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Does "wrap it up B" mean that you want me to stop?
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Something like that.</p>
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This is a blog. I'm not requiring you to read anything. I sort of find it fun to discuss this, but if you don't just stop.
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Actually this is a forum, not a blog.</p>
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That's all.
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If only.</p>
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Anyway, first paragraph: How can you honestly say that you are against the multiple intelligence theory?
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It's a bunch of feel good nonsense, that's why.</p>
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You don't think that there are some people who are more socially smart than others? You don't think there are some people who are more musically talented than others? You don't think there are some people who are more creative than others?
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Sure. So what? Some of these correlate to IQ anyway (and, as such, to the SAT). Those things that don't likely aren't very important in the realm of education.</p>
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All of those skills can certainly manifest themselves later in life when you choose a career. In fact, I bet there are many more careers where social skills would be helpful than there are careers where SAT II-math skills would be helpful.
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Yes, that's totally true. Social skills are probably more important than math skills in about 99% of careers. Again, so what? Swarthmore is not a vocational school, nor does it seek to teach people social skills or help people become more charismatic. That's not really what Swarthmore is all about.</p>
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Again, you need to understand I agree with you that the SAT and IQ certainly measure one type of intelligence. I'm not completely dismissing it, I just don't think that that's all there is to it.
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I agree. It just happens to measure the type of intelligence most relevant to academics.</p>
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I think there are a million other things that are admirable as well, which don't get rewarded in tests.
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Great.</p>
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And I TOTALLY agree that my ideas of how education should be are not objective, but how is that remotely a bad thing? People are not objective, so why should education be objective? And, like I said in a previous post, there are MANY schools that don't have grades or tests which constantly send students to Ivy League schools, so it's not that all of my ideas are only in the abstract.
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As far as I can tell, this doesn't mean anything.</p>
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Second paragraph: I agree that there are a lot of things that would not go well for minority people.
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It's actually more a function of economics than race. It just happens that, in America, some ethnic and racial groups are poorer than others, thanks to obvious historical reasons. So too with the rest of the world.</p>
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I'm saying that there is no NEED to constantly assess them in a standardized way. If you do the stuff that I've been advocating for, then race will become less meaningful, because it will get into the heart of who they are. Race only starts becoming an issue when you start imposing hierarchies on what skills are more admirable than others.
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Admirable is not the same as relevant. You could be the greatest bricklayer on the planet, but that's not relevant to how well you will perform in college, or how compatible you will be with the Swarthmore lifestyle. It's only hierarchical if you perceive it to be as such. Some of us have just as much respect for a skilled bricklayer as we do a skilled chemist.</p>
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And as for the argument about writing an essay, the essay wouldn't be judged in terms of grammar and actual writing skills unless that is their thing. You have to judge each person with relation to their own unique, personal skills. Then there won't be a race issue.
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This is a blatant straw man. Skill at writing consists of more than just grammar. It deals with how well you can express a point, or make an argument. It covers far more than just knowing when to use a semi-colon or how to spell 'privileged.' People from better economic circumstances are better at mastering these skills, as with virtually all skills that have anything to do with academics. College is actually a big player in the status quo specifically because so much prestige is granted to academics, because academic success is harder to attain for those from underprivileged backgrounds.</p>
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Third paragraph: I think that this is the most interesting of your paragraphs. The only thing bad about any of those people you mentioned is that they have the potential to commit another crime, which would be dangerous. That's all I can see that makes them undesirable. I think the grounds for admission should depend on the type of school, and if there are required reading classes (that's where your argument about the person reading at an eighth grade level would come in). The idea should be more of "Let's look at everyone's separate skills, and then figure out which skills line up with what our university can provide and emphasize" rather than "let's see who can get the most amount of questions correct on a multiple choice test, and put a preference on people who are the best at that." I am not anti-assessment. I just think that today we assess people WAY TOO OFTEN, and in the TOTALLY WRONG way.
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Pipe dream.</p>
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Fourth paragraph: I don't get why you and Duhvinci are both so irritated by me citing other sources. Isn't that the nature of debate? I am citing studies and stuff because I don't want everyone to have to take my word for everything I say. I want to be able to back up my points.
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You're never going to convince me of your points because I disagree with the very premises upon which they are based. You have even copped to them being personal and subjective.</p>
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As for the "link wars" comment, no statistic that I've said has been from the internet, except for the official Collegeboard reports about SAT score by race. Every other study I've gotten from a book, primarily from the book "What Does it Mean to be Well Educated?" by Alfie Kohn, who is one of today's leading educational experts. I consider that to be an authentic source. If you don't believe me, just point out one statistic or study I've given, and I'll say what book I got it from, and what page in the book I found it at. If you can find other studies in official books that show that the SAT is an extremely valid indicator of success in future life, then I would be quite impressed. The only stuff I've used from the internet is a petition (which was not even an argument), a description of the multiple intelligence theory, and one thing that said the average sat of swarthmore. None of it was a quote or a psychological study.
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Appeals to authority don't impress me. And what, exactly, is "an official book" anyway? Sounds like some sort of elitism to me, suggesting a book is somehow more valid than a scientific study. If you want to play the link game, though, I can bury you in a deluge of boring links talking about how the SAT correlates with this, that, and the other.</p>