The bigotry of low expectations

While Queen of Tards is busy focusing on obnoxious billboards in Arkansas in the other thread, she completely misses the more insidious, more damaging racism being perpetrated by liberal progressives in the name of racial equality.

Essentially, this is warmed-over Ebonics, but it's still stunning any self-styled academic could push this garbage with a straight face.

Yes, the solution to underperforming minority groups isn't to help them achieve competence, it's to move the goalposts and hold them to a lower standard to artificially manipulate statistics.

https://www.thecollegefix.com/unive...not-to-judge-quality-of-writing-when-grading/

Yes folks, literacy and grammer is now racist. They don't call them Grammar Nazis for nothing.

One would think alleged published author @garamet could offer some insights to this topic, but we all know that isn't going to happen.

Garamet is a published (and quite accomplished even though she modestly calls herself "midlist") author. If I had anywhere near half of her writing success I would call it a successful career.

Oh who am I kidding. I've never had a successful career of any kind.

In case anyone was wondering: no, the seminar does not teach people to ignore quality of writing. No, grading is indeed not just grading. And no, the NAS is not "a group that teaches its commitment to academic excellence", but a right-wing organization that prides itself on having worked closely with several GOP admins and not just openly opposes a multicultural society, but defines that political opposition as one of the main goals of academic teaching.

So this is another "OMG universities are banning capital letters" story, in that what's actually happening bears no resemblance to the shriekings of Fleshlight and his fellow travelers? I'm shocked.

"Garamet is a published (and quite accomplished even though she modestly calls herself "midlist") author. If I had anywhere near half of her writing success I would call it a successful career.

Oh who am I kidding. I've never had a successful career of any kind. " - Dayton3

Damn that's depressing. Seriously though that's just the way anyone's luck can pan out sometimes. Whatever our definition of a "successful career" it
doesn't (or shouldn't) reflect on our character. IMHO just having a roof over our head & food on the table puts any of us light-years ahead of killing rats in India. Anything above that is just icing on the cake.

Back to the topic, lowering standards to appease quotas & statistics is par-for-the-course and always will be. Does it eventually bite us in the ass? Yes, nearly every time but we don't let that stop us from continuing to do it.

clearly

You clearly didn't read the article, and predictably have nothing intelligent to say on the subject. Try reading the article and Inoue's statements, and then get back to us.

"In another paper, “A Grade-less Writing Course that Focuses on Labor and Assessing,” Inoue argues that writing teachers should “calculate course grades by labor completed and dispense almost completely with judgments of quality when producing course grades.”

Please read the articles before subjecting us to your stupidity.

There is always a subjective component when any teacher grades a written assignment, unless the teacher is simply wanting the student to regurgitate memorized information in bullet-point format. But, no, capital letters, periods, and understanding the difference between verbs and nouns is not racist.

False, false, and false. Trying addressing the arguments rather than attacking the source with uninformed strawmen.

The harsh truth is that due to the systemic failures of urban public education systems and the persistent anti-education bias in some minority sub-cultures (i.e. availing yourself of the "white man's" education = you're an Oreo and have betrayed your race), if these students were held to the same standard that average middle-class students from suburban neighborhoods were held to, none of them would ever get into college. Why do you think an increasing number of universities are now saying they will no longer accept students who need substantial remedial instruction in basic skills like reading and writing?

Shocked to see you admit that about Republicans.

To be honest I think there are bigger questions facing the college system in the US than one seminar being held in one faculty of one college. The whole sports scholarship deal seems to me to be much more deeply damning and endemic problem with regards to anti intellectualism.

I'd be interested to see a less biased source on this to be honest, although it is really rather ironic to see right wing protests about anti intellectualism in the current climate.

I'm so sad Chup never lived to see you type that.

It's a case where, the content is of such quality, that marking it down for the missing comma seems needlessly critical.

FWIW, the inner grammar Nazi in me actually agrees with Fucklight on the face of it, but I know full well he's not speaking in any good faith or cares anything about blacks folks beyond his stupid little gotchas

College needs a top-to-bottom reform here so that it can be more like British Uni and people dont spend 2 years on subjects that should be sufficiently handled in high school.

Actually, at my British Uni, whilst we are encouraged to give students feedback on writing style, we are not supposed to mark down for poor English as long as the work is understandable, includes the relevant information and makes the correct (or valid) interpretations of the data. Mind you, this is biological sciences, so those are indeed the more important factors. The assumption is that journals/whatever will demand that articles be proofread for English quality prior to publication, so any failing on the authors' part is smoothed out. What we are interested in is producing a good scientist - literacy is important but only to the point that they can read and understand published articles and generate the same.

I'm speculating here, but is the point of this seminar not to help redress the imabalances stemming from the pre college system? Marking people down for grammar is only fair if it genuinely represents a statement about their abilities and not the opportunities they've been afforded thus far.

So, two students could get radically different grades for similar mistakes in grammar, etc. because of the grader's subjective estimation of their prior opportunities?

Not only is that approach unfair and inevitably prone to error from limitations of knowledge, it's open to abuse.

I see a future where professional journalists use the wrong "their/there/they're" and use "U R" for 'you are' in articles.

I refuse to use text-speak shorthand.

Hell, I think using "tho" for "though" is a silly affectation, but at least it's an actual (though outdated) word.

I just used that one recently, probably first time ever. At first I was using it mockingly, but then realized there's no way anyone could infer a mocking tone from just a couple of letters (I guess we could tell now, if shootER ever used it), but ended up keeping it because it made me feel young. ; )

the first example is already a reality and I'm sure the second example is not too far off.
Side note I don't know why (GPS in phones & vehicles?) but these days tell somebody (over the phone for example) that your office is on the north end of the building, and your actual building is 300 yards west of where they are calling from, then enjoy that awkward silence because they aren't used to thinking in those terms very often.

How about "thru" rather than "through"? There are times when thru makes more sense but it may not be correct. I use "via" quite a bit but again it might not be kosher.

I fear people mixing up "then" and "than" will eventually send me down to Cabelas for a background check if you get my drift.

Same thing as "tho" AFAIC. It's correct, but informal. How hard is it to type three more letters?

It is, yes. I don't have a problem with that, although it says nothing good that even within California that a third of high school students, including at least two dum-dums I personally knew in my AP English class no less and one that I know was well off to get a tutor, are getting admitted despite not having those basic skills.

Mostly, I was making a cheap shot at the system in place where even the smart kids still have to do Gen Ed going over stuff that they already learned in high school. From my understanding when I looked at attending school overseas, Gen Ed in the British uni system refers to core classes within one's major and not a bunch of sciences and math and history for the sake of it. A music student doesn't need to take two science labs; a math student doesn't need art.

For me it's just a lazy abbreviation.

I started using "thru" when I was very young, because Marvel comics used it all the time, I guess to save space. Me, again, I use it as an abbreviation 'cause I'm a lazy typer.

EVERYbody needs art!

I took it to mean that the spelling and grammar would be largely down played in favour of the thematic and interpretive aspects of the work, not that people's background would factor into the marking.

This isn't new, many academic institutions have prioritised away from the mechanical aspects of language for a long time to help accommodate dyslexic and dyspraxic students for instance.

Bear in mind how many of histories intellectual giants couldn't spell...Einstein springs to mind in the first instance.

yeah now that you are almost retired & don't have to worry about any competition!