talking about divine judgement, rather than human judgement, and of course the history of the Judges suggests the People of Israel weren't always too sensible with their use of judgement (as if that incident with the apple itself itself sufficient commentary about human judgement).
Still and all, I'm not so sure that raising the spectre of the Nazis quickly is a good way to advance meaningful conversation about the effectiveness/value/ethics of grading. I'm not an advocate of forcing any faculty member's grades to conform to any particular graph, since I think an institution that really believes in academic freedom need to accept the faculty member's judgement. Shall we demonize all people with blue eyes because of the actions of some? Shall we demonize all trains simply because the Nazis used trains to transport their vicitms? Shall we demonize books because Hitler wrote one? Simply assocaiting the Nazis with the bell-curve does not, in my opinion, utterly demonize it.
Just as technology is only as good as those who use it, I'd say the bell curve is only as evil as those who use it. And I see nothing evil about using the bell curve to identify which students out of a particular population would benefit from remedial/developmental writing courses, which ones would be wasting their time in an introductory course, and which ones fall in the middle.
Posted by
Dennis G. Jerz at 11:01 on December 8, 2003.
#
Hm, but this pedablogue at livejournal is quite interesting. Thx for the link! I'll give the site some more attention now. ;)
Btw. when will be the next update on this blog?
greetz YeLL YellingNews
Posted by
YeLL at 16:57 on October 5, 2005.
#
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It's rather interesting that those who say they believe in God often "factor" God out of equations that compute grades!
Moreover, some of the same immoral parasites who worship "bell curves" complain of "grade inflation." What gives? [This is, of course, not to say that anyone who uses a bell curve for any reason whatsoever is an immoral parasite]
I can remember one demon who proposed human perfection---his first name was Adolf. In a very real sense, he got the psychometric ball rolling toward moral disaster. He put people in their "proper places." This practice disgusts me.
Separating the "cream of the crop" from those who are "less intelligent" is a leftover from the Nazis. I don't believe there is a need for such nonsense.
Should all of those bright students at Harvard be forced under a bell curve? Why? To separate the "cream from the creamier cream?"
I can't imagine who dreams up this yogurt!
Besides, there certainly isn't REAL scientific proof for all of this bell curve lunacy. Who can prove that what happens in the physical world should be applied to human beings, as though we were coins flipping through the air?
Besides, science isn't good enough to decide such issues.
As an instructor I pray each and every day (for hours at a time) for God to assist me in my teaching, for God to guide my students to learn important spiritual lessons even as they learn more "academic" lessons.
I'm not perfect (and neither are my students), so the miracles we achieve (if these materialize) are God's doing.
A bell curve makes fun of God's presence in our lives. In a sense, it denies God's love.
If God is REALLY alive (not dead as some propose), then why shouldn't I expect the loving hand of God to guide me and my students? Who creates our destiny anyway? A bell curve? I think not.
Furthermore, don't tell me that science has all the answers, because science devised nuclear weapons and we could do without those.
Science is capable of feeding every starving child on the planet--yet it looks the other way.
What does that tell you?
It tells me that technology is only as good as the people who use it. Godless folks who use bell curves are no better than the hypocrits who look the other way when injustice goose-steps past their doors.
God bless! :^)