When I was gainfully employed as a Graduate Teaching Fellow I would formulate the most effective ways to grade large stacks of papers/exams in the smallest amount of time possible. There are various ways to fool yourself, in terms of grading efficiency, but you keep at it and finish the job as fairly and consistently as you can. Given the amount of complaints about grading ("You grade too hard. I wrote a way better paper than my friend who has a different GTF and he, like, totally got a higher grade than I did and I just don't think that's very fair because we worked together and so you should change my grade.") I had the biggest urge to really make it arbitrary. The vision, the dream, was to stand at the top of the steps to our building and then throw the papers/exams down the steps. Those that had the chops to make it all the way down, or furthest away, would recieve the coveted A grade. Those unfortunate souls whose papers were close, well... better luck next time. I tell this little tale because I'm sending out resumes into the great job wild. I have a hunch that prospective employers might just gather up all the resumes they receive, find a good stairwell, and then give a good toss.
10.09.2006
structuralized violence, you say?
When I was gainfully employed as a Graduate Teaching Fellow I would formulate the most effective ways to grade large stacks of papers/exams in the smallest amount of time possible. There are various ways to fool yourself, in terms of grading efficiency, but you keep at it and finish the job as fairly and consistently as you can. Given the amount of complaints about grading ("You grade too hard. I wrote a way better paper than my friend who has a different GTF and he, like, totally got a higher grade than I did and I just don't think that's very fair because we worked together and so you should change my grade.") I had the biggest urge to really make it arbitrary. The vision, the dream, was to stand at the top of the steps to our building and then throw the papers/exams down the steps. Those that had the chops to make it all the way down, or furthest away, would recieve the coveted A grade. Those unfortunate souls whose papers were close, well... better luck next time. I tell this little tale because I'm sending out resumes into the great job wild. I have a hunch that prospective employers might just gather up all the resumes they receive, find a good stairwell, and then give a good toss.
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4 comments:
Just Brilliant!
Perhaps you would like to be listed as a reference for my prospective employees?
With regard to grading, I still find that letting gravity do most of the work is the most efficient way to go. The problem is that Iowa is so flat that there is no where tall enough to do it properly.
I used to write a bunch comments as to why they were so mediocre. I'm surprised more of them didn't contest my assessment of their lack of intellect, but hey... I must have gotten a bunch of the apathetic ones or something. You might have gotten a better spread from the top of a building - then you can work in the plus and minuses too. :)
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