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Re: grade inflation, etc.



At 20:22 1/4/00 -0500, Herb Gottleib wrote:
On Tue, 04 Jan 2000 10:35:28 -0600 Digby Willard
<dwillard@MAIL.CENTRAL.STPAUL.K12.MN.US> writes:

I've wondered for several years what the
point of grades is, and I haven't come up with any answers
that reflect anything good.

But I think there's another point that's missing here: the great
scientists often have lousy academic records.

Darwin
Einstein
Galileo
Schwinger
James Watson,
Newton
It seems to me that if grades and GPA's are supposed to identify
superior students, they do a lousy job.
And that they do quite a bit of
damage in the process of doing that lousy job.

Am I missing something here?

Perhaps you are missing something.
Please check some of the other outstanding scientists. For example:

Stevinus
Huygens
Varignon
Descartes
Leibnitz
d'Alembert
Young
//and many more...//
Herb Gottlieb from New York City
(Where the exceptions, such as Einstein, prove the rule)

Still, I think there is a point to be made here.
I have indeed heard that high school grades are not a great
college success predictor.
(Though they may be among the best available...)

And if you will forgive the comparison, it is said to be all but
impossible to breed for a great steeplechaser.

Whereas a fast sprinter is predictable from the registry,
the steeplechaser is a mix of conflicting objectives...a little
like the Science wunderkind, possibly?

brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK