Marks: The Holly Grail

 

Marks: The Holy Grail

 

In my own school I am frequently approached by students individually and also in a mob like mentality by students who are overly zealous about appealing their marks, often their numerous requests are very petty and frequently based on the assumption that they can self-evaluate their work much better and more accurately than can their instructor who taught the course.  All part of the: Teacher is wrong and I the student am correct Syndrome.  

 

The end game invariably is that I as principal become the arbitrator of marks disputes.  Often discussions are heated and protracted and gives a sense of a court room drama or the Wild West.  Marks are a type of addiction and my own students fixate on them as they are the only things that really matter about education.  School climate, extra-curricular events, even to go so far as to throw in the love of learning, are all thrown aside for the scramble for that one more additional mark that will set them apart from the crowd.

 

I realize the importance of marks to any student, I too had such a fixation as a student, and obviously marks are important because they directly relate to university acceptance and attending their university of first choice - the end game in the eyes of students. Marks are an obsession and often the quest for better marks eclipses the actual learning experience and therefore so much is lost as the mark, the holly grail, supersedes the high school experience and the learning process.

 

Recently, I called around to several admissions departments associated with universities in Southern Ontario to discover more details about their admission policies and procedures.  My hope was that this would give me better insight in assisting my own students at a small private school in Toronto.  I did make many interesting discoveries, including the fact that although many universities have basic similarities in their methods in regards to admission and each practices their own unique set of expectations, standards, requirements, timelines and general best practices to suit their own needs while accommodating students as well.

 

Presently, at my own school, and I know this to be a concern at Public and Separate Boards as well and many other private schools is the issue related to mark relevance and credibility.  There are some university departments that systematically track marks from admitting high schools over time and as a result implement a correction factor to the marks making them more relevant and realistic to the realities of the university courses to which they are applied.  

 

The practice of mark correction or adjustment becomes a necessity in order to accept students to various programs and give them an increased capacity, once accepted, to academically succeed.  This procedure is not always practiced by the university as a whole but may be used by individual departments who also have a great deal of sovereignty over their own admissions.

 

Most recently, and likely this will be duplicated by more institutions, is the implementation of timed essay writing for admission purposes on a dedicated web portal and/or a video interview also over a secured portal.  To date this sems more common for business and engineering faculties as the need arises to secure accurate student markers of competency, skills and knowledge as well as specific communication and linguistic abilities.

 

A long-standing issue with many students and made more paramount with present AI developments and technologies is the ubiquitous frequency of cheating and plagiarism associated with school testing and admissions procedures.  Teachers must be ever more vigilant of sources, writing style, standards of expression and originality of any written submission they receive.  Although several admissions officers did tell me they relied heavily on honest self-reporting by students concerning their admissions materials with the exception of transcripts of course.  However, with this response I also detected some hesitation on the part of those admission personnel I spoke with, indicating, I thought, self-reported information is likely not totally honest or accurate at times.

 

In the future a likely outcome for university acceptance, in addition to the present reliance on grades and other standardized test results, will be the use of more competency-basedassessment.  Marks can be very unreliable even when based on structured rubrics, or student observation and conversation.  Therefore, demonstrating an accomplished skill set rather than the mere presentation of a mark representing the same skill is probably a much stronger tool when evaluating abilities of any kind.

 

Using ESL as an example, an IELTS or English mark is one standard of assessment, but an interview designed to capture current competencies as a supplement may prove much more effective in accepting the right students in a competitive market.  Competency testing also works in the favor of students as there are likely many students with inflated marks that do not reflect actual ability, when these students are accepted into university level courses, they often run the danger of crashing into insurmountable linguistic and other academic barriers.  Clearly best practice to raise the academic bar for admissions.

 

At my own school, through English and Public Speaking classes, we are introducing the use of assessing, and measuring competencies through secure video for two reasons.  First, it is an excellent practice activity for students to articulate their ideas and communicate effectively with out the aid of translators, AI or any other type of electronic aid.  It is then more of a true measure of ability, knowledge and expression.  

 

The second reason of course is preparation for the university admission process which will certainly evolve in such a way as to gain more defenses against cheating, inflated marks and self-reported information through the use of secure video interviews and testing of written and spoken skills.

 

The key to success is independent, thoughtful, accurate and organized expression of ideas through more competency testing in the classroom and for the university admissions process now evolving.  I know students will continue to appeal their marks and have a feverish reliance and allegiance to their mark, but hopefully over time as educators we can wean them off the “marks addiction” and switch their present holy grail of marks allegiance to skills competencies and even the wild goal of a love of learning.

 

Marty Rempel

 

Majority Control

 Majority Control

 

It was a precautionary statement

Concerning the storage and eventual

Disposal of the sum total

Of the accumulated common sense

Of generations.

With all the complex inter-related factors,

That eventually lead up to the inevitable

Break down of strategic multi-lateral discussions

At the highest level.

 

However, it was reported by pundits,

Those in the know, that the talks were

Productive.

 

Although the population had no real concept

Or early warning system to protect them

from the approaching madness

Concerning the trauma about to be unleashed.

 

Sheep and fodder.

 

The backstage lobbyists, developers, board members

And those with the majority stock options

Were in the loop of mankind’s opaque destiny

To make war in a time of peace

in a cost benefit sort of way seemed to the

Powerful, refreshing and exhilarating.

Their sons would never see a gun, 

Or walk a battle field

In the short term the most profitable option

And so, it was using ploys and proxy votes

Symbolic democratic virtues that

War was declared

For the benefit of mankind

 

Superficially, the powerful prayed

That their God be on their side

Those to be attacked and preempted

Had a similar prayer

And so, the tale goes

In all our virtue and with our greed

We rise up to bomb the oppressed

To liberate them.

We praise the lord

We count the dividends daily

Eventually, it will all trickle down.

 

The Challenges of Aging

 The Challenges of Aging

 

To say I hate young people because of their youth would make me sound too much like Mark Twain, who stated that “Youth is wasted on the Young.”  Exercising, while being surrounded by healthy twenty-year-old’s, fit bodies, bouncing pony tails and muscular bodies, not even old enough to be part of generation X, and me a bona fide baby boomer, is a humbling experience. 

 

 I have just been through a series of echo sound, stress tests, blood tests and have been given a multitude of drugs for migraine prevention, blood thinners, blood pressure.  In fact, I am now on ten different prescriptions. I have had two heart surgeries, a stroke, and now a candidate for knee replacement surgery. I have been reminded about the importance of diet and exercise, and if I do what I’m told and don’t mess up, could be witness to the Earth going around the sun at least another 20 laps. Despite all of that I still feel very healthy for my age and of this world.

 

Therefore, I find myself as an Alumni (class of 75) at the Laurier gym having played squash, during which my wife and I did all we could to hit the ball directly to each other in order to avoid needless and pointless running for mere ball retrieval. Having completed a cardio in the squash court we did some weights where in whispered tones shared our views that students are really far too young for their own good and this rap music, they play in the gym does not remotely compare to the vintage quality of classic rock. 

 

Trying to do some stretches on a thin mat on the hardwood floor beside someone doing one armed pushups and another with her leg wrapped around her neck in a yoga pose is intimidating.  I was trying in a vain attempt to touch my toes which realistically with my long legs has become an increasingly difficult skill set to master. Despite our apparent handicaps no one stared, laughed or told us to leave.  These young people were, despite their vigor, very polite.

 

We feel more at ease and in our depth while going to the Waterloo Rec Centre where we can walk aimlessly around a track located above the hockey arena.  This is a very popular and therapeutic pass time as many people walk, jog or run as hockey, at various skill levels, is played out on the ice surface below.  People with canes and walkers, young people on the outside lanes practicing track, all gather in the same time space continuum. 

 

My wife and I can walk a lap in just under four minutes, just like Roger Bannister.  We pump our arms and pass clumps of geriatric men in baggy pants, we round the corner on the outside passing a lady with her walker and enter the straight only to be passed by three young mothers pushing their infants in jogging strollers.  We know our limitations.  We are no match for these formidable moms.  We slow to a more relaxed pace.

 

At home I work out on our rowing and step machines and do palates, badly.  We walk the neighborhood, while peering through neighbors’ windows like night stalkers in our constant quest to stay fit.  My theory is to just keep moving.

 

 

 

 

 

When I am at a certain age, I find much of my life revolves around doctor’s appointments, specialists, hospital visits, prescription counters and the ever-popular blood lab where I queue. Get my OHIP card at the ready.  I think more optimistically what is life without your health. I look at the people around me young, middle aged and old but mainly like me, older.  Everyone here for a test and quite concerned about their health.  Some, in one row, for x-rays and imaging, and my row for blood.

 

I sit on a beige plastic chair and glance at the dirty floor, and observe the constant stream of people who walk and shuffle in and out.  An obese man on a cane, an obese woman with a walker, a mother with an infant in for imaging, an Old Order Mennonite woman wearing a winter cape leans against the wall, perhaps unwilling to commit to the process, a teenager wearing winter inappropriate clothing.    

 

 

As I wait, I am surprised by the number of people who have expired OHIP cards and who in turn are surprised that the cards have expired.

 

I was told on my last visit that I could review my results online and also book appointments online to avoid waits.  I soon realized two things.  One, in reviewing my results apparently, I lacked the necessary medical degree to make any sense of the results.  Two: it was useless making a reservation for an appointment as everything was booked weeks in advanced.

 

 

I am directed to cubicle #5.  Asked to hang my coat roll up my sleeve and wait.  I’m hoping I will not get an infection, that the staff is well trained, the needles are clean...but then I stop and realize the mental spiral I am on. 

 

The nurse is fast and efficient.  I answer the questions correctly concerning, my name and by birth date. The blue rubber band wrapped around my upper arm helps pop my veins and arteries.  The needle goes in, the blood out.  I am then given a cup for a urine sample and directed towards the washroom.

 

Have you ever had to do this and really had no urgency, desire or ability at the moment to pee into a thimble sized container?  The directions on the cup and repeated on the washroom wall indicate that I should begin filling the “cup” midstream.  Not sure what that actually means, I’m afraid that if I waste any sample, I won’t be able to fill the quota.  Pressure!

 

Is their shame in under achieving at this stage.  I think magical thoughts of swimming pools, sprinklers and long road trips. Eventually, I proudly hold my warm sample up to the flickering fluorescent lights.  Fearful now of spillage and waste of the valuable contents I cap the cup and with as much clandestine subterfuge as I can muster place it in the metal container outside the washroom door and set it down besides seven similar containers.  It shimmers amber in the fluorescent glow of the ceiling lights.  I leave for my next medical appointment.

 

Religion Versus Science: A Radical Departure

Religion and Science: A Radical Departure

 

When I was a child, my mother did a significant amount of baking.  I never saw the process, the actual work that went into a pie, cake or other dessert as I was at school much of the day, and before that too young to really understand.  I would come home from school and there would be an array, at different times, of cake, pies, cupcakes, cookies, platz, pasties and many more baked goods.  If at some point someone were to ask me how did that apple pie come into being.  My honest explanation would pure and simply have been it was made, or created by my mom.  To me it was a type of miracle, magic or the wizardry of creation.  The pie came from nowhere.  It just was.

This analogy of the maker of the pie reminds me of the Biblical creation story.  The world, flora, fauna Adam and Eve therefore,mankind came to be by an act of God. Just that there was no apparent methodology, in a week the universe was there.  People who buy into the literal interpretation of the Bible accept this on what they call faith.  Accepting on faith negates the need for facts or process.  Thing’s just appear, as did my mother’s pies.  They seemed to apparently materialize out of nowhere.

As I grew and became a sou chef of sorts and was able to handle recipes with ingredients or steps not exceeding 8, I began to realize in baking, food preparation and likely the creation of the Earth and its firmament, that they were brought into being via adistinct and definite process.  Later, I actually observed and then helped my mother bake and became part of that formerly mysterious process.  When I understood the steps, the process, the methods used it was no longer magical, just awe inspiring. I had greater love and respect for my mom the creator.  

Today we have a schism between the Bible and its literal stories that many people construe as historical fact.  Even stating that the Earth is not millions, or even billions of years old.  That the world-wide flood really happened and clearly implying that animals two by two were Fed-Exed from South America in order to survive the flood.  If there was no Fed- Ex or its equivalent in Biblical times was there at least a process by which animals in twos were delivered to the construction site of the ark?  

Faith would have us believe it just happened.  Even the tumbling of the Walls of Jericho had a process as did the linguistic changes surrounding the tower of Babble.  I suppose that if you deny the fact that the Universe may have come from the Big Bang and perhaps is the end of one universe and the beginning of another, that time is a man-made construct and is therefore meaningless in cosmic interpretations.  One must ask if the universe came from nowhere, where did God come from?  I digress.

I think the logic gets very confusing so my simple solution to bridge the faith/science schism is to accept that there is a God and, on most days, I’d like to believe that given my Mennonite background. Then maybe just maybe He/She used a process, if you exclude magic, or by just having things appear because he is all powerful.  Maybe, just maybe God set into motion the laws of physics and used them as a tool as He/She might have done with biology and evolution. 

My mom didn’t magically make pies and cakes appear.  She had a process and later a helper for what I was worth.  God (now a mother figure) used all of the laws of quantum mechanics, physics, biology, evolution to, over time, more than 4000 years, create the cosmos and the natural world in which we live. As a topical aside it takes man much less than 4000 years to totally ruin much of this work but that is material for another essay.  

My conclusion is that basically, God and science are but one or at least two sides of the same coin.  God did not make or develop science as a discipline.  Man did that part, simply over time and with great patience with God given talent studiedsystematically, using the scientific method, developed what we call the process and body of knowledge that we call science today.  It explains everything from gravity, evolution and smart phones.

What God made is the reality of gravity, the principles of evolution and the physical laws which govern the operation of a smart phone or anything else.  Man, just figures out a small part of the master plan and is still assembling the pieces.  People will accuse scientists and say, “You got it all wrong or you changed your mind,” and that is because, from our point of view, from mankind’s perspective, we are the students learning from the master and things do change as we learn more.  Science will continue to change as it reveals new truths.  It will never be static.

There is no schism between science and religion if you don’t want there to be.  God who came from nowhere used the principles of science to create everything.  This allows faith and science to merrily co-exist, no need to be persecuted or be burnt at the stake for heresy.  But you most certainly have to have a leap of faith to buy the integration of creation and science.  God would have it no other way.

Shelf Life

Shelf Life

 

We are the consumers of Wonder Bread, Cheese Whiz

Chemical laden processed foods with soft drink

Chasers, followed by smooth sugar snacks,

Our constant dessert companion.

 

Fast food, take-out-dinners, breakfast or lunch,

Via Uber-Eats or Skip the Dishes,

Obesity, out of shape, then we

Vape, smoke and take our one-a-day edibles

To liberate our minds.

 

Pollute the atmosphere, the oceans, the land

We swear its only a natural cycle, we have

No accountability, responsibility or blame. 

We spice our foods with flavor enhancers, Red Dye #9

Or a tasty selection, a range of yummy sulphites 220 to 228.

 

Nor do we ever tire of monosodium glutamate or

The ever-popular sodium nitrates,

We then complain about Fluoride in our water

And the “forced” use of beneficial vaccines.

“Not in my system!”

 

We OD with high levels of “street-level” fructose, 

corn syrup,

BHA or BHT and a host of other drugs,

Then loudly complain about Yoga and Pilate lessons,

Or even going for a walk, sitting in

Comfortable solidarity

As couch potatoes ever

Consuming hours of screen time, improving our minds

And our apposable thumb dexterity, truly a

Gift from evolution still

While devouring pizza from a box with Coke Zero

To promote weight loss.

 

As a species how is it, we are still here

Walking this slack tight rope, we call free choice

and life style?

At what point does resilience have a shelf life?

 

Social Media

Social Media

It use to take me much longer to read the Washington Post

These days its more opinion, less fact, more advertising

Truth isn’t what it use to be, it is not absolute

 now merely an abstraction filtered from multiple sources

 then filtered over and over again until the homogenized product

 is spewed out in sound bites for beginner ears on social media

 pre-determined by algorithms placing each an everyone of us

 into isolation bubbles of so called information, in turn it makes us

 angry and serves to divide us and lash out in anonymity against

 more anonymous enemies in every direction.  

There is no accountability, we doubt science and hail the truckers.

 We all then become disjointed versions of ourselves

 in an environment of discontent.

 Influencers may beat their children and be haled as virtuous, but

 we are convinced we are fully informed and righteous in our

 cause. We adapt the corporate good-speak in which employees

 are now associates, but we can’t raise the minimum wage.

We know there are solutions to every problem

 but with the high level of division they remain elusive just beyond

 grasp ever creating a cycle of frustration.

 The memes promote fossil fuels, regression,

 and status quo while mocking innovation and change. 

 

Conservatives sell their fear and very souls on every street corner,

while the rich hide the not- for- profit

 social solutions, promote and finance a mock democracy

 even if the candidates

 are not real and the results can never be verified, 

They let you believe it is forever power to the people.

It will all trickle down.

Pierre Poilievre Does not Listen to CBC

Pierre Poilievre does not listen to CBC

Pierre Poilievre spoke at the Conservative National Policy Convention in Quebec City on September 8th as if he were the incoming Prime Minister of Canada and perhaps he is just that.  Justin has had his eight year rule and in Amercan terms that is a done deal; so maybe he and the liberals should be looking for a more viable alternative.  I mean don’t get me wrong I am a liberal slash NDP guy myself. Having a minority party status with the two parties depending on each other I find brings out the best in each party while keeping the conservatives at bay frothing about truckers and pronouns.

But it might be time as politics does go in cycles, voting liberal then conservative, back and forth and it may be the portion of the cycle whereby with a new leadership and with product or brand fatigue the liberals put out a new product for longer shelf life.  However, I am not recommending Poilievre. I do find however that once the inevitable switch is made from a liberal to a conservative government, more out of fatigue and protest, that within a year people/voters are saying across “well informed” social media sources “look what those nefarious conservatives are doing cutting social programs. How dare they!  

In the second official language...

Quelle Surpris!

I would add just like they promised they would. Conservatives and Liberals alike do actually want to balance the books, but it is the conservatives that will attack education, health care, research and development, infrastructure, environment, Greenbelts and the like some very foundational mainstays of society and send a wake up call that reverberates through society begging the question what’s so good about a balanced economy I can’t even balance my credit card?

Isn’t that the situation with Ford in Ontario, the liberals may have gotten a little stale made a few mistakes the voters take a knee jerk reaction vote in the conservatives out of spite or to make a point and all of a sudden there goes the Green Belt, health care, and education.  However, the ads I see on TV these days sure paint a different picture. If I wasn’t an educator and I just saw those ads I’d say the conservatives were also in love with education.  They are not.

In theory everyone wants a balanced budget Mulroney, Cretien, Martin, Harper and now even Poilievre is saying that is our standard of good government.  Wild guess, but I think our country started in debt with the railroads and has continued in debt to this day. Have we ever been out of debt? Just putting it out there.  I would say debt is the norm for must households, most individuals and all countries, maybe not Norway.  Liberals and NDP would also like to be out of debt but this is more a rallying cry then anything remotely realistic. 

When Poilievre says to his people and others “Bring It Home”. What is he actually saying?  At the policy convention it appears it means  there should be “no surgical or medicinal interventions for gender diverse and transgender children”.  He and his party are quite clear on that issue.  Gender always seems to frighten conservatives for some reason many of them by virtue of their conservative natures get their solace from the bible, well need I go further as that goes into anti-science, no vaccines, faith and all the rest.

“Bring It Home” is a call against crime and for public safety as apparently presently there is chaos in the streets.  I was unaware of the crime wave but again that could just be my sheltered life style and white privilege.  I think though that conservatives do like to play the fear card when they can.  Fear and emotionally based decisions rather than facts and analytical problem solving seems to be their “go to”.  

Poilievre has a lot to say about the cost of living but in reality much of that is out of the scope of the Canadian economy.  None the less he calls for, in his words, “a common sense conservative government that frees hard working people to earn powerful pay cheques that buy affordable food, gas and homes in safe communities, or the alternative is Trudeau’s costly coalition.”

Really who could disagree with such an emotionally charged motherhood statement as that, it would be like hating puppies.  It is so universal it is practically a useless statement other than its super charged emotional appeal created by the contrast at the end.  He gives an alternative implying that Trudeau, liberals and NDP stand for all of the opposites.  It shows a lack of respect for logic and his opponents.

He wishes to incentivize cities to build more houses, provinces to develop more resources while at the same time scraping the carbon tax a defunding the libtard CBC.  He seems to be moving in many directions, while some of these issues are hot ticket items and need to be done I’m still not certain as to how conservatives would handle environmental issues, or if its even on their radar. And why CBC? Is it simply too liberal? Conservatives don’t listen or watch it, or simply don’t relate to it or understand it? 

Pierre’s wife, Anaida, made an appearance at the conference as well making it apparent that the couple have simple roots and have struggled themselves. She particularly singled out her support for nurses and plumbers and of course TRUCKERS.  Red flag, the so called “Freedon Convoy”.  Pierre did not condemn, or criticize it in any way, in fact he went out of his way to support it.  The truckers and their supporters gave him a flood of support in return. I simply question a leader and a party who does not recognize science, in this case determines that the freedom of the individual supersedes the common good in terms of pandemic control.  Its likely the single issue that swept him into power so quickly.  He won’t let this gem drop. 

My fear with the conservatives, this leadership, the truckers and their supporters is that with the next pandemic, when it comes, it will likely be more powerful and because of the divisiveness created and the mind set developed through pick up trucks waving Canadian flags people will question, debate and fight before they do anything productive about protecting society from another virus.  But I guess if you drive a big rig and you lead a bunch of conservatives you also understand how to divide and conquer.

In the near future should you willingly or through a protest vote or otherwise vote conservatives into power and you subsequently observe education, health care, and green belts being dismantled science disregarded and there is no CBC to listen to as you drive to work in a more polluted world.  Just remember who brought it all home.  

But what do I know I listen to CBC.

Marty Rempel