On 10/27/07, Michael Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Here I think we get to the heart of the problem: how do we grade? > I would set this question aside in favor of a different one: why > do we grade? -- And I would answer it, let's not. All these > elaborate psychometric exercises derive from the fact that the > schools have accepted -- nay, embraced -- their role as winnowers > and sorters of human raw material. >
Is that not an extreme position? What's wrong with grading provided it is not regarded as an absolute measure of a student's worth? Good grades can be as much be a result of hard work as some kind of heritable intelligence. Surely grad schools or potential employers may legitimately like to know about an applicant's work ethic. Similarly is it not a stretch to say there is no such thing as a "learning disability"? -raghu.
