Arlo, I agree already ... :-) (Did you see my response to gav on the Quality Conversations thread ?) Ian
On 6/11/08, Arlo Bensinger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > [Ian] > Hi Arlo, not sure where you were coming from with the quoted sentence, "some > things are better than others", But, Yes. > > [Arlo] > The typical rant against "equalization" from a MOQ context relies on this > from ZMM, "But some things are better than others, that is, they have more > quality." My point is that many use this (or confuse this) as an attempt to > point to some deeper existential value of the person. Little Johnny's math > score is "better" than Little Joey's. We shouldn't gloss over that to make > Joey "feel good". If he gets a "D", he gets a "D". They should not both get > "A's" to satiate Joey's need to feel good about himself. Fair enough, I say, > but where from there? > > What we have gotten in this pendulum swing is a system that does not make a > profound value judgement of Joey, "he's just stupid, a dumb loser kid". What > we want is a system that asks, "why did Joey fail?" And we should have a > system that does not dismiss Joey as existentially inferior to Johnny. And > that, Ian, is where we WERE. That is the historical arc from which this > pendulum has swung. So when the talk-radio buffoons bloviate about so-and-so > ridiculous example of "equalization", I keep in mind that for every example > of THAT, there are countless Joey's who may find success in alternate > learning environments, who are not ridiculed as being "stupid", nor > dismissed by a system into a dead-end path. For every "team that is not > allowed to keep score", there are now many, many disabled kids who are given > the opportunity to excel in a system that turned a cold, blind eye to them > for so long. > > In other words, the idea of "betterness" is used by some to attempt to > hierarchically rate the worth of a person, rather than the Quality of an > ability. And it is with an eye towards this that I remain critical of those > who constantly condemn "equality". > > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
