Belladonna got a C on a test and I am proud of her.
She took Sociology in her summer session at college. The instructor is a rabid socialist.
The test involved short paragraph answers to topic sentences selected by the instructor. Bella's answers reflected her relatively conservative beliefs about rewarding effort and results.
The instructor also stated that all antipsychotic and reactivity modulating meds are due to greedy pharmaceutical companies "creating" disorders. Bella knows several people who start throwing heavy objects through windows and stud-walls when they are late for their med drops. I suspect that one of the short paragraphs reflected that first-hand knowledge.
"So Bella," I asked "why didn't she give you a D or an F if you were so wildly in disagreement with her?"
Bella took it all in stride. "Probably because I wrote in complete sentences and spelled words correctly. You know, that and capitalizing and punctuation. It is pretty hard to flunk a student who can write coherent answers and pass a bunch of students who cannot."
The other thing that gives Bella comfort is the knowledge that the half-life of knowledge in the social sciences is approximately five years. Presumably, only 25% of what the instructor "knows" is still considered factual ten years later.
The rabid instructor is trapped in her fantasies just surely as those ants trapped in amber. Belladonna is moving on.
Good for her! :-)
ReplyDeleteOver the transom via email:
ReplyDelete"I hope this finds you well. I'm a satisfied customer of your...blog....I never miss it.
You're fond of oddments so this may interest you.
In your article, 'Belladonna got a C on a test', you state:
"The other thing that gives Bella comfort is the knowledge that the half-life of knowledge in the social sciences is approximately five years. Presumably, only 25% of what the instructor "knows" is still considered factual ten years later".
Some time ago, and I apologize for having lost track of the specifics, a medical university studied a specific malady, nothing exotic, and the indicated treatment. Over a century or so they found the "half life" of accepted practice was twenty-two years.
They presented their findings as a stake in the ground and drew no wider conclusion.
Reader Xyzpdq
PS: I'd comment at your blog but it requires a Google account."