tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8340684.post5537261473800441219..comments2024-03-24T09:36:51.494-04:00Comments on delagar: Grading Bluesdelagarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18197857250240640822noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8340684.post-76806431206453749842008-12-15T23:59:00.000-05:002008-12-15T23:59:00.000-05:00Oh honey, that playing field isn't just uneven...i...Oh honey, that playing field isn't just uneven...it's got great honking huge pits in it from all the shelling and carpet bombing...Sarasvati Fauthereehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01823191627343902441noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8340684.post-40321599024075408762008-12-15T11:22:00.000-05:002008-12-15T11:22:00.000-05:00Yeah, I know you're right. It's such a corrupt sy...Yeah, I know you're right. It's such a corrupt system, though. The rich kids living with their mommas are the ones that get me: they're good students, some of them, and I'm fine with giving them the high grades, but it gets down my neck, how certain they are that they have earned those high grades, they did it all on their own, see?<BR/><BR/>Well, I do see that they have studied and worked on the academic work on their own, and I do (often) like these students; but frequently I want to bat them one: since sitting right next to them is this other guy, who's making rent and dealing with a 50 hour a week job and his PTSD and two kids and his wife who also works and she's got her own traumas and their car broke down and how is that playing field level?<BR/><BR/>Not to mention First Guy went to a private school and Second Guy dropped out of a very bad public school and went to work on the line at seventeen because his mom couldn't make the rent.<BR/><BR/>But yes: I know: we can only evaluate the work.<BR/><BR/>The world is broken, and we have to grade their essays.<BR/><BR/>It's a fine system.delagarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18197857250240640822noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8340684.post-84833593863292116002008-12-14T20:12:00.000-05:002008-12-14T20:12:00.000-05:0072 hours? We get 48 here...As for cutting them sl...72 hours? We get 48 here...<BR/><BR/>As for cutting them slack because of personal problems: Ok, Dela, don't take this personally, because i think you're a wonderful person, but--you have empathy. It's a possibly debilitating condition in this world, given the overwhelming majority of humans in every culture who are simply overwhelmed and under-resourced. Of course you want to cut them slack; of course you see how their lives are stressful, and traumatic, and overall shitty. But if you start cutting slack for that, you might as well give almost every student in the room a 100 right out of the gate, because they all have legitimate problems that get in the way. This is life. We struggle, and stress, and worry, and still might not get anywhere, and there's no real rhyme or reason, and we just have to take our lumps and keep on crawling for as long as we still have the strength to pull ourselves along. Or we can sit on the side of the road and expect everyone else to actually give a shit, and we can sit there until we rot. Those are our two choices. It never gets any better. They should learn that the world doesn't stop for them because they're having issues now, and they should go ahead and develop strategies and defenses to deal with that. Otherwise, their entire lives will be spent in one string of excuses after another, because something will ALWAYS come up. Trust me on this. I'm almost 27, and every year, for 26 years, something awful and traumatic has come up, and had to be dealt with, regardless.<BR/><BR/>Secondly, let me make the military argument. No one ever cut my happy ass a goddamned bit of slack, and i had all sorts of issues from car wrecks and living with an alcoholic who tried to kill his exwife to immense self hatred, suicide attempts, and childhood rape. And yet, here i am, succeeding, doing my shit on time and getting tougher and more capable because of it. From what I've heard around the department, most of the other grad students here who are succeeding and getting their shit done on time have also had issues, such as rape, attempted murder, alcoholic relatives, debilitating mental and physical illness, accidents of various kinds, the death of loved ones, etc. If you hold them to standards, yeah, they'll be stressed--like 99% of the rest of the world. They'll learn how to deal, or they won't, but if they do, they get stronger. Every person on the planet, with the possible exception of bitches like Paris Hilton, has some sort of post-traumatic issue, or current traumatic issue, or many instances of both, and yet we all manage somehow to keep on rolling. Does it suck to be in the authority seat, being the one who has to enforce standards and behaviors? Of course it does. We get that extra added benefit of being hated just for being in that position, and of guilt, and worry, and quandaries. But it has to be done. <BR/><BR/>Finally, if you don't grade, how will you ever motivate the mercenary little bastards to do anything? Mine don't even want to put their name on their papers unless they're getting bonus points for doing so. I would say, how would future employers know they can actually do the work for which they've been hired, but given what i've heard about grade inflation, that's pretty much already a moot point. Hence the rampant incompetence, rudeness, and entitlement we run into every day at every place of business we visit.<BR/><BR/>Yowza.Sarasvati Fauthereehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01823191627343902441noreply@blogger.com