Comments on: Curves: A Student’s Best Friend

By: wyrdbyrd

wyrdbyrd — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:47:12 +0000

Linda, Yes, you can imagine! Respect? In this country? Ha! I have seen how many young people speak to their parents, there’s no way they’re going to respect a teacher. People have to demand respect, or they’re not going to get it in this culture. I’m glad you do!

I think the new look is better, but I’m still not entirely satisfied. I don’t want to pay extra for the ability to edit the css!

By: linda

linda — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 06:06:01 +0000

“How spoiled we are.”
“We cannot imagine. How very much we take for granted.”

how true. as Lessing writes about Africa, you only have to go to India to see how spoiled we are. I don’t have to tell you, GF…..you’ve read my posts and have seen the pictures of the slum kids. and in India, teachers are respected — they are not talked back to, as I’ve seen here, or as has been done to me in the jr. college. uh…needless to say, I don’t put up with any crap.

and believe it or not, I’ve failed students in yoga.

(like the new look!)

By: Steve Rosenbaum

Steve Rosenbaum — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:38:36 +0000

Not all teachers are good with math.

By: wyrdbyrd

wyrdbyrd — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:06:49 +0000

I don’t know how the teacher graded, just that for each test and project, she scored over 100%, even though that should be impossible, and in the end, came out with 115%. I am sure that curving was part of it, but I think he was also adding bonus points for this and that. Either way, she was an excellent student and worked hard, but she shouldn’t have come out with over 100%!

By: Steve Rosenbaum

Steve Rosenbaum — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:51:21 +0000

Thats a really funny curve. She must know 15% more than was taught. Anyway, with a true curve the same percentage is supposed to get an A. So if she got 115%, she still needed to be in the top X% to get an A. If not, it’s something other than a curve.

By: wyrdbyrd

wyrdbyrd — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:46:21 +0000

Most of my daughter’s classes were graded on a curve. She ended up with over a hundred percent in many of her classes (115% in one) because of curving. Of course, this didn’t help her, because an A is an A, it helped the students who didn’t bother to study.

The whole doctor education issue is annoying to me for another reason—they seem to get a lot of their continuing education from drug companies.

Education is not my field, but I am disappointed in the direction it has been heading in this country.

By: Steve Rosenbaum

Steve Rosenbaum — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:36:52 +0000

So if it’s not important to know that 10%, why teach it. It would cut down the time it takes to become a doctor.

But let’s continue the analogy through residency. Given a choice there’s no difference between a doctor with 20 years experience and a new doctor.

By: Kirsten

Kirsten — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:33:54 +0000

Well, but….

Most college profs don’t grade on curves. This does seem somewhat dependent on field (science and math profs seem more likely to do so than those in humanities and social sciences) but for the most part grades are done on flat point or percentage basis. The problem in academia is grade inflation — work that once would have gotten you a C is now a B.

And heaven forbid you actually flunk a student. Their parent will call and complain, and may well go over your head to the department or division chair. And we wonder why so many students are incapable of showing much maturity.

As for the anti-intellectual thing, the US has never been pro-intellectual. That’s not to say we haven’t had smart leaders, but that academia has long been viewed with distrust at best. Derision of the “ivory tower” is not new — hence students being told that things will be different once they get into the “real world”. Which is a load of manure. But if you’d been told time and again that the university wasn’t real, how would you treat your time there?

Oh, and Steve’s med school example has a flaw. Once finishing medical school, doctors have to complete a residency in their chosen field (three to six years, depending on the field). Not knowing 10% of the entire field of medicine, which is what is covered in med school, is not important.

By: Jan

Jan — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 03:19:35 +0000

Totally off the subject, I’m tagging you for a silly middle name meme.

By: Steve Rosenbaum

Steve Rosenbaum — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 23:33:40 +0000

Here’s the problem with traditional school grading. Let’s say you’re in med school and you get 90% right on all your tests. Not bad..

That means on every test you’ve missed 10%. That 10% accumulates over 4 years. Now I say, I’d like to introduce you to your doctor. He got 90% right on all his tests!

You just have to hope you’ve got the 90% he knows.