Hi Arlo/Ian
Always seemed odd how examines are graded to me.
If we want to judge competence at maths why do we
not just have hurdles that you can attempt a bit like
music examines, so that people/kids can attempt to
reach whatever level they like/require or can manage.
Then we'd just get people going as far as they can or
want to up the scale of competency. Everyone would
then find their own level rather than there being some
single bar to separate winners and losers. Also allow
people to continue to improve all their life if thehy wanted
to.
David M
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".
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