In praise of the Menschadictorian

[pnwmom]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12755802/site/newsweek/

"At commencements, we should honor the best kids, not those with the best grades.

SNIP

"Honoring the person who got the best grades in high school establishes the value of intelligence over virtue and, in the long run, it is virtue that will determine the fate of the graduates with far more precision than their grade-point averages. I am not indifferent to academic excellence, and I do not mean to demean in any way the diligence and sacrifice of those students who actually take their studies seriously. But by sticking the kid who never got a B in front of the class at graduation, we make a collective statement that it is grades that we prize most as a culture—and that is one of the reasons our culture is in trouble. Getting the highest grades is just an entry-level drug to getting the highest salary and then to cooking the books to keep the stock price high, as at Enron, and then to jail. By transforming education into a grab for quantifiable returns, we produce a culture of grubby cheaters, plagiarizers and criminals who get the only barely twisted message that the bottom line is all that matters. I once asked a graduating class of M.B.A.s if they thought that cheating in business, though morally wrong, would make them more money, and virtually all of them said yes. Morality cannot always triumph over such cynicism."

SNIP

Keep reading for a story about one of those "best kids."

[BrklynLiberal]

1. wow.

:eyes:

[China_cat]

2. This is such bullshit

and the kids know it. The Ken Lays and Tom Delays are the ones without the highest grades but honored anyway. They were frauds then, knew it and never learned any other way to act. It isn't the grades we prize...it is the intelligence and effort made to show that intelligence.

The kids know. They KNOW when they've done nothing to deserve accolades and have nothing but contempt for those who do this to them.

Time for people to read 'Welcome to the Monkey House' by Kurt Vonnegut.

(I just realized that you could take that to mean that I was dissing the example of 'Jacob'...which I'm not. But what he did was not a school thing and his type of action would be just as well honored, if not better, by the community as a whole rather than suggesting that he be put in a place of academic honor for a humanitarian action)

[pnwmom]

3. But some kids are smart enough to get top grades without

effort. Why does it help anyone to reward them for that?

And other kids work hard not because they are driven by any kind of intrinsic motivation to learn but because their parents are standing behind them, cracking the whip. Should we be encouraging that?

And others take easy courses or steer clear of challenging courses, just to protect the all-important grade point.

I think the Rabbi is right; but the problem is . . . how would those good kids ever be selected? It's so much easier to just go by the numbers.

[valerief]

4. Oh, everyone should get a trophy, then. That's how it works in grade

school, right?

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Gellman is a waste of space, and should lose his column

After his failure to understand the concept of atheism a few weeks ago (it's his profession to understand theological ideas, yet he fails), when he ascribed it to childhood trauma :eyes: , now he brand those who get good grades as 'cheats'.

We should be hearing from our best kids—not just from our smartest or craftiest or most sycophantic kids.

And he thinks a contest to find the 'best' student by his criteria won't be affected by sycophancy or craftiness? He's even dumber than I thought.

once asked a graduating class of M.B.A.s if they thought that cheating in business, though morally wrong, would make them more money, and virtually all of them said yes. Morality cannot always triumph over such cynicism.

Well, they were right - if cheating didn't make more money, then people wouldn't try it, would they? That doesn't mean the MBAs would cheat - just that they thought it would make them more money. Gellman just doesn't have a good enough grasp of logic to write a professional column.

Let's face it, it was the idea of perceived 'virtue' over intelligence that got some people to vote for Bush rather than Gore or Kerry. Look what a disaster that was.

I do not mean to demean in any way the diligence and sacrifice of those students who actually take their studies seriously ... Getting the highest grades is just an entry-level drug to getting the highest salary and then to cooking the books to keep the stock price high, as at Enron, and then to jail. By transforming education into a grab for quantifiable returns, we produce a culture of grubby cheaters, plagiarizers and criminals who get the only barely twisted message that the bottom line is all that matters.

For fuck's sake, if that's not demeaning the students who take their studies seriously, then what is? Gellman is a hypocrite of the highest order.