Re: Eric and Fred's ideas on grading -Reply

[Jon Olson <olsonj@cla.orst.edu>]

Do you ever wonder if the students are the ones who really have
authority and we're fooling ourselves to think we have it to give? 
--Jon, olsonj@cla.orst.edu

>>> Neal Lerner <nlerner@acs.bu.edu>  1/3/96, 11:51am >>>
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
>  >  >