Goddamn, I wish I had a snack and a latte.

[jackshoegazer]

We're diving into education and media in sociology. After our group discussions, the class-wide discussion devolved into an argument on how valid grades are. Some people were arguing that grades don't mean anything and that they shouldn't be attached to someone's self-worth. I argued that grades are important signifiers within "the system" and are necessary and that it is up to the individual to choose whether to place meaning on them.  I don't walk around with my report card pinned to my shirt and expect people to think I am a good person because I got A's.  In a society, in a bureaucracy, we don't have the time to sit down and have nice chats with everyone.  We need systems and stratifications, we need ways to measure performance.  You may not like the rules of a racing video game and prefer to drive all wonky all over the place, but unless you go the prescribed route, you're not going to score anything.  The meaning of which, is completely up to you.  If you don't play the school-game well, then it's awfully stupid to attach your self-worth to a grade.

My English class was about ten minutes.  We are doing individual consultations with the teacher to see how we're doing and where we're going.  I was first and the meeting basically consisted of, "Jeremy, it's pretty obvious that you're a writer and that's what you should be doing.  Do you have any questions?"  That was pretty awesome.

I have to go watch Hitchcock's Spellbound at 3 for my film class.  I just took a test in there on Tuesday, which I think I aced.  I keep reminding myself that my classes will get a lot harder.  In sociology, one of the topics we talked about was why we go to school.  I said that I got tired of thinking of something and finding out someone already thought of that fifty years ago.  So I'm here to learn everything.  And write about it.

Comments

[dearymetalsinks.livejournal.com]

we are mentally similar in many of these ways. ciao!

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

GRatzi!

[realization-no1.livejournal.com]

I don't know why, but the racing game part made me laugh. I love driving car games all wrong, probably because I suck so hard at them in the first place that it's more fun to go crazy. In Grand Theft Auto, I would spend all my time blowing things up and looking for jumps to go over; I would never complete the missions.

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

Well, it's a good thing you don't hang your self-worth on your score or else people would think you're a bad person ;)

Ignore previous cut and paste

[lagizma.livejournal.com]

Grades should be consdered in context with lots of other information. Standardized tests should be used to gather aggregate data about classrooms and schools and states, and for any individual student, should be considered in context with lots of other information.

Police profiling can even work, too, but once again, it has to be done with lots of contextual information. One factor does not a criminal make.

How do we make people use the data at their hands properly?!?

Re: Ignore previous cut and paste

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

The same way we get anyone to use tools at their disposal properly - teach them right. It goes back to that whole Guns Don't Kill People; People Kill People. Almost anything is a weapon in the hands of "evil" including information. The only way to combat this is to combat the underlying issue which is how humans abuse other humans for power, for fear, for whatever multitudes of reasons.