Be a Pure Learner… but only if you’re rich
July 26th, 2007 by Kavan WolfeIn my last post, I established that grades are subjectively, if not arbitrarily, assigned. This inevitably draws the ‘pure learner’ argument.
Cynthia writes: “Why don’t you try being a pure learner, whose objective is knowledge, not grades??”
This is another way of asking, what does it matter if grades are subjective? Why do grades even matter in the grand scheme of things? By itself, arbitrary grading is inconsequential, but combined with admissions, scholarship granting and hiring practices, arbitrary grading promotes bias, prejudice, macroeconomic ineptitude and a culture of ignorance.
1. Admissions criteria
Admissions to college, grad school and other post secondary institutions are based primarily on grades. If you don’t believe me, try applying to MIT for a Ph. D. in Computer Science with a C average and see how far you get. Leadership skills and volunteer work won’t mean dick.
2. Scholarships
Ever wonder how that ditz got a full scholarship and you’re working two jobs to keep your student loans under control? Scholarships are mostly distributed primarily on the basis of marks.
3. Hiring practices
When you’ve got 20 years experience or a Ph. D., your transcript might not matter to employers, but for your first job out of college, plenty of them will have a look. It may not be the only criteria, but it counts. More importantly, plenty of jobs require a minimum education level, which you won’t have if you’re arbitrarily flunked out be teachers who don’t like you or don’t know how to evaluate you.
To summarize, unless you are so wealthy that you can bribe your way into the school you want, don’t care about scholarships, and don’t need a job after, you have to worry about marks!
Therefore, the ‘pure learner’ argument is bullshit.
July 27th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
I agree, I don’t think that knowledge provides enough of an incentive for the majority of people work towards as an ‘end all’. Pursuit of knowledge is definitely a shared trait amongst both my peers and myself, but it’s alongside a pragmatic future outlook, which in most cases has a correlation with grades.
Mike
July 28th, 2007 at 11:13 am
I don’t know where you went to grad school, but I know that my school didn’t use grades as a selection critierion. They knew full well that grades aren’t a reliable measure of performance.
Outside of academia, I have never been asked to supply a college transcript, and when hiring others I have never asked for one. If I did, it would be to look at courses taken, not at grades received.
July 28th, 2007 at 11:38 am
TC said “I don’t know where you went to grad school, but I know that my school didn’t use grades as a selection critierion.”
Well, to give three examples, Qxford, Harvard and MIT look at grades. See:
http://web.mit.edu/career/www/preprof/medadmissions.html
http://www.oxfordbusiness.co.uk/book/admission_criteria.php
http://www.law-school-admission.com/Harvard/#admissions
I don’t think I need to give examples of jobs that require degrees, and you can’t get the degree if you don’t get admitted, or get passing grades. There are also plenty of companies that want to know your GRA, e.g., Google (see https://www.google.com/jobs/application/application)
July 29th, 2007 at 8:51 am
1) You need to distinguish between grad schools and professional schools. All professional schools use the GPA to select students, and the GPA in general figures significantly in their decision. The necessity of the GPA in deliberating over applications is due to there being such a large pool of applicants and very few spots.
2) With that said, the quantitative Ph.D programs rely on GPA because, believe it or not, one’s perfomance in such disciplines is accurately measured by his or her grades.
3) Other Ph.D programs, such as philosophy or linguistics, use GPA and GRE merely as a cut-off. At the later stages of deliberation, decisions are based purely on the quality of one’s writing sample, statement of purpose, and recommendations.
4) Proponents of the grading system never claimed to be objective. I think they realize that any standard will be arbitrary (or ad-hoc, or whatever). The goal is to make it as least arbitrary as possible. Leaving things subjective might seem intuitively correct for you, but when you have an applicant pool of over 20,000 students and spots for only 1,700 of them, one must take the least subjective route possible. Note, however, that even with good grades, one does not have a spot at, say, Harvard. The supposedly quantitative measures of which you complain are merely used to get your foot in the door, and the subjective aspects take over in the final round.
If you don’t believe me, I don’t care. I am, however, on an admissions committee at a very prestigious national university, and I can reasonably say that your so-called “arguments” are garbage. It’s no wonder that those with poor grades or those who cannot function within the system will inevitably complain.
July 29th, 2007 at 8:52 am
It’s also worth noting that I’ve taken the “pure learner approach,” and I’ve maintained an A average. I also had a rather large financial aid package, so that presumably precludes my being rich.
July 29th, 2007 at 9:29 am
“If you don’t believe me, I don’t care. I am, however, on an admissions committee at a very prestigious national university, and I can reasonably say that your so-called “arguments” are garbage. It’s no wonder that those with poor grades or those who cannot function within the system will inevitably complain.”
Wow.
Is it any wonder how those who are heavily invested in such a system will inevitably complain when said system is soundly criticized?
Anyway, great article, lots of good points. The absurdity of the system as a whole is part of what made me quit teaching after two years. Western culture is “educating” itself to death.
July 29th, 2007 at 9:49 am
Great post, that’s pretty much what I say all the time.
You just have to consider the purpose of the systems you mentioned, like schools.
Most schools in Western society are there to produce robots, and they do it pretty damn well.
July 29th, 2007 at 11:24 am
I would give this essay a grade of Q.
July 29th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
I agree, but what alternative methods would you offer? It’s interesting that you mentioned leadership skill and volunteer work. How would you measure these? Many people stock up on volunteer hours not because they believe in what they’re doing, but because they know it will make them “look” good for admissions, scholarships, etc. How would you measure how much their work is worth? Also, not everyone can and will be a leader in this world, so I think there’s bias towards this “quality”. Anyways, if we lived in a perfect world, we would have the perfect system of measurement. Since we don’t, we’d have to make the best of what we can do. That being said, I still agree with the arguments and believe that the current system could use improvements in many areas.
July 29th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
“Is it any wonder how those who are heavily invested in such a system will inevitably complain when said system is soundly criticized?”
That I have succeeded at this system does not mean I have “heavily invested in” it. That you or the poster cannot succeed in this system is not a sign of the system’s flaws, but rather of your intellectual inferiority. Not everyone can be the most intelligent, and a system in which only a few can succeed naturally reflects this matter of fact.
July 29th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
You cannot assume that anyone who criticizes the system was unsuccessful. Also, grades don’t reflect intelligence, they reflect work ethic. However, because of the flaws in the system, people who haven’t worked hard enough to actually learn something can still get away with it.
July 29th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
I agree with everything you say, of course but here’s the deal. You are describing the last 10,000 years of grading. It will never change. It will always be the way you describe. It can’t be any other way. It’s just the way humans are constituted.
All I can say is play the game to the best of your abilities. I didn’t do too well myself but then that’s my problem.
Not that I have any rsspect for the intelligence of but one or two of my professors. I give the rest an F but since my F is meaningless I presume they don’t care.
July 29th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
“You cannot assume that anyone who criticizes the system was unsuccessful. ”
I never assumed that. It was simple induction, for I have yet to meet someone successful who disagrees with the system on such poor grounds. Even successful people who criticize the system have much better arguments. These are just trivial squabbles from a sophist who is clearly an outsider, squabbles that will appear correct to the majority of the population because.. guess what… the majority of the population earns poor grades; grades are distributed on a bell curve, so go figure.
July 29th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
this “article” is more bullshit than anything it tries to tackle. i dont usually have problems with these subjective grading processes because i usually get above 90% on any of the tests i take. maybe this is because i focus on my studies (god no!) instead of bitching about a long standing institution’s methodology.
less bitching, more reading.
July 29th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
Interesting, I like the perspective, t
July 29th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
“this “article” is more bullshit than anything it tries to tackle. i dont usually have problems with these subjective grading processes because i usually get above 90% on any of the tests i take. maybe this is because i focus on my studies (god no!) instead of bitching about a long standing institution’s methodology.
less bitching, more reading.”
Exactly.
This pompous fraud, cribbing lines from Frankfurt and employing them in an ostensibly modest pursuit of truth, is merely a wiseacre.
July 30th, 2007 at 5:33 am
“try applying to MIT for a Ph. D. in Computer Science with a C average and see how far you get”
For that matter, try applying to MIT for a Ph. D. in Computer Science with a 4.0 and see how far that gets you
July 30th, 2007 at 9:19 am
Can’t one do both? Is there something wrong with working within a system while also trying to improve it?
July 30th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Are you kidding? brains, money, or natural talent; you must have one or more of the above to play “game.” Period.
As the hindu priest once promised the untouchable:
Be content in your wretched state and you may return as a cow (holy).
July 31st, 2007 at 8:06 am
I know in the art world it’s possible to skip school altogether and become a great artist. For the science and technology type person this appears to be a lot harder. Though, when someone has absolutely insane talent at anything there are loopholes.
July 31st, 2007 at 10:49 am
“Can’t one do both? Is there something wrong with working within a system while also trying to improve it?”
Yes, that is what I am trying to say. Those who are successful should not be blind to the flaws and shortcomings of a system that affects them, their children, and the people as a whole.
July 31st, 2007 at 11:24 am
“this “article” is more bullshit than anything it tries to tackle. i dont usually have problems with these subjective grading processes because i usually get above 90% on any of the tests i take. maybe this is because i focus on my studies (god no!) instead of bitching about a long standing institution’s methodology.”
“less bitching, more reading.”
You have to start somewhere. I mean if people are “bitching” then maybe things need to be looked at. Just because you get 90% means that people should ignore a complaint from others. Also, have you taken into account that this bias in grading affects more than people who don’t study. My sister who is a straight “A” student (get a 90%) don’t make her laugh, had a teacher that told her straight up at the beginning of the school year, that she would fail her class no matter what! And no matter that my sister dominated on her assignments, tests etc. the teacher gave her an “F”. There was an investigation and the teacher was reprimanded but what about people who don’t have someone to go to bat for them.
August 5th, 2007 at 5:32 am
““try applying to MIT for a Ph. D. in Computer Science with a C average and see how far you get”
For that matter, try applying to MIT for a Ph. D. in Computer Science with a 4.0 and see how far that gets you”
well i bet you’re too stupid to get a C average and apply in MIT for a Ph.D.
August 5th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
I love this entry. I’m just going to be persnickety and mention that “criteria” is the plural form of “criterion.”
April 10th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Forgive ME, but more about the subject, please!! You are going away from the topic too frequently, therefore it is uneasy to read your posts.