Essay question: "Briefly discuss some cultural pre-cursors to Christianity and how they shaped Christian theology. Your answer should specifically mention pre-Christian examples of: monotheism, belief in a cosmic struggle between good and evil, and the notion of salvation."Responses: Three personal testimonials of faith, one vague and rambling "essay" that did - at least - include all the key words in the question, one jeremiad against Islam, and one admittedly learned discourse on the book of Job.
Oh, and one - count 'em, one - correct answer.
Now you know how I feel whenever I give a math exercise that a generation ago was considered 8th-grade level and fewer than 1 in 100 students gets it right.
ReplyDeleteYou have only seven students in your class? That's something I dream about. But then, before long we'll be sounding like the four Yorkshiremen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo
More than seven, actually, but it's one of those tests where you are given (x) questions and choose a subset of them to answer, so not everyone attempted it.
DeleteThey just short-circuit when confronted with any question about religion...
Yes, they do. This is why in my general-ed science course, particularly whenever I discuss natural history and (gasp!) evolution, I am always careful to include "Scientists say that..." and "Why do scientists think this?" Sometimes it works.
DeleteFrod, really? You feel you have to do that? How sad. What would happen if you just stated the facts without the qualifier, outlining the evidence except when it's on the level of "no, the earth is not a flat disk supported by four giant turtles".
Deletebut, that's a bias opinion!
DeleteI'll admit that the students who'd take issue with Darwin are not as bad as they were in 2005, when federal Judge John E. Jones ruled that "intelligent design" is religion and so may not taught in a biology class in a public high school. I had a totally incompetent department chair at the time, who would cave in to any student nonsense, no matter how outlandish, so I had to make sure I was covered. I suppose it could be worse: I do not envy climate scientists these days, particularly not if they work in North Carolina.
DeleteIt is commendable that Wylod does not require students to answer only this question. If he did, there would be a decent chance that students would complain to the dean that they were being "forced" to do something "against" their religion. Knowing my dean, the response would be immediate, shameless capitulation, and to ask questions later, if at all. But of course, that's my dean's response to everything, and complaining to the dean is my students' response to everything anyway, aside from total apathy.
DeleteWylodmyer, did you give partial credit to the other answers, or just write something diplomatic like "unfortunately this is unrelated to the question asked" next to a zero?
ReplyDeleteI acknowledged that the essay on Job was interesting. I noted that the others failed to include the information asked for in the question. All got 0 points. Two people failed on this account.
DeleteKudos to you for going for straight zero grades for the non-responsive answers. I could see how references to Job might be at least play a role in answering such a question (since it's pre-Christian, takes place in a monotheistic context, takes on issues of good and evil and, at least indirectly, salvation, etc.), but presumably the connections weren't made. The others, well -- clearly my attitude reflects my own mainline Protestant bias, but it seems to me that faith can be strengthened by analyzing beliefs in historical/cultural context (and that a person of faith who also wants to be recognized as having certain intellectual skills signaled by the possession of a college degree needs, at the very least, to be able to code-switch).
DeleteBottom line, based on my own experience with students' responses to assignments with no religious context: like Frod, I think this is more a symptom of how (some) students today operate than of a particular problem with students of faith. There's a still relatively small but noticeably increasing number of students, at least in my classes, who seem inclined to respond to any assignment that asks them to do something even slightly new by submitting a response that worked in some other, different, quite different, context in the past. I'm not sure what all the causes are, but I'm guessing varying combinations of intellectual laziness plain old laziness, and fear/insecurity/terror of being wrong.
The usual tap-dancing around so that you see their "fancy footwork" instead of their non-answer.
DeleteCC: Part of it may be that they're so used to education by multiple-choice, if there isn't a choice that suits them, they'll make one up. That's not exactly a new story, though.
DeleteMy bumpersticker response:
ReplyDeleteBRING BACK STATE ATHEISM!!!
Lenin-Trotsky: the Dream Team of politics.
I don't think we need to go that far, Strel. Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot don't have such a great record, either. I'd just like to get state-mandated religion out of my face. At least things aren't as bad here as they were during the W administration.
DeleteStalinism is still a thing, Maoism is still a thing, Pol Pot - not so much. Beats that incompetent nicompoop Chiang Kai-Shek; all of those CIA-backed LDP governments in Japan; Trujillo; and the GOP's love of Jonas Savimbi.
DeleteWe do have a state religion in America: making a buck no matter how.