Prof lets students choose own grades for 'stress reduction'

This reminds me of a maths teacher we had in A-level maths. I am absolutely hopeless with numbers, really.
Anyway, he came in and told us that we will all get an A. Listening to him or not.
Well most of us didn't listen. I tried but I don't get maths if I listen or not.

We all did get As in all the unimportant tests during the year...yay.
When the proper end of year exam came, we all got properly what we deserved. Which for me was an F.
However I can [if I really sit down sort of], get at least a little better than an F. Considering he had not told us about the little twist in the end I complained to the headmaster and lo and behold we were allowed to sit the exam again.
I then scored my usual middle of the road [C].

If it was some sort of psychological crap, it doesn't work with me anyway as I take everything people say literally. He also should have told us that the last exam is an exception of his idiotic idea.

This site really did go to #.
I'm honestly regretting making a profile anymore.

What a waste of collective intellect.

originally posted by: trollz
I'm starting to think that all of this university nonsense is just a new form of the CIA's mind control experiments. Imagine if we could turn the citizens of our enemy countries in whining children who can't psychologically handle even the most trivial of life's "challenges" that respond by throwing tantrums and rioting.
Something is going on here and it's not normal at all.

Being alive in this world is a fantastic, awesome thing.

Its also, sometimes, brutal, dirty, painful, unfair and terrifying but the only alternative is to not be alive.

They're being sold a lie that there is an "option C", which doesn't exist.
Searching for it drives you mad but dammit they're gonna try anyway...and fail.

That's why people are angry when they see this business called education today.
The destruction of the world that's taken so long for society to create is like murdering your parents just for the sake of it!

Fear of the truth is the destructor of youth.

originally posted by: essentialtremors
a reply to: Khaleesi

I see where you're coming from.

The prof is actually giving them more responsibility of their own grades on a psychological level, I suppose thats why I'm interested in the outcomes.

Oh he is if he follows through, but on the same note, given what you know about today's world, how many are going to be able to properly handle that level of responsibility?

Odds are that many come from a background of cheating of some type. Now he's openly allowing them the freedom to do it.

That does it, I'm going back to college Can't wait for these people to start running companies. Yee haa, donuts for everyone and keep your job forever no matter how poor your performance.

Watson is a Business professor. BizAd is the original source of "Marketing and Communications" degrees which are one small step up from Black Studies, Social Justice, and all those other useless degrees. The marketing part is "do you want fries with that?" and the communications part is "the ketchup packs are by the napkins."

Now U Ga will have to do damage control because prospective employers may paint all grads with a broad brush based on one clown.

a reply to: seasonal


I guess he gives new meaning to the down fall of our education system. What a croc!

a reply to: seasonal

I would have added a codicil that if one person needs to raise a grade another student will need to lose a grade and the person who needs the point must convince the other to give up the point. This must be done in front of the professor.

Would love to see how that goes over.

a reply to: VforVendettea

Let me see...

Placards, screaming, teargas, pepper spray and blood?

No arrests....full story tonight at six!

originally posted by: Bluntone22
What happens when these kids get to the real world and ask their boss to adjust their work review?

Once employers understand the value of degrees from that university, how would they get a job?

a reply to: seasonal

It takes all types. Some days I would happily take him for my professor from the sounds of it. I've got one who routinely encourages students to kill themselves if they don't feel they can learn his material well enough to make a career out of it.

originally posted by: Khaleesi

originally posted by: essentialtremors
Although I may not agree on his methods, I'm honestly curious of the outcomes of this approach and if it has a negative or positive influence on one's education.

(And spare me the hyperbolic political comments, it's old)

If you applied his method to economics (government prints more money in order to pay off the national debt) money would lose it's value because of hyper inflation. Same thing here. The grades wouldn't really mean anything because most people would give themselves a grade they don't really deserve. Your GPA wouldn't mean squat when you went to apply for a job because everyone would know it isn't real. Basically it's a stupid idea.

GPA already means squat. The only things that matter are that if you have a degree, and if you can demonstrate the necessary knowledge for your job.

originally posted by: CulturalResilience
Universities and colleges are already offering meaningless courses such as gender/feminist/women's studies, so why not have meaningless grades as well?

Outside of pass/fail, which is only relevant for your degree. Grades already are meaningless for the vast majority of people.

The thought is interesting and it has its philosophical merits, but I'm afraid this would not work in practice. Student is a person who is learning, and self defining is unfortunately not part of scientific approach.

My concern on these things is that I feel knowledge has became subjective experience instead of undeniable truth. The truth is something that is not open for discussion, because it simply is - in conceptual sense.

I'm afraid acedemia is moving away from being the resort of research and knowledge an experimental field of thought processes. As interesting as they are, we cannot afford surgeons to define themself how human brain for example should be operated. It needs objective knowledge that is not a matter of self- specification.

For other fields of science I think experimental approaches can do good. Science today is very dogmatic system that has its fundamental truths which aren't open for discussion. That is due whole research on those fields relies on certain dogmatic beliefs, which further serve as corner stones of all thinking.