The Cheat, this is the greatest article in the whole world! Have a trophy!

Good Job!

I feel very entitled and self absorbed, I blame the 80s and old jerks who decided to praise me for being just like everyone else.

This guy (nw) should not get a trophy!

That headline sucks, subby. You can do better.

/next time!

They were OK with 14 valedictorians. But 15 is just one too many.

Oh, OK, 15. But that's the limit.

I'm going to go thank my parents for reminding me that I was a kid who sometimes did dumbass things growing up. Not being sarcastic, either. They were very supportive, but had no qualms pointing out my failures.

Maybe the Red Forman style parenting is the way to go.

It's great when students ask to be graded on effort.

Them: "But I came to every class and handed everything in!"
Me: "Your test average is 60/100."
Them: "That's a 'B/B+,' right?
Me: "No, that's average and that's a C+."
Them: "Whaargarbl." (on student evals)
Me: "Thank god I have tenure."

you win again! you're the winningest winner evar! yah!

Precious snowflakes are starting to melt. How delicious.

dbubb: It's great when students ask to be graded on effort.

Them: "But I came to every class and handed everything in!"
Me: "Your test average is 60/100."
Them: "That's a 'B/B+,' right?
Me: "No, that's average and that's a C+."
Them: "Whaargarbl." (on student evals)
Me: "Thank god I have tenure."

as someone in university now, isn't it scary that 60$ is average? Would you wan't your engineer to get the answers right 60% of the time?

dbubb: It's great when students ask to be graded on effort.

Them: "But I came to every class and handed everything in!"
Me: "Your test average is 60/100."
Them: "That's a 'B/B+,' right?
Me: "No, that's average and that's a C+."
Them: "Whaargarbl." (on student evals)
Me: "Thank god I have tenure."

Where I'm from that's a D-, 1 point off of failing, where are you that it's a C+?

Business better get used to it. There's of flood of entitled babies coming.

Playinodds: dbubb: It's great when students ask to be graded on effort.

Them: "But I came to every class and handed everything in!"
Me: "Your test average is 60/100."
Them: "That's a 'B/B+,' right?
Me: "No, that's average and that's a C+."
Them: "Whaargarbl." (on student evals)
Me: "Thank god I have tenure."

as someone in university now, isn't it scary that 60$ is average? Would you wan't your engineer to get the answers right 60% of the time?

Not to worry. Your engineer most likely was born and schooled in India or China.

sunami: dbubb: It's great when students ask to be graded on effort.

Them: "But I came to every class and handed everything in!"
Me: "Your test average is 60/100."
Them: "That's a 'B/B+,' right?
Me: "No, that's average and that's a C+."
Them: "Whaargarbl." (on student evals)
Me: "Thank god I have tenure."

Where I'm from that's a D-, 1 point off of failing, where are you that it's a C+?

Seriously. I would love to adopt those policies at my school.

dbubb: It's great when students ask to be graded on effort.

Them: "But I came to every class and handed everything in!"
Me: "Your test average is 60/100."
Them: "That's a 'B/B+,' right?
Me: "No, that's average and that's a C+."
Them: "Whaargarbl." (on student evals)
Me: "Thank god I have tenure."

60 is a C+? Do you teach the mentally challenged?

It's about time. I'm 36, and went back to school last year to get my Associate's. I saw plenty of 18-20YO kids who interpreted any criticism as a personal attack.
It boils down to putting the cart before the horse. You work hard, you overcome obstacles, and you'll feel confident. Giving people over-effusive praise with the intent of stimulating performance is self-defeating - if I've already been praised, what incentive do I have for putting forth any further effort.

/busted my butt to graduate with a 4.0
//worked my way into a fantastic job
///over-empowered hippies can suck it

Speaking of entitlement, why do these online rags feel entitled to make me click to a new page after every damn paragraph?

godofusa.com:

Not to worry. Your engineer most likely was born and schooled in India or China.


Programmers, too.
You want an average programmr (buggy) or one that doesn't cost you a huge call center of techs trouble shooting infront of the code?

Playinodds: as someone in university now, isn't it scary that 60$ is average? Would you wan't your engineer to get the answers right 60% of the time?

I believe NASA let a batch of these in just before those botched Mars landings

I've found that if all you ever hear is praise after praise after praise it starts to sound very hollow after a short period of time. The kids know it too. Any kid that gets a "participation" ribbon knows what it means. Once you get about thirty visual reminders that you didn't win I'm sure it damages what little self esteem you had.

Playinodds: dbubb: It's great when students ask to be graded on effort.

Them: "But I came to every class and handed everything in!"
Me: "Your test average is 60/100."
Them: "That's a 'B/B+,' right?
Me: "No, that's average and that's a C+."
Them: "Whaargarbl." (on student evals)
Me: "Thank god I have tenure."

as someone in university now, isn't it scary that 60$ is average? Would you wan't your engineer to get the answers right 60% of the time?

Here's my grading dist:

"A" - 1.15 standard deviations (STD) above the average.
"B+" - 0.68 STD above the average.
"B" - 0.34 STD above the average.
"C+" - average
"C" - 0.68 STD below the average.
"D" - 1.15 STD below the average.
"F"- anything less than 1.15 STD below the average.

What difference does it make what number is average? I test on whether or not people understand the material. I try to give them an honest look at what they know and whether or not they are "getting it."

The Invisible Sky Wizard: Speaking of entitlement, why do these online rags feel entitled to make me click to a new page after every damn paragraph?

Becasue they have an advertizers get placement mentality, which is why they are dying.
Rags, good riddance.

Always have liked real tournaments in sports, where there are real winners and losers, same for academics and other endeavors.

KIds need to learn that you may give it good effort, practice hard, learn all you can learn, but there may be someone else smarter, faster, or able to think quicker who ends up the winner.

It is possible to do everything right, and still not prevail.

Playinodds: dbubb: It's great when students ask to be graded on effort.

Them: "But I came to every class and handed everything in!"
Me: "Your test average is 60/100."
Them: "That's a 'B/B+,' right?
Me: "No, that's average and that's a C+."
Them: "Whaargarbl." (on student evals)
Me: "Thank god I have tenure."

as someone in university now, isn't it scary that 60$ is average? Would you wan't your engineer to get the answers right 60% of the time?

That's below failing as far as I know, unless they have gone hardcore with average.

TFA: He asked questions but didn't back-pat; he prodded but didn't praise. Nor did he carry the ball, merely offering assists. That's because when Theissen, 36, began teaching in 2000, the backlash against overpraising children was in full swing.

Yes, because a backlash is always a good idea and never results in overreaction. Sigh.

This went overboard in the last two decades (more so in the earl '90s than the '80s, I think). Everybody-gets-a-trophy day sucks. So does having multiple valedictorians and all that other crap. But there's nothing wrong with positive reinforcement. Especially when kids are learning new skills, they do something right, you say "Good job", and you move on to the next kids. There's nothing wrong with that. When you start having "graduation" from pre-schools with gowns and mortarboards and stuff, that's when things start to go down hill. Ditto for when parents start doing stuff for their kids.

I love the word whaargarbl. it just.... makes me happy somehow....

Playinodds: Would you wan't your engineer to get the answers right 60% of the time?

"If government and industry were 75 percent competent, we'd be ecstatic!"

/A C&H quote for every occasion
//wan't?

ACE: Skipper, I've decided I'm not going to stay.

LISTER: Why?

ACE: Him and me. It would never work. I just can't stand to be near the man. To see myself so warped, so bitter, so weasely. The man's a maggot.

LISTER: So where're you going to go?

ACE: Just out there. I can't go back, But there's a billion other realities to explore. A billion other Arnold Rimmers to meet. Maybe somewhere there's one who's more of a pain in the butt than him. But I doubt it.

LISTER: Well, good luck, man. And, look, don't be too hard on Rimmer. You got the break, he didn't. He's just bitter.

ACE: D'you know what that break was? At the age of seven, one of us was kept back a year, the other wasn't.

LISTER: And that's the only difference? Rimmer went down a year, and you stayed up?

ACE: No, I was the one who went down a year. By his terms, he got the break. But being kept down a year made me. The humiliation... being the tallest boy in the class by a clear foot. It changed me, made me buckle down, made me fight back. And I've been fighting back ever since.

LISTER: While he spent the rest of his life making excuses.

ACE: Maybe he's right. Maybe I did get the lucky break... I'll grab my things and be off, Dave. Smoke me a kipper, Skipper, I'll be back for breakfast.

Well, shiat, good thing I went to public school.

Schadenfreude ist die schoenste Freude: dbubb: It's great when students ask to be graded on effort.

Them: "But I came to every class and handed everything in!"
Me: "Your test average is 60/100."
Them: "That's a 'B/B+,' right?
Me: "No, that's average and that's a C+."
Them: "Whaargarbl." (on student evals)
Me: "Thank god I have tenure."

60 is a C+? Do you teach the mentally challenged?

No, I teach Physics. Are you mentally challenged?

Schadenfreude ist die schoenste Freude: dbubb: It's great when students ask to be graded on effort.

Them: "But I came to every class and handed everything in!"
Me: "Your test average is 60/100."
Them: "That's a 'B/B+,' right?
Me: "No, that's average and that's a C+."
Them: "Whaargarbl." (on student evals)
Me: "Thank god I have tenure."

60 is a C+? Do you teach the mentally challenged?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_curve_grading

On the other hand, going the other way and offering up too much criticism (especially if it's not terribly constructive) can also do serious damage. The key is balance - as the article says at one point, encouragement over praise is often the best choice.

This article strikes into the very heart of the Fark demographic.

Playinodds: dbubb: It's great when students ask to be graded on effort.

Them: "But I came to every class and handed everything in!"
Me: "Your test average is 60/100."
Them: "That's a 'B/B+,' right?
Me: "No, that's average and that's a C+."
Them: "Whaargarbl." (on student evals)
Me: "Thank god I have tenure."

as someone in university now, isn't it scary that 60$ is average? Would you wan't your engineer to get the answers right 60% of the time?

You're assuming we actually have time to learn something thoroughly instead of cramming it into our brains for the sole purpose of vomiting it out on final exams...

/fed up with school
//finals start tomorrow and i'm on fark... sigh...

dbubb: Them: "But I came to every class and handed everything in!"
Me: "Your test average is 60/100."
Them: "That's a 'B/B+,' right?
Me: "No, that's average and that's a C+."
Them: "Whaargarbl." (on student evals)
Me: "Thank god I have tenure."

Hahaha, my wife had a college student ask if being in jail was an excused absence.

JohnCarter: Always have liked real tournaments in sports, where there are real winners and losers, same for academics and other endeavors.

KIds need to learn that you may give it good effort, practice hard, learn all you can learn, but there may be someone else smarter, faster, or able to think quicker who ends up the winner.

It is possible to do everything right, and still not prevail.

This. I was considered "gifted" in school. One day my dad told me "It doesn't matter how gifted you are, you have to produce." He was right. Just being "smart" isn't the shortcut to success. You have to do something with it. If you fail at that, you fail just as hard as an atheletic star that blows it.

dbubb: Schadenfreude ist die schoenste Freude: dbubb: It's great when students ask to be graded on effort.

Them: "But I came to every class and handed everything in!"
Me: "Your test average is 60/100."
Them: "That's a 'B/B+,' right?
Me: "No, that's average and that's a C+."
Them: "Whaargarbl." (on student evals)
Me: "Thank god I have tenure."

60 is a C+? Do you teach the mentally challenged?

No, I teach Physics. Are you mentally challenged?

Why is "average" a C+ and not a C?

tzzhc4: dbubb: Them: "But I came to every class and handed everything in!"
Me: "Your test average is 60/100."
Them: "That's a 'B/B+,' right?
Me: "No, that's average and that's a C+."
Them: "Whaargarbl." (on student evals)
Me: "Thank god I have tenure."

Hahaha, my wife had a college student ask if being in jail was an excused absence.

A friend of mine excused a kid from class because he couldn't post bail. I wouldn't have argued with him.

FTFA:On a recent soggy morning, Mark Theissen covered a lot of ground fast in his first-grade classroom at Vadnais Heights Elementary School.

Shenanigans. Everybody knows that after twenty years of insistence by the media that any male who wants to work with children is probably a pedophile, men can't risk being first grade teachers.

Ah, ha ha.

Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?

Whoohoo! The eighties children are now getting positions of power. this should be a slippery slope..

//one of those 80s children
//

Je5tEr: dbubb: Schadenfreude ist die schoenste Freude: dbubb: It's great when students ask to be graded on effort.

Them: "But I came to every class and handed everything in!"
Me: "Your test average is 60/100."
Them: "That's a 'B/B+,' right?
Me: "No, that's average and that's a C+."
Them: "Whaargarbl." (on student evals)
Me: "Thank god I have tenure."

60 is a C+? Do you teach the mentally challenged?

No, I teach Physics. Are you mentally challenged?

Why is "average" a C+ and not a C?

and why is 60 a C?

same reason 86-93 is a B?

Fano: Je5tEr: dbubb: Schadenfreude ist die schoenste Freude: dbubb: It's great when students ask to be graded on effort.

Them: "But I came to every class and handed everything in!"
Me: "Your test average is 60/100."
Them: "That's a 'B/B+,' right?
Me: "No, that's average and that's a C+."
Them: "Whaargarbl." (on student evals)
Me: "Thank god I have tenure."

60 is a C+? Do you teach the mentally challenged?

No, I teach Physics. Are you mentally challenged?

Why is "average" a C+ and not a C?

and why is 60 a C?

same reason 86-93 is a B?

/Don't know what the range was below that, sorry, dimwits.

Fano: Je5tEr: dbubb: Schadenfreude ist die schoenste Freude: dbubb: It's great when students ask to be graded on effort.

Them: "But I came to every class and handed everything in!"
Me: "Your test average is 60/100."
Them: "That's a 'B/B+,' right?
Me: "No, that's average and that's a C+."
Them: "Whaargarbl." (on student evals)
Me: "Thank god I have tenure."

60 is a C+? Do you teach the mentally challenged?

No, I teach Physics. Are you mentally challenged?

Why is "average" a C+ and not a C?

and why is 60 a C?

same reason 86-93 is a B?

Cuz his students are idiots who only average 60/100?

A friend of mine lives in a small town with an equally small elementary school. I remember a few years ago he sent me a copy of the local rag, in which one of his kids was listed as a "student of the month." I called him to say "How great!" and he said, it's a bunch of BS - every kid in the school makes "student of the month" at least once before sixth grade.

As a kindergarten teacher, I totally agree with this article.

If my kids are wrong then I tell them they are wrong (nicely) and then encourage them to keep thinking or practicing or whatever it is that they need to do in order to be right. That's life and the earlier to get kids to take responsibility for their own success the better off they will be.

One of my students wasn't learning his sight words because he wasn't practicing them at home. Every day we would go over them in class and when he didn't know them I would point out how many other students did know them because they practiced at home and he should ask mom or dad or his older brother to help him learn them from the list I sent home with everyone.

The result? In two weeks time he memorized over thirty sight words and his reading level increased from a 2 to a 3. I refused to coddle him and I put the responsibility of practicing on him because he is smart enough and old enough to take a little responsibility for himself. He's matured a lot since he's discovered that a little hard work produces good results. I've seen improvement in all his work and his behavior as a whole since then.

Je5tEr: Cuz his students are idiots who only average 60/100?

he said he teaches physics, if we're not talking low level physics, than a 60 average is not entirely surprising. It's not like you get everything spoonfed and then just spit it back out. You might get something to solve you don't even know how to do, just have to apply what you do know and go from there.

Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach, placate parents by just passing their kids.