🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1116398224.808357.92540@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
Deep Fried Lettuce <sittinginthepool@internode.on.net> wrote:
>BMJ wrote:
>> Taenia Solium wrote:
>> > straydog <advocacy@sdf.lonestar.org> writes:


>> >>We, over on the newsgroup sci.research.careers, heard about this
>> >>thread and we get into serious debates and discussions about the
>> >>declining standards in the USA and I think its true.





>> > This is happening globally.







>> It scares me to think that I might be crossing a bridge or entering a

>> building that some of them might have had a hand in designing.



>so why in the hell are the standards in this and education in
>general being ALLOWED to slip lower and lower evey few years?

The tendency is always for this to happen, unless there are 
enough in positions to do something about it to prevent it.
One of the safeguards is that it can be possible to make
comparisons; this is something which is stupidly being "done"
in comparing schools by using multiple choice tests.  But how
much can this do if it is intended that "all", except those
with severe mental handicaps, graduate high school?

It was the idea to educate children according to age, which
requires reduction of content to the lowest common denominator,
that forces this situation.  Politically, state universities
cannot refuse to admit graduates from the state high schools
with good grades, nor to flunk out too many of them.  And if
private universities do not admit graduate students from these
state schools with good grades, the federal government, which
is the MAJOR funding source for research, will find ways to
cut their research funding.  We have another problem now; the
student ratings can kill a faculty member's career, no matter
how good a real teaching job is being done.

>And as for marks why is it that grades are always artificially inflated
>not reflecting the true nature of a student's performance?

Those same educationists tried to make all grades relative.
One class is as good as another, isn't it?  (VERY definitely
not the case.)

>Exactly who was the bizarre person that thought this would be a good
>idea?

The "Progressive Educators", the group led by John Dewey, who
essentially took over the public schools during the depression.
The very democratic 19th century voters had no problems with
high school requiring ability, and college requiring more.
But this philosophy was that age and socialization were more
important than education, and in the Depression, they were able
to sell this to most of the public.  Affirmative action has not
helped, as anyone who flunks a black will be accused of racial
discrimination, no matter what the scores.
-- 
This address is for information only.  I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University
hrubin@stat.purdue.edu         Phone: (765)494-6054   FAX: (765)494-0558