If school hasn’t yet started where you live yet, I strongly suspect that it will be starting in the next few days. If you are in a position where this has no impact on your life, I am reasonably confident that you are one of relatively few people in the country. Whether such a position is to be desired, would seem to be a highly individual matter, so I won’t even try to comment upon that. Still, for most of us, there is, has been, or is about to be something of a significant impact on our lives. In my case, it got me considering some of the stuff in my files which I consider to be “education related.” That’s a fairly loose category, but contains a reasonably large amount of material, so I figured I could get a blog post out of it. Anyway, here goes….
My suspicion for a long time has been that when many (most?) people think about school, their thoughts tend to focus on two things: tests and grades (obviously). It has seemed to me for many years that education was supposed to be about acquiring information and the tools to process that information effectively. But, obsessed with scores, ranking, and, generally, being competitive, etc., as our society is, it appears that for many people the most important aspect of “education” is the grade “given.” NOTE: grades are supposed to be earned by the student and simply assigned by the instructor (see below), but common parlance is that the teacher “gives” the student a grade, thereby completely denying any possible actual value it might have as a ranking and/or competitive tool, since a gift cannot possibly have any comparative value. But, people do insist on their little myths, don’t they? Anyway, here are a few things from my files which have some relation to grades and grading which might generate a chuckle, or two, as this school year gets into full swing.
Having been a teacher for many years, as well as being the son and grandson of teachers and the son of an elementary school librarian, I am quite sympathetic to the challenges all teachers face in trying to deal with testing and grading. It’s quite easy to create difficulties and/or complications without any reason to think that you are doing so, as in this case of a very simple, basic elementary math problem:
Teacher: "If I gave you 2 cats and another 2 cats and another 2, how many would you
have?”
Johnny: “Seven."
Teacher: "No, listen carefully... If I gave you two cats, and another two cats and another
two, how many would you have?"
Johnny: "Seven."
Teacher: "Let me put it to you differently. If I gave you two apples, and another two
apples and another two, how many would you have?"
Johnny: "Six."
Teacher: "Good. Now if I gave you two cats, and another two cats and another two,
how many would you have?"
Johnny: "Seven!"
Teacher: "Johnny, where in the heck do you get seven from?!"
Johnny: "Because I've already got a freaking cat!
The problem, of course, is that, despite what some folks would like to believe, teachers are NOT incapable of error because they can’t possibly have a complete handle on ALL possibly relevant information at all times. This means that they can (gasp!) make a mistake! Here’s a simple one as an example:
My suspicion for a long time has been that when many (most?) people think about school, their thoughts tend to focus on two things: tests and grades (obviously). It has seemed to me for many years that education was supposed to be about acquiring information and the tools to process that information effectively. But, obsessed with scores, ranking, and, generally, being competitive, etc., as our society is, it appears that for many people the most important aspect of “education” is the grade “given.” NOTE: grades are supposed to be earned by the student and simply assigned by the instructor (see below), but common parlance is that the teacher “gives” the student a grade, thereby completely denying any possible actual value it might have as a ranking and/or competitive tool, since a gift cannot possibly have any comparative value. But, people do insist on their little myths, don’t they? Anyway, here are a few things from my files which have some relation to grades and grading which might generate a chuckle, or two, as this school year gets into full swing.
Having been a teacher for many years, as well as being the son and grandson of teachers and the son of an elementary school librarian, I am quite sympathetic to the challenges all teachers face in trying to deal with testing and grading. It’s quite easy to create difficulties and/or complications without any reason to think that you are doing so, as in this case of a very simple, basic elementary math problem:
Teacher: "If I gave you 2 cats and another 2 cats and another 2, how many would you
have?”
Johnny: “Seven."
Teacher: "No, listen carefully... If I gave you two cats, and another two cats and another
two, how many would you have?"
Johnny: "Seven."
Teacher: "Let me put it to you differently. If I gave you two apples, and another two
apples and another two, how many would you have?"
Johnny: "Six."
Teacher: "Good. Now if I gave you two cats, and another two cats and another two,
how many would you have?"
Johnny: "Seven!"
Teacher: "Johnny, where in the heck do you get seven from?!"
Johnny: "Because I've already got a freaking cat!
The problem, of course, is that, despite what some folks would like to believe, teachers are NOT incapable of error because they can’t possibly have a complete handle on ALL possibly relevant information at all times. This means that they can (gasp!) make a mistake! Here’s a simple one as an example:
Now, many people would say that this teacher simply must have been over-tired and/or distracted. That wouldn’t surprise me one bit, as it probably happens more often than most people would like to admit. Here’s another example:
Actually, the test is a bit harder than you might think, Teach. The dog MIGHT actually be “Lying,” as in “lying down.” After all, “laying” refers to “placing something,” so unless you picked up the dog and placed it in this position (possible, I suppose, but unlikely) the dog is actually “lying.”
Such things have been known to “get” to teachers after some years, which just MIGHT explain THIS math problem (and the student’s response).
Such things have been known to “get” to teachers after some years, which just MIGHT explain THIS math problem (and the student’s response).
Tests, of course, lead to grades, a subject of considerable annoyance to students, but only when the grade assigned is lower than the one desired (which is frequent). For example,
Even when the grade can be justified to the student’s satisfaction (a rare case), that doesn’t mean that all students are willing to accept that a grade lower than desired can be considered acceptable, at least without some sort of protest.
Over the years, this has caused many sorts of conflicts between faculty (at all levels) and some students (and even their parents). The reality is, of course that awarding a high grade simply because one claims to have “tried hard” is as valueless (and pointless) as the practice of assigning low grades early in the course “as an incentive.” My suspicion, based on conversations with college friends who noticed this “incentive” pattern from some of their teachers, is that it served as more of a DISincentive to actually work harder, once the pattern was recognized.
I confess to a particular fondness for this Doonesbury strip from a good many years ago which touches quite boldly on some of the thinking about grading at the time.
I confess to a particular fondness for this Doonesbury strip from a good many years ago which touches quite boldly on some of the thinking about grading at the time.
My experience would lead me to suggest that this professor is probably correct, actual achievement will, for the most part, serve one better than ego-stroking empty praise in the long run. I suppose that inherited wealth and “showmanship” may work for a few, but, if you wish to discuss actual showmanship, I remember watching Pete Seeger, wearing a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt, walk into an auditorium carrying his banjo and 12-string, setting the12-string down and having a “cold” audience singing 4 part harmony in less than a minute. I’d suggest that that is the sign of a true “showman.” No hype, no fireworks, no buildup, just someone who had learned (and earned) the right to command an audience and did it without making a big deal if it.
I guess that, in the long run, it all boils down to --
I guess that, in the long run, it all boils down to --
See you in a couple of weeks,
🖖🏼 LLAP,
Dr. B
“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
— Nelson Mandela
“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic; capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.” ― Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
“Not everything which can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”
— from a sign in Albert Einstein’s office
🖖🏼 LLAP,
Dr. B
“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
— Nelson Mandela
“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic; capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.” ― Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
“Not everything which can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”
— from a sign in Albert Einstein’s office
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