According to the article, the students were required to "memorize"
the capital letters of the Greek language (24 characters) most of
which they have some idea since there are about 35 fraternities and
sororities on the campus. I don't see that as a daunting task since
we might compare that to requiring students going into statistics to
be able to pass a math pre-test before taking statistics. I have
reluctantly come to the conclusion that many of our students are so
used to being spoon-fed and mollycoddled that to think that they
might have to recognize and identify correctly the names of 24
symbols is seen as a tremendous burden. These are also the same
people who text message 50 - 100 times a day with a new language and
having to learn a new way to "keyboard" while they are driving a
car. What's the difference? Could it be that our students don't
value an education with the same fervor that most of us did? I don't
have an answer for that question, but I support the idea of being pre-
qualified for a particular course. How is that any different from
having prerequisites?
On 19 Sep 2007, at 09:07, Christopher D. Green wrote:
Here's a way to ensure "mastery" on the part of one's students.
Make them drop the course if they do't get a perfect score. :-)
http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/09/19/greek
Chris Green
York U.
Toronto, Canada
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Dr. Bob Wildblood
Indiana University Kokomo
Kokomo, IN 46904-9003
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired,
signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are
not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
Dwight D. Eisenhower
"The time is always right to do what is right."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Benjamin Franklin, 1775
"We are what we pretend to be, so we better be careful what we
pretend to be."
Kurt Vonnegut
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