Poltics , Religion and Sex

[Albrecht]

Ethics classes have the most interesting exams.

I remember my own final exam from when I took an ethics class. This was the last question on the exam:

"For each ethical system we have studied this semester answer, and justify your answer to the following question: Assuming vampires are real, and must consume human blood to survive, should people be required to give blood to them?"

The craziest part, was that I had completely forgotten how one of the systems (the Ethics of Love, or something like that) worked, and for it I simply wrote: "Vampires? Gotta love 'em. And you never starve the ones you love."

I don't remember how well I did over all on the exam, but I did pass, and I will never forget that I got full credit for that particular answer.   

There was an "open letter" printed in a German goth magazine years back. It was really fun to read and concerned various problems vampires face in the modern world. Everythng from lack of virgins to potential victims carrying mace and the dangers of jet-lag. It concluded something like that: "In case you meet a vampire, for Heaven's sake be nice, he's got it bad these days."

[Mlle A. Aurantia]

I got full credit in my French History class when I was asked to tell who did something and I couldn't remember his name but described him as "that guy who designed the first gothic cathedral. . . what's-his-name???

But then my prof was more interested in our understanding of the culture of the period than our memorizations of dates.

I got kicked out of the philosophy department in my first year after I used geometrical singularites to prove that square triangles could, indeed, exist, as well as square circles. My mother had to Email an apology to the prof, and explain that she had been putting up with my arguments for 22 years. I coudl out-logic her at age 2, though.

I also had the bad luck of studying Descartes in all 4 of my classes (French, Philosophy of Religion, Enlightenment Thought, and Algebra.) at the same time while hopped up on cold medication. I've never quite recovered from that. . . 

[Magister]

There was an "open letter" printed in a German goth magazine years back. It was really fun to read and concerned various problems vampires face in the modern world. Everythng from lack of virgins to potential victims carrying mace and the dangers of jet-lag. It concluded something like that: "In case you meet a vampire, for Heaven's sake be nice, he's got it bad these days."

Truly if one thinks about it the vampires do have it bad these days. But they really need to stop complaining about being restricted to nocturnal life, in this age of 24 hour Walmart stores, and night shift jobs.  

[spcglider]

Ethics classes have the most interesting exams.

I remember my own final exam from when I took an ethics class. This was the last question on the exam:

"For each ethical system we have studied this semester answer, and justify your answer to the following question: Assuming vampires are real, and must consume human blood to survive, should people be required to give blood to them?"

The craziest part, was that I had completely forgotten how one of the systems (the Ethics of Love, or something like that) worked, and for it I simply wrote: "Vampires? Gotta love 'em. And you never starve the ones you love."

I don't remember how well I did over all on the exam, but I did pass, and I will never forget that I got full credit for that particular answer.  

My answer would have been, simply, "Who's vampires? As soon as you answer that, I can answer the question."

Are we talking Anne Rice vampires? Bela Lugosi vampires? Underworld vampires? Blade vampires? Buffy vampires? Dark Shadows vampires? Lost Boys vampires? Fright Night vampires? I mean the list goes on and on and on and every single scenario bears different elements of consequence.  Are we talking mystical vampirism? Chemically caused vampirism? Biologically based vampirism?

And if leeches could talk, would we be obligated to supply them with human blood to live on?

Poor question, methinks.

-Gordon

[Magister]

My answer would have been, simply, "Who's vampires? As soon as you answer that, I can answer the question."

Are we talking Anne Rice vampires? Bela Lugosi vampires? Underworld vampires? Blade vampires? Buffy vampires? Dark Shadows vampires? Lost Boys vampires? Fright Night vampires? I mean the list goes on and on and on and every single scenario bears different elements of consequence.  Are we talking mystical vampirism? Chemically caused vampirism? Biologically based vampirism?

And if leeches could talk, would we be obligated to supply them with human blood to live on?

Poor question, methinks.

-Gordon

I don't think the professor was familiar with the vagaries of vampirism. I still commend her for thinking outside the box, and crafting a truly original, entertaining, and thought provoking test question.

[Horse Brass]

I'm glad all my exams were long ago...

First year physics, dynamics, the end of topic exam was 50 multiple choice questions. One of my friends had already decided to drop the class, having failed a previous exam, so he walked in proudly holding his role-playing dice, rolled for every question, and walked out after half an hour. I worked until the end of the exam.

I got 64%.

His dice got 72%.

[The_Steam_Master]

I'm glad all my exams were long ago...

First year physics, dynamics, the end of topic exam was 50 multiple choice questions. One of my friends had already decided to drop the class, having failed a previous exam, so he walked in proudly holding his role-playing dice, rolled for every question, and walked out after half an hour. I worked until the end of the exam.

I got 64%.

His dice got 72%.

your friends dice +1

[Katrina Broekhart]

Name- Kat Molotov
Date- None currently.

1. Explain why you think you deserve an A in this class.

I think I deserve a B.



I got an A.

[Kaljaia]

Got a real one for ya- my professor swears this one is true, as it happened to a fellow professor he knows well:

The professor was teaching on Daoism, and at the end of the quarter gave an essay exam on the concept. One student who had caught his eye as a consistent A in the class turned in his paper blank, no essay, nothing at all.

The professor called him in after class and asked what the problem was, as the kid had one very well up until then. The student replied "You of all people should have known...."

Then the professor understood. Foundation proverb of Daoism: "Those who speak do not know, and those who know do not speak."

The student got an A on the test but was admonished to never pull that stunt again.

[rovingjack]

this reminds me of a few other educational quirks in life.

There was the elementary school math professor who caught me day dreaming and asked me rather loudly to compliment the angle on the board. I got up and with a completely serious expression I said "Wow, you are acute angle." Then returned to my seat. Even the teacher laughed at that because not only was it a fun pun, but it was true too.

Then there was a social studies teacher who included some intresting extra credit questions on the final. Like who is burried in grants tomb? What was the name of the lone rangers horse? and such questions. You'd be amazed by how many people get them wrong. The most common answer to the second question was Tonto... are you flipping kidding me?

And I'm annoyed by the question what grade do you think you deserve on this test. I was nervous and underconfident on how I did on my economics class final and wrote B. I was a teen with low self asteem to. So when the papers came back I was the only student in the whole class that didn't get an A despite having gotten something like 95% of the answers right and there where other who asked for an A and got it despite being way off on most of the answers.

[Sean Patrick O-Byrne]

That should be a rhetorical question, and have nothing to do with the actual marks.

[living_soul12066]

That should be a rhetorical question, and have nothing to do with the actual marks.

I second this notion! Sadly, I have no stories to tell, though you people have made me laugh 

[Sean Patrick O-Byrne]

That should be a rhetorical question, and have nothing to do with the actual marks.

I second this notion! Sadly, I have no stories to tell, though you people have made me laugh 

You and me both.

[Katrina Broekhart]

That should be a rhetorical question, and have nothing to do with the actual marks.

I second this notion! Sadly, I have no stories to tell, though you people have made me laugh 

You and me both.

In this case, it was either an A or you failed the class.

[Captain Lyerly]

Mlle. Aurantia:

As long as you could defend DesCartes before you were hoarse, no problem.


Cheers!

Chas.

[quantumcat]

Oh,I loved that!!!

I remember being very nervous right before my Philosophy final my freshman year in college.

I panicked when the professor spotted me getting a snack in the student union building instead of cramming.

As I was heading back to the dorm,he asked "Why are you running off? You know everything on the test already."

He urged all his students there to relax,hang out,eat some real food and get a good night's rest.

(Which we could,thanks to him.)

The next day,instead of freezing up over the exam,I recalled the discussions,debates and jokes we'd had.

(I got an "A".  )

Later,I took a graduate level Philosophy course in one of those sterile,amphitheatre-type courses.

I'd not have known one answer on any of the tests given if I hadn't had that freshman course.

I came to find out that those in the know checked out the video-taped version of the graduate course and had someone punch in their student i.d. numbers on class days.

They or their surrogates would fill out the tests based on the material on the tapes.

For me,going to weekly sessions of that soulless,metastasized seminar was a waste of time and tuition.

I blew that course at Vandy but aced the conventionally-styled courses at Peabody and the independent studies even though they were supposed to be higher level courses.

I guess it's all about what you put into it and what matches your learning style.

[Mlle A. Aurantia]

Descartes in a nutshell: If you run a fever into delerium and stare at the bugs on the ceiling, YOU TOO could be a mathematical and philosophical genius!!!!!

[Sean Patrick O-Byrne]

If I'd known that, I would have done much better in highschool math... 

[DrTom]

That should be a rhetorical question, and have nothing to do with the actual marks.

I second this notion! Sadly, I have no stories to tell, though you people have made me laugh 

You and me both.

Something I do when I teach social psychology to open up a discussion on prosocial behavior:

I offer students the opportunity to earn either 2 or 5 extra credit points on their final grade, which can be quite impactful.

All you have to do is write down how many points you want, don't speak to anyone during the voting process.  Those who ask for 3, get 3 points.  Those who ask for 5, get 5 points.

Here's the catch:  "If 15% or more of you ask for 5 points, all bets are off and no points are awarded."

In my 9 years of doing this, I've had to give extra credit points twice...both times due to my error in giving the instructions poorly.

After all votes are tallied and the bad (or, in those rare occasions, good) news is given, we discuss prosocial behavior, competition versus cooperation, "the prisoner's dilemma," and all that good stuff.

Boy...I've kinda gone off topic with this....

[rogue_designer]

This is a bit long, so I will spoiler.

An interesting anecdote on the nature of free thought in education.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Free vs. Pedantic Thinking

The following piece by Alexander Calandra appeared
first in The Saturday Review (December 21, 1968, p 60)

Some time ago I received a call from a colleague who asked if I would be the referee on the grading of an examination question. He was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physics question, while the student claimed he should receive a perfect score and would if the system were not set up against the student. The instructor and the student agreed to an impartial arbiter, and I was selected.

I went to my colleague's office and read the examination question: 'Show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer.'

The student had answered: 'Take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower the barometer to the street, and then bring it up, measuring the length of rope. The length of the rope is the height of the building.'

I pointed out that the student really had a strong case for full credit, since he had answered the question completely and correctly. On the other hand, if full credit were given, it could well contribute to a high grade for the student in his physics course. A high grade is supposed to certify competence in physics, but the answer did not confirm this. I suggested that the student have another try at answering the question. I was not surprised that my colleague agreed, but I was surprised that the student did.

I gave the student six minutes to answer the question, with the warning that his answer should show some knowledge of physics. At the end of five minutes, he had not written anything. I asked if he wished to give up, but he said no. He had many answers to the problem; he was just thinking of the best one. I excused myself for interrupting him, and asked him to please go on. In the next minute he dashed off his answer which read:

'Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the roof. Drop the barometer, timing its fall with a stopwatch. Then, using the formula S = at2/2, calculate the height of the building.'

At this point, I asked my colleague if he would give up. He conceded, and I gave the student almost full credit.

On leaving my colleague's office, I recalled that the student had said he had other answers to the problem so I asked him what they were. 'Oh, yes' said the student. 'There are many ways of getting the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer. For example, you could take the barometer out on a sunny day and measure the height of the barometer, the length of its shadow, and the length of the shadow of the building, and by the use of simple proportion, determine the height of the building.'

'Fine' I said. 'And the others?'

'Yes' said the student. 'There is a very basic measurement method that you will like. In this method, you take the barometer and begin to walk up the stairs. As you climb the stairs, you mark off the length of the barometer along the wall. You then count the number of marks, and this will give the height of the building in barometer units. A very direct method.

'Of course, if you want a more sophisticated method, you can tie the barometer to the end of a string, swing it as a pendulum, and determine the value of 'g' at the street level and at the top of the building. From the difference between the two values of 'g', the height of the building can, in principle, be calculated.

'Finally,' he concluded 'there are many other ways of solving the problem. Probably the best' he said 'is to take the barometer to the basement and knock on the superintendent's door. When the superintendent answers, you speak to him as follows: "Mr Superintendent, here I have a fine barometer. If you will tell me the height of this building, I will give you this barometer."'

At this point, I asked the student if he really didn't know the answer to the problem. He admitted that he did, but that he was so fed up with college instructors trying to teach him how to think and to use critical thinking, instead of showing him the structure of the subject matter, that he decided to take off on what he regarded mostly as a sham.

I enjoyed. And hope others will as well.

[Sean Patrick O-Byrne]

That's an excellent story!

[Magister]

I think it's rather sad that many people view educational institutions in such a disturbingly mechanical sense. Rather than asking "is the student knowledgeable and does he/she possess sufficient problem solving skills?" they too often seem to ask "has student # xyz demonstrated retention of data sets a, b, and c?"

I remember a bitter debate my Registrar's office once, when I was denied credit for a course because they claimed I had taken it twice. As it turns out, the class about classic literature of east Asia now had the same course number as a class about literature concerning childhood and growth that I had taken two years previously, and taught by a different professor. In the end I did win my claim that the content was sufficiently different that it should count as a separate class, but it was rather galling.

Too often, the education of people seems to be regarded as a factory process churning out interchangeable cogs meeting the parameters of the machine of the world.

[Zwack]

Something I do when I teach social psychology to open up a discussion on prosocial behavior:

I offer students the opportunity to earn either 2 or 5 extra credit points on their final grade, which can be quite impactful.

All you have to do is write down how many points you want, don't speak to anyone during the voting process.  Those who ask for 3, get 3 points.  Those who ask for 5, get 5 points.

Here's the catch:  "If 15% or more of you ask for 5 points, all bets are off and no points are awarded."

In my 9 years of doing this, I've had to give extra credit points twice...both times due to my error in giving the instructions poorly.

After all votes are tallied and the bad (or, in those rare occasions, good) news is given, we discuss prosocial behavior, competition versus cooperation, "the prisoner's dilemma," and all that good stuff.

Boy...I've kinda gone off topic with this....

Before the voting process someone should shout out "everyone choose 4 points"    or if they know you're going to say that in advance then they can collude to choose 4 points.  Maximum number of points all round.

Z.

[rovingjack]

This is a bit long, so I will spoiler.

An interesting anecdote on the nature of free thought in education.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Free vs. Pedantic Thinking

The following piece by Alexander Calandra appeared
first in The Saturday Review (December 21, 1968, p 60)

Some time ago I received a call from a colleague who asked if I would be the referee on the grading of an examination question. He was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physics question, while the student claimed he should receive a perfect score and would if the system were not set up against the student. The instructor and the student agreed to an impartial arbiter, and I was selected.

I went to my colleague's office and read the examination question: 'Show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer.'

The student had answered: 'Take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower the barometer to the street, and then bring it up, measuring the length of rope. The length of the rope is the height of the building.'

I pointed out that the student really had a strong case for full credit, since he had answered the question completely and correctly. On the other hand, if full credit were given, it could well contribute to a high grade for the student in his physics course. A high grade is supposed to certify competence in physics, but the answer did not confirm this. I suggested that the student have another try at answering the question. I was not surprised that my colleague agreed, but I was surprised that the student did.

I gave the student six minutes to answer the question, with the warning that his answer should show some knowledge of physics. At the end of five minutes, he had not written anything. I asked if he wished to give up, but he said no. He had many answers to the problem; he was just thinking of the best one. I excused myself for interrupting him, and asked him to please go on. In the next minute he dashed off his answer which read:

'Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the roof. Drop the barometer, timing its fall with a stopwatch. Then, using the formula S = at2/2, calculate the height of the building.'

At this point, I asked my colleague if he would give up. He conceded, and I gave the student almost full credit.

On leaving my colleague's office, I recalled that the student had said he had other answers to the problem so I asked him what they were. 'Oh, yes' said the student. 'There are many ways of getting the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer. For example, you could take the barometer out on a sunny day and measure the height of the barometer, the length of its shadow, and the length of the shadow of the building, and by the use of simple proportion, determine the height of the building.'

'Fine' I said. 'And the others?'

'Yes' said the student. 'There is a very basic measurement method that you will like. In this method, you take the barometer and begin to walk up the stairs. As you climb the stairs, you mark off the length of the barometer along the wall. You then count the number of marks, and this will give the height of the building in barometer units. A very direct method.

'Of course, if you want a more sophisticated method, you can tie the barometer to the end of a string, swing it as a pendulum, and determine the value of 'g' at the street level and at the top of the building. From the difference between the two values of 'g', the height of the building can, in principle, be calculated.

'Finally,' he concluded 'there are many other ways of solving the problem. Probably the best' he said 'is to take the barometer to the basement and knock on the superintendent's door. When the superintendent answers, you speak to him as follows: "Mr Superintendent, here I have a fine barometer. If you will tell me the height of this building, I will give you this barometer."'

At this point, I asked the student if he really didn't know the answer to the problem. He admitted that he did, but that he was so fed up with college instructors trying to teach him how to think and to use critical thinking, instead of showing him the structure of the subject matter, that he decided to take off on what he regarded mostly as a sham.

I enjoyed. And hope others will as well.

Yes I rather like that person. Most of the teachers I had would consider that to be smart@$$ talk and not only not valid answers but also worth of punishment.

Feh, seriously it leads to so downright foolish people like my first housemate. The man was a mathmatics teacher and a history teacher, but completely lacked common sense, and all his learning was reciting texts on those given topics. I'm not sure he even really understood them.

Unfortunately it's a product of our worlds progress that individuals with the ability to think like all those that this topic was started to discuss are acceptable if slightly annoying to the system which is really just looking for the replacable cogs that transfer what is given them to the next part of the system.

[Luella Dobson]

I think it's rather sad that many people view educational institutions in such a disturbingly mechanical sense. Rather than asking "is the student knowledgeable and does he/she possess sufficient problem solving skills?" they too often seem to ask "has student # xyz demonstrated retention of data sets a, b, and c?"

I remember a bitter debate my Registrar's office once, when I was denied credit for a course because they claimed I had taken it twice. As it turns out, the class about classic literature of east Asia now had the same course number as a class about literature concerning childhood and growth that I had taken two years previously, and taught by a different professor. In the end I did win my claim that the content was sufficiently different that it should count as a separate class, but it was rather galling.

Too often, the education of people seems to be regarded as a factory process churning out interchangeable cogs meeting the parameters of the machine of the world.

tell me about it. I don't feel like I'm in college, it feels like a machine. and my college is run like a business too. I can't even minor in anything, it's so streamlined. which is sad, because I'd minor in fashion design to learn how to sew.