Test writing time for teachers comes around.
Mark: What’s your method?
Joseph: Go to Wikipedia, choose a topic, read the outline, get the gist, frame 6 or 8 questions beginning with the classic wh5.
Mark: The classic wh5?
Joseph: What happened? Who did it? Where did it occur? When? And Why? Then reread the article. After that, write one paragraph for each question. Piece of cake.
Mark: So I have to write a passage. What’s a good topic?
Joseph: They’re business students. An economist.
Mark: Keynes?
Joseph: Done. Two years ago.
Mark: Soros?
Joseph: Three years ago.
Mark: Drucker?
Joseph: Last year. How about Marx? He’s due for an airing.
Mark: Marx. You suggest I write about Marx?
Joseph: You’re a Marxist. Said so yourself. Your own admission.
Mark: Something from Das Kapital?
Joseph: Perhaps CliffsNotes, the manga edition?
______________
Voice-over
Restating ideas, recycling essays, regurgitating answers. No wonder education has problems with plagiarism. Not only are students getting answers from the internet. Teachers are grabbing tests from the internet. But if you’re a long dead economist whose theories have been a little tarnished, you may not be too choosy who dusts you off. Going along with Marx's thoughts on "private property," a Marx test may be borrowed from here.
Mark: What’s your method?
Joseph: Go to Wikipedia, choose a topic, read the outline, get the gist, frame 6 or 8 questions beginning with the classic wh5.
Mark: The classic wh5?
Joseph: What happened? Who did it? Where did it occur? When? And Why? Then reread the article. After that, write one paragraph for each question. Piece of cake.
Mark: So I have to write a passage. What’s a good topic?
Joseph: They’re business students. An economist.
Mark: Keynes?
Joseph: Done. Two years ago.
Mark: Soros?
Joseph: Three years ago.
Mark: Drucker?
Joseph: Last year. How about Marx? He’s due for an airing.
Mark: Marx. You suggest I write about Marx?
Joseph: You’re a Marxist. Said so yourself. Your own admission.
Mark: Something from Das Kapital?
Joseph: Perhaps CliffsNotes, the manga edition?
______________
Voice-over
Restating ideas, recycling essays, regurgitating answers. No wonder education has problems with plagiarism. Not only are students getting answers from the internet. Teachers are grabbing tests from the internet. But if you’re a long dead economist whose theories have been a little tarnished, you may not be too choosy who dusts you off. Going along with Marx's thoughts on "private property," a Marx test may be borrowed from here.
...
2 comments:
Confident of my Marx, I was shattered to get a mere 92% on the Marx Test. But then I realised this means I can buy a condo in Crete after all. And as I understand it there will never be a revolution unless we bourgeoisie really get our act together to force the pace of dialectical polarisation. So I might as well buy the rest of Crete while I'm at it (after the euro crashes).
A condo? In concrete? So east euro.
Wouldn't wood be better? For the bourgeoisie?
And as for Marx being dialectical.
He was hedging his bets.
The best of us hedge at the best of times.
The worst of us hedge at the worst of times.
The euro? Think about it.
Post a Comment