Grading on a Scale

Mike S. Adams has a new way of scoring his tests based on what he believes our new president believes. And he details this new method in his latest article. It's nice that Adams has moved from complaining about how hard it is to be a conservative in academia, but this isn't that much better.

The new policy I am announcing today is that those who score above 90 on the first exam will have points deducted and given to students at the bottom of the grade distribution. For example, if a student gets a 99, I will then deduct nine points and give them to the person with the lowest grade. If a person scores 95 I will then deduct five points and give them to the person with the second lowest grade. If someone scores 93 I will then deduct three points and give them to the next lowest person. And so on.

Of course this is inane. First of all, while Obama is in favor of strengthening the welfare net, he is not a socialist. He merely thinks the American dream should be accesible to all and not just to the children of privilege.

If Adams wanted his class room to reflect his societal/economic views he should do this.

1. At the opening of the semester arbitrarily assign seats, those are the seats which the students will hold for the semester.

2. Mike S. Adams will direct his teaching towards the students in the first 2 rows, and will speak in a quiet voice. Should students in the rows in the back receive any teaching, well, that shows the system works.

3. The students in the first two rows will develop a jargon which will not be shared with the rest of the class; tests and quizzes will liberally use this jargon. If students from the other rows have a hard time figuring out this code, well, they should try harder.

4. Cheating is not permitted; this rule will be strictly enforced to any student not sitting in the first two rolls.

But of course Adams' presumably doesn't favor these sorts of exclusionary policies in his classroom; he prefers them in our nation's economic system.