Bad Idea

I'm not sure I could come up with a worse idea than the legislator featured in this post. He (an idiot republican) wants to pass a bill that would allow students in college (at least, and probably other levels as well) to opt out of offensive assignments...you know, like reading Aristotle justify slavery, or read about excessive dope smoking by the beatniks or something. I mean, I could get easily offended if I could also get out of work.

But that's not good. Half of college is reading offensive materials and explaining why they are 1) offensive, 2) wrong, and 3) then feeling very smart. If I could opt out, well, I might as well start working at McDonalds as a sweeper now.

In other rediculus college stories...I have a friend who got cited for a noise complaint. He was watching sportscenter (sober) at 1:00....evidentaly someone near him couldn't sleep, so they called mommy to complain. Mommy called the dean to complain, and the dean called the HR(like an RA). All those people got woken up, while the original complainer went to sleep, and my friends also went to sleep. At three, the phones got around to the HR, and they wrote up a citation. My friends were long since asleep.

Yay helicopter parents.

Another buzzing parent who needs to chill out....one of my professors was giving the oft repeated and oft ignored "I won't participate in grade inflation. Take the paper seriously, or get a bad grade" One student...(obviously a freshman, but I don't know who it was) complained to their mother that they were going to get failed even before the prof read the paper...he was just that tough...and the mother called the deans...and the deans called the professor to make sure he wasn't threatening and harrasing his students. (He was a notoriously easy grader, and he wanted to change the attitude of his class...good for him.)

Grade inflation sucks more than I benefit from it. My feeling is that far too many 'Bs' are awarded, to say nothing of 'As'... a paper that recieves an 'A' should be perfect...and no paper (much less the ones written by freshmen) is going to be perfect. A 'B' in this situation is a good grade, and a 'C' is a decent one...a failing grade is probably what I deserve on most of my first drafts, but that's why I look them over before I turn them in.

If I keep getting 'As' I'm going to stop working...if I'm already doing everything perfectly, why should I make more of an effort? I don't get many 'As' 'cause I'm fortunate enough to be in a Major and a Minor where grade inflation is laughed at...but when I do get them, they mean something...and a 'B' is sometimes a relief.

Wow, that a was a long rant....and I bet you couldn't see the end from the begining...yay for blogging!

(That, incidentaly, is where the blog title comes from, in case anyone was wondering. I rant about some stuff...I rave about stuff I like. (beards and Firefly, mostly.))