RinRin Fantabulous

effasinfat:

lecochonbleu:

I keep seeing this little story on facebook about the economics professor who made his class socialist.  You probably know the one I’m on about: the professor makes takes everyone’s grade, makes a mean average from it and gives everyone that grade, and eventually everyone gives up and fails.  It’s bullshit and it doesn’t represent socialism at all (communism, yes, socialism, no), and I found myself getting more and more annoyed with it, so much so that on the way home from the recording studio tonight I came up with a way of recreating capitalism in the classroom.

The first week of class, everyone takes a test, and everyone is split into groups depending on their scores, we’ll call them tiers.  The 5% of people with the very highest scores are the top tier, which we’ll call tier 1, then the 10% of the class with scores just below these are tier 2, below them are the following 15% who are tier 3, then the next 60% make up tier 4, and finally the very lowest-scoring 10% have their own tier, tier 5.

The tier you start out in will dictate the amount of help you receive both in and out of class.  Tier 1 will have the lecturer at their every whim; they can act in class as they normally would, email the lecturer outside of class, visit their office, etc. and the lecturer in question will do everything they can to make sure these people get A’s. Tier 2 is a slight step down from this, though they won’t get the same attention tier 1 gets.  The third tier will have a good showing in the classroom but their help outside of the classroom is somewhat stunted; they can’t make appointments at the lecturer’s office, and if they email their lecturer they shouldn’t expect any kind of lengthy reply.  Tier 4, the biggest tier, won’t receive any help outside of the classroom.  They can still ask questions in class and participate, but the lecturer is much more concerned with the 3 tiers above them, so they won’t get much attention.  The final tier are at the very bottom of the pile, and get nothing.  No exterior help and no help in-class either, they aren’t welcome to participate in the class, and the lecturer won’t acknowledge their presence.

Those who have the academic nous are, in this system, essentially guaranteed success with little or no effort at all, whilst those who are most in need of aid are denied it.  This is pure, free-market capitalism applied to the classroom, achievement being our capital; tier 1 is our bourgeoisie and tier 5 the underclass, the lowest of low most in need of help, and the system is geared to maintain the status quo.  This is why I’m a socialist, because everyone deserves an equal oppurtunity in life, because money shouldn’t dictate your access to basic human rights, the right to a decent quality of life.

I don’t normally get political on here, but seeing that stupid fucking story again this morning sparked something off in me and I needed to say it.

Kevin, this is amazing.

Brilliant.