GPA redistribution

Says the Capitalist guy who created a $200 Trillion debt and sold his grandchildren to the PRC.

 

What? (10 char.)

 

Students with a lower grades may have some needs which can easily be met by students with sufficient ability.

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It may simply depend on how easy and convenient those with ability can make it.

 

I think it brings up some ethical issues. Would your conscience be clear listing your GPA as 3.5 on your resume, knowing that you only earned a 2.0, and the rest was a freebie at the expense of someone else?

 

Which brings up the issue of motivation. What motivation is there for either the A student or the C/D student to excel? Why would the A student go to the extra effort, knowing their accomplishments won't be fully recognized. And why would the C student put forth any effort knowing he's getting a handout?

 

Our current education systems are archaic based upon success and failure and need to be replaced by competency based learning where every student is successful. Under competency based learning all students succeed as they acquire the knowledge that the course is intended to provide to the student.

While currently used for more concrete skills as opposed to abstract learning it can be used for abstact learning as well. It is based upon the successful completion by the student of each module that leads them to the next module until the knowledge is fully realized.

Our current "education" systems are based upon thousand year old instruction centered on rote memorization as opposed to actually gaining knowledge. A person "crams for a test" and may get an "A" on the test but a week later they may remember virtually nothing.

"Progressive Taxation" is fundamentally a myth in the United States as the lowest income households have the highest tax burden relative to income in the United States. Taxation is the total tax burden that the person must pay and includes all forms of taxation from federal income, FICA/Payroll/Self-employment and excise taxes to State sales, property, and income taxes in many states.

Our tax policies are based upon favoritism for the wealthy over the average person and the investor (that produce no wealth) over the worker (that produce all of the wealth) in America.

 

If you are contending that the concept of redistributing grade points makes no sense, then I understand you quite well and agree with you. I'm simply giving examples for why it makes no sense.

 

Personally I'm not content with narrowing it down to one word bumper stickers such as "INSANE" without exemplifying why it is insane. It's a discussion forum, not a graffiti wall. You're free to judge the relevance of my comments as you wish, as am I yours.

...and I have awesome hair.

 

Truer forms of socialism would enable, from each according to their ability to each according to their need. Teaching assistants, anyone?

 

We could cut to the socialistic quick, do away with the GPA, and just give everyone a PHD.

 

Good point.

Another potential area for government-imposed equality of outcome.

Why bust your butt to get good grades when the government will steal GPA from the hard workers and give it to the lazy?

 

Sounds more like crony capitalism; it even helped an Ivy League MBA. Why did tuition rates at that business school not behave in the most Capitalistic of manners and fashions.

 

There are numerous components to motivation for the student and perhaps I can lend some insight on this as I studied competency based learning in college.

First and foremost is that people have different learning styles but our current education systems typically use just two - lectures and books - and that alone discourages students where their learning styles are not based upon lectures or books. Let me use the Battle of Gettysberg and an example. For some students simply listening to the lecture by the teacher and reading about it in a book will provide them with the knowledge of the battle while for other students they learn virtually nothing. Lectures and books are not a part of their learning styles so they are bored and have little motivation to learn the course material. For those student perhaps watching the History Channel's documentary on Gettysberg might grab their attention and they would learn the events based upon a learning style that enjoys the presentation in a documentary form on the screen. Competency training requires the course to address the presentation of the course materials in numerous manners to accomodate the different learning styles.

I was also trained in online course development for competency based learning and the technology exists so that many different learning styles can be accomodated with computer based learning. Basically we'd start with the title "Gettysberg" and then offer numerous different paths that the student could take to acquire the knowledge of the Battle of Gettysberg and in doing this we make the learning experience enjoyable and that increases the motivation of the student to learn. Their mind will absorb the information because it is presented in a manner that the person enjoys and learns best from.

As long as the stick to the old "lecture and books" to "teach the test" about 1/2 of the students are turned off and don't learn very well or very much. Making the learning experience enjoyable changes all of that. It becomes a pleasure to learn and the student does learn so they always "succeed" and success is it's own motivating force.

Of course there is also peer pressure so the person wants to succeed to stay with their peers. Because "learning" isn't a nasty tasting pill anymore and they can learn based upon course material presented in a manner that they find enjoyable they will be motivated just to stay even with their peers.

Competency based learning also removes the barrier of a fixed time schedule. The fast learning student (based upon traditional education) becomes bored because they are "ahead of the class" while the slower learning student (generally because the course isn't tailored to their learning style) is discouraged because they have an impossible time trying to keep up. Competency based learning is accomlished based upon the learning rate of the person and is not a "fixed" schedule that is counter productive for most students.

Finally there is always the parent that help motivate their child. Of course when the learning style of the child is accomodated it allows the student to succeed so the negative "parental" influences where they condemn their child for failure is eliminated. Education becomes a joyous event for both the student and the parents allowing positive re-inforcement at every turn.

The fact that we continue to use traditional learning methods when we know so much more about learning and have the technology that allows us to really move into the 21st Century is something I don't understand with one minor exception. To convert to competency based learning and providing multiple learning paths has a huge initial investment cost but this is a non-recurring cost. In the end education can be more effectively accomplished and at a lower cost but it does require a large capital investment up front. It can require 40-100 hours or more of course development for every hour of deliverable education and that is hugely expensive up front. The advantage is that once the course is developed modifications are relatively inexpensive and rarely does K-12 education actually change as it's fundamental knowledge and not advanced knowledge.

Of course it also diminishes the role and influence of the "teacher" as the course, not the teacher, is what provides the actual education for the student. Today we depend upon every teacher to be both the instructor as well as the course developer and that costs a lot because few people are actually qualified to do both very well. Every class is fundamentally different as each teacher creates their own personal course material for the identical subject even when the same books are used.

 

Socialism should be supplying us with full employment of resources in human capital markets such that, from each according to their ability to each according to their need may be a practical reality.

 

My mother would have loved you.

 

This thread of a great example of what liberals want. SOMETHING FOR NOTHING!!!

 

This seems to be a simple red herring or straw man argument based on special pleading.

Socialism should be supplying us with full employment of resources in human capital markets such that, from each according to their ability to each according to their need may be a practical reality.

What algorithms may be prescribed by a School of Human Resources Management?

 

Because you still end up with a fabulous life style while those who can't find a job struggle to get by on meager assistance.

 

Taxcutter says:
That is none of government's business. It was for the USSR, but that didn't work out so well.