(no subject)

[gwydion]

* 230 billion dollars. That's the amount of money the Republicans want to add to the deficit by repealing health reform. Way to live up to the campaign promises to cut the defect. Seriously, why is this their first priority when the country is crisis? We get no benefit at all from this. It won't create jobs or stimulate the economy. The goal is for tax payers to pay 230 billion dollars for the privilege of having 32 million people loose their insurance and remove all the protections from insurance company abuses. It will yank away a small business tax break for insuring employees that is right now helping both small businesses and their employees all over the country. By what logic is it good for American citizens to be dropped from insurance when they get sick? By what logic should we be wasting money on this when there are so many things we need money for? Why do Republicans hate small businesses so much they want to increase the deficit to deliberately hurt them and their employees despite all their rhetoric about lowering the defect?

* I was always against grading on a curve. This is not sour grapes. My college and Grad school GPAs are a pretty solid rebuttal to that, as I was generally at the top of the curve. I was often that asshole with the perfect test, the perfect paper, the one who's essays would get occasionally used as examples for how to answer test questions or write that sort of paper. The curve didn't harm me generally.

To my way of thinking, grading on a curve is fundamentally unfair. If x number of students got 90 or above on a test, why should some of them arbitrarily have their grades lowered? More than that, though, grading on a curve means that students start rooting for other students to fail. It discourages folks from helping each other out with studying, but more than that, it creates a toxic social atmosphere.

I don't hold much with crabs holding each other down. I'd rather cheer folks on who are trying to better themselves or make art or rise above whatever than try to hold people down to make myself feel better in some twisted way. I was a lot like that as a teacher too. I would not give answers to kids or do their assignments for them, but on a fundamental level, I wanted every single one of them to do well, to achieve the most they could achieve. I think that came through in the way I taught, that sense that I genuinely wished them well. I think it's part of why they took to me.

Life doesn't have to be a zero sum game. Friendship sure as fuck shouldn't be.

* RM on language and violence: http://lettersfromtitan.com/2011/01/08/metaphor-violence-and-bullying/#comments

* Bloodwork Doctor's appointment today: My organs seem to still be working and my cholesterol improves. (Rationing works! Yay rationing!) My Thyroid is not quite bad enough to treat, as it's been for over 15 years. They will be lowering my hormones a scooch, which I was expecting.

* Meat Shower:

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Comments

[il-volpe.livejournal.com]

I think I benefited from treating thyroid that was not really all that low.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

I suspect I would, but given all the other things wrong with me, they hesitate to add new medications unless they have to.

[captain-havoc.livejournal.com]

i'm against curve grading too, and i was also a student who "set the curve."

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

I used to dread that moment when my college friends would turn to me and complain, "stop messing up the curve!"

[deusabscondidum.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to think of what possible goodness they can be thinking will come of this, and the only one I can think of is, "It will prevent socialism." Which is essentially what they are trying to prevent when opposing anything the Democrats put up.

Curve grading is bizarre. I had thought grades were meant more to record how well a student is doing so that they can receive help if they need it. And in a more realistic way, grades determine which poor people can get financial assistance. It is so wrong to screw around with the only way many people have to get money for higher education, when schools insist most strongly that continuing education is necessary to get somewhere in life.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

I only saw one use that felt fair to me. It was a Greek class that was meant to be mixed grad and undergrad, but he was making us all go at the grad student rate and even they were drowning. There was a test every undergrad failed and only two grad students scored 60 or above (63 the highest score). he looked at that as a sort of incitement of his teaching (which it was, really). We'd all worked our asses off and that was as good as anyone could do. he used the curve to raise the scores so the grad students who passed got an A and and A-. The rest of us all got passing grads on a bell curve for we which we were all grateful.

[fobok.livejournal.com]

Totally agreed, hate curve grading. Thankfully, I never experienced it in my history of schooling.

On a different topic, how's 4pm EST on Tuesday for that Iowa plot on Trin?

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

Lovely. I'll put it on the calender now.