William T Goodall wrote: > > On Friday, August 29, 2003, at 09:34 pm, Kevin Tarr wrote: > > > (I know, English isn't his first language)(And I'm not assuming he is > > Democrat, but 41 percent of the other teacher's failed and I'd lay > > odds that more than half of those who failed are.) > > > > Because they are college graduates?
Nice burn, William. :)
Most teachers in the US are Democrats. (Going by the 51% rule, I think that's a fairly safe statement, and my impression, which *may* be wrong, is that teachers are more likely to be Democrats than random people picked out of the general population.) And I'd expect more of them to be so in Massachusetts (where the problem pointed out by the article is), although it's been a number of years since I've lived near enough to there to have a good feel for the political climate. If the probability of failing the exam is independent of political party, then that was a safe bet for Kevin to make.
At one institution where I was filling in for their astronomy prof while he was on sabbatical, someone had posted an article from some education newsletter on the bulletin board in the faculty office area in which the author explained why it was inconceivable that one could be both a college professor and a Republican . . .
-- Ronn! :)
_______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
