Re: Eric and Fred's ideas on grading

[Latisha LaRue <kfischer@keller.clarke.edu>]

True enough, Neal, but is the point of the classroom to duplicate life 
experiecnes?
		Katie


> Lately, it's seemed that efforts Eric describes below, our attempts to 
> "distribute authority" by putting the onus for evaluation on our 
> students, are so anomolous not only to most of the rest of the students' 
> educational experience, but to their working and political lives outside 
> of and after college.  I'm thinking of the recent announcement by AT&T 
> that 30,000 folks will be fired.  Will these 30,000 have much power of 
> this decision?  Can they argue that they've achieved the performance 
> criteria they and/or their managers established and thus should be 
> retained?  Somehow I doubt it.  Similarly, the current federal budget 
> standoff and the machinations in Washington further instill a relative 
> powerlessness on our parts (and hence our nation's abysmal voting 
> turnout).  
> 
> In many of our students' classes, the criteria for success are quite 
> clear:  you memorize the appropriate body of knowledge and you get the 
> corresponding grade.  Writing classes that involve students deciding upon 
> criteria for success and then judging how well the've met those criteria 
> might seem like worthwhile experiences at the time but seemingly out of 
> touch with so many dominant experiences in their lives.
> 
> Sorry to be so cynical on this snowy day in Boston, but I guess that's 
> what happens when I listen to news radio too much.
> 
> 	Neal Lerner
> 	nlerner@acs.bu.edu
> 
> On Tue, 2 Jan 1996, Eric Crump wrote:
> 
> > I did something similar, Paula. 
> > 
> > Basically, I attempted to distribute authority, something that gets 
> > talked about a lot but is very difficult to accomplish. Can't claim my 
> > class was completely successful. When I asserted that I would not *give* 
> > grades to anyone, that everyone would determine their own grade based on 
> > their own criteria, some flat out didn't believe it. Some tried to 
> > believe. A few got it. 
> > 
> > And those who couldn't manage to really grasp the authority laid at their 
> > feet are blameless. The situation was utterly anomalous in their 
> > educational experience. Sort of like someone walking up to you on the 
> > street, someone you've never met, and saying you can have three wishes. 
> > Any sane person will be very skeptical.
> > 
> > by the way, I also had a number of students ask that their list and 
> > moospace be kept available so they could keep in touch. Whatever else 
> > went right or wrong in that class, this evidence of a sense of community 
> > made the whole thing worthwhile for me.
> > 
> > --Eric
> > 
> > // Eric Crump
> > \\ wleric@cclabs.missouri.edu
> >    --------------------------
> > // "Quality is not a *thing.* It is an *event.*
> > \\                            --Robert Pirsig
> > 
> > 
> > 
>