Is a good education discriminatory?

Should you think about your duty, or about the consequences of your actions? Or should you concentrate on becoming a good person?

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Philosophy Explorer
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Is a good education discriminatory?

Post by Philosophy Explorer »

What if everyone got top grades. Then how would potential employers pick employees if there's no difference in grades?

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Re: Is a good education discriminatory?

Post by -1- »

What you say actually happens. People do get exactly the same grade as the next one from kindergarten.

So those employers who hire kindergarten graduates to fill vacancies in their companies -- these vacancies are normally for CEOs, CFOs, Majority Shareholders, Chairs of the Board, Visionary Leaders, and Bold New Initiative Leaders -- are stuck with not being able to tell one candidate from another by their resumes alone.
Londoner
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Re: Is a good education discriminatory?

Post by Londoner »

There is no reason to assume getting top grades is a sign of overall merit. To think that it was would be to assume that an ability to pass certain types of exams on certain topics was a marker for overall superiority.

The message of 'The Big Bang Theory' is one that everyone is familiar with from real life. People are clever in some ways...but stupid in others.

The problem employers have is that they need to be able to give objective reasons about why they chose a particular candidate, so they do not dare ignore hard evidence like grades. But I suspect they often want to.
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Re: Is a good education discriminatory?

Post by -1- »

Londoner wrote: Sun Feb 04, 2018 11:21 am The problem employers have is that they need to be able to give objective reasons about why they chose a particular candidate, so they do not dare ignore hard evidence like grades.
Oo, yes. Proving that you had done the right thing when things go wrong. Leaving a paper trail that shows you have made no mistake.

It's all political, or legal, or procedural, or red tape.

Human intuition, compassion, and unspeakable wisdom come last in the list, if they make it at all onto the list. The list of what to follow when you make a major decision. Or a minor one. Or none at all.

Standardization within large companies, and predetermined procedural guidelines are both good and bad. Much like hamburger flippin' at McDonalds. The company became a huge success because there was no variation of taste no matter where you walked into a McD and ordered a Big Mac with fries and a Coke.

This is why I think companies ought to first automate office procedures. Fire all managers, middle managers, top managers, secretaries, secretarial assistants, analysts, programmers, janitors, security guards, window washers, cooling and refrigerator service technicians, copier repair men, IT upgrade dept, printing, and daydreaming about screwing your boss (literally, not figuratively), and vice versa.

Replace the whole schkebam with one microchip, and bang, you achieved complete compliance with procedural norms and adherence to them.
Science Fan
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Re: Is a good education discriminatory?

Post by Science Fan »

PE: It would depend on why they all got top grades. If, for example, all of the students did work to justify each one of them getting a top grade, then what's the problem?
Philosophy Explorer
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Re: Is a good education discriminatory?

Post by Philosophy Explorer »

Science Fan wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2018 12:08 am PE: It would depend on why they all got top grades. If, for example, all of the students did work to justify each one of them getting a top grade, then what's the problem?
Part of competing for jobs are the grades. If you have 10 applicants for 1 job, how do you pick? (btw there would be no top grades since all are the same which is my mistake in description).

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Kayla
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Re: Is a good education discriminatory?

Post by Kayla »

we decided to hire a summer student from an agriculture program at a nearby college

when they showed up for an interview, i asked them if they minded if we talk while i shovel manure

i hired the one who joined in the shoveling unprompted (conviniently, there was another shovel nearby) - her grades are so-so but she remembers the important stuff, knowns how to look up other stuff, and is a hard worker

the guy with the highest marks spent most of the interview telling me how great he was and at the end propositioned me - and he did not help with the shoveling - he is going to be completely useless should anyone be dumb enough to hire him.
IstillBELIEVEinPOMO
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Re: Is a good education discriminatory?

Post by IstillBELIEVEinPOMO »

Philosophy Explorer wrote: Sat Feb 03, 2018 7:48 pm What if everyone got top grades. Then how would potential employers pick employees if there's no difference in grades?

PhilX 🇺🇸
Grades are in relation to some objective standard.

Grades are limited--usually the choices are A, B, C, D and F.

Two "A" papers could be subjectively different. They could both meet the objective requirements for an "A", but one demonstrate exceptional writing ability unlike the other.

One "A" paper could meet the objective criteria more than all the other papers presented, but school policy does not allow giving it its own grade--again, the choices are only A, B, C, D and F.

Grades are probably, at the most, a way to narrow a large number of candidates to a more manageable number. Basing final hiring decisions on grades would be foolish. There are too many things that grades do not measure, such as ability to work well with people from diverse backgrounds. Any book knowledge that is missing can probably be taught on the job anyway.
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