Civics lesson

[jpinpb]

A Great History Lesson For All Of Us

An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had never failed a single
student before but had, once, failed an entire class. The majority of the
class had insisted that socialism was a better system as no one would be
poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said
ok, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism.

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so
no one would fail and no one would receive an A. After the first test the
grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard
were upset and the students who studied little were happy. But, as the
second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied
even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too; so
they studied little. The second Test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling all resulted
in hard feelings and no one would study for anyone else. All failed to their
great surprise and the professor told them that socialism would ultimately
fail because the harder to succeed the greater the reward but when a
government takes all the reward away; no one will try or succeed.

I can’t wait for my free ride to start….NOT!

[XBoxBoy]

JP,

A fascinating story. Wonder if it’s true or just another urban legend?

While I don’t want to promote socialism or argue against the lesson of the story, I would think that in a college class, some of the students would start to take leadership roles and would put peer pressure on all to study. For instance, I could see the students who want better grades to start a study group that everyone would be pressured to attend. For them all to just give up seems highly unlikely unless the overwhelming majority of them were unmotivated towards their grade.

My biggest suspicion about why this story isn’t true is that generally it takes years for socialism to fall apart, not a matter of a single semester’s time. And how convenient that the professor got a whole class who at the beginning of the class was full of socialists and everyone agreed to this scheme. (Personally I would have gone to the dean right away)

So, I doubt it’s true, but a fun story none the less.

XBoxBoy

[XBoxBoy]

JP,

A fascinating story. Wonder if it’s true or just another urban legend?

While I don’t want to promote socialism or argue against the lesson of the story, I would think that in a college class, some of the students would start to take leadership roles and would put peer pressure on all to study. For instance, I could see the students who want better grades to start a study group that everyone would be pressured to attend. For them all to just give up seems highly unlikely unless the overwhelming majority of them were unmotivated towards their grade.

My biggest suspicion about why this story isn’t true is that generally it takes years for socialism to fall apart, not a matter of a single semester’s time. And how convenient that the professor got a whole class who at the beginning of the class was full of socialists and everyone agreed to this scheme. (Personally I would have gone to the dean right away)

So, I doubt it’s true, but a fun story none the less.

XBoxBoy

[XBoxBoy]

JP,

A fascinating story. Wonder if it’s true or just another urban legend?

While I don’t want to promote socialism or argue against the lesson of the story, I would think that in a college class, some of the students would start to take leadership roles and would put peer pressure on all to study. For instance, I could see the students who want better grades to start a study group that everyone would be pressured to attend. For them all to just give up seems highly unlikely unless the overwhelming majority of them were unmotivated towards their grade.

My biggest suspicion about why this story isn’t true is that generally it takes years for socialism to fall apart, not a matter of a single semester’s time. And how convenient that the professor got a whole class who at the beginning of the class was full of socialists and everyone agreed to this scheme. (Personally I would have gone to the dean right away)

So, I doubt it’s true, but a fun story none the less.

XBoxBoy

[XBoxBoy]

JP,

A fascinating story. Wonder if it’s true or just another urban legend?

While I don’t want to promote socialism or argue against the lesson of the story, I would think that in a college class, some of the students would start to take leadership roles and would put peer pressure on all to study. For instance, I could see the students who want better grades to start a study group that everyone would be pressured to attend. For them all to just give up seems highly unlikely unless the overwhelming majority of them were unmotivated towards their grade.

My biggest suspicion about why this story isn’t true is that generally it takes years for socialism to fall apart, not a matter of a single semester’s time. And how convenient that the professor got a whole class who at the beginning of the class was full of socialists and everyone agreed to this scheme. (Personally I would have gone to the dean right away)

So, I doubt it’s true, but a fun story none the less.

XBoxBoy

[XBoxBoy]

JP,

A fascinating story. Wonder if it’s true or just another urban legend?

While I don’t want to promote socialism or argue against the lesson of the story, I would think that in a college class, some of the students would start to take leadership roles and would put peer pressure on all to study. For instance, I could see the students who want better grades to start a study group that everyone would be pressured to attend. For them all to just give up seems highly unlikely unless the overwhelming majority of them were unmotivated towards their grade.

My biggest suspicion about why this story isn’t true is that generally it takes years for socialism to fall apart, not a matter of a single semester’s time. And how convenient that the professor got a whole class who at the beginning of the class was full of socialists and everyone agreed to this scheme. (Personally I would have gone to the dean right away)

So, I doubt it’s true, but a fun story none the less.

XBoxBoy

[jpinpb]

I knew the Piggs would go through it thoroughly. I would think they’d take the other kids in the hall and beat them into studying so they’d all get A’s. It said Texas tech. If it were SDSU, I’d think more credible. The kids just gave up and wanted to party.

[jpinpb]

I knew the Piggs would go through it thoroughly. I would think they’d take the other kids in the hall and beat them into studying so they’d all get A’s. It said Texas tech. If it were SDSU, I’d think more credible. The kids just gave up and wanted to party.

[jpinpb]

I knew the Piggs would go through it thoroughly. I would think they’d take the other kids in the hall and beat them into studying so they’d all get A’s. It said Texas tech. If it were SDSU, I’d think more credible. The kids just gave up and wanted to party.

[jpinpb]

I knew the Piggs would go through it thoroughly. I would think they’d take the other kids in the hall and beat them into studying so they’d all get A’s. It said Texas tech. If it were SDSU, I’d think more credible. The kids just gave up and wanted to party.

[jpinpb]

I knew the Piggs would go through it thoroughly. I would think they’d take the other kids in the hall and beat them into studying so they’d all get A’s. It said Texas tech. If it were SDSU, I’d think more credible. The kids just gave up and wanted to party.

[DWCAP]

I have no doubt that this is more urban myth than real history. If for no other reason than all the students who studied hard and didnt get A’s would go to the dean and complain and this little experiment would be over. Even though there is a huge error rate, schools still attempt to use grades to denote how well students understood the material, not as a reward for studying.

Fun thought experiment though. The problem here is the assumption that the students are lazy and have NO natual aptitude for the material. I had plenty of classes where I really enjoyed the material and have kept up with it afterwards just for my own reward. I have known plenty of people who “could just play”, to borrow a phrase, no matter how little they studied. So the lesson then would be that Socialism could work with the right sinario/setup?

[DWCAP]

I have no doubt that this is more urban myth than real history. If for no other reason than all the students who studied hard and didnt get A’s would go to the dean and complain and this little experiment would be over. Even though there is a huge error rate, schools still attempt to use grades to denote how well students understood the material, not as a reward for studying.

Fun thought experiment though. The problem here is the assumption that the students are lazy and have NO natual aptitude for the material. I had plenty of classes where I really enjoyed the material and have kept up with it afterwards just for my own reward. I have known plenty of people who “could just play”, to borrow a phrase, no matter how little they studied. So the lesson then would be that Socialism could work with the right sinario/setup?

[DWCAP]

I have no doubt that this is more urban myth than real history. If for no other reason than all the students who studied hard and didnt get A’s would go to the dean and complain and this little experiment would be over. Even though there is a huge error rate, schools still attempt to use grades to denote how well students understood the material, not as a reward for studying.

Fun thought experiment though. The problem here is the assumption that the students are lazy and have NO natual aptitude for the material. I had plenty of classes where I really enjoyed the material and have kept up with it afterwards just for my own reward. I have known plenty of people who “could just play”, to borrow a phrase, no matter how little they studied. So the lesson then would be that Socialism could work with the right sinario/setup?

[DWCAP]

I have no doubt that this is more urban myth than real history. If for no other reason than all the students who studied hard and didnt get A’s would go to the dean and complain and this little experiment would be over. Even though there is a huge error rate, schools still attempt to use grades to denote how well students understood the material, not as a reward for studying.

Fun thought experiment though. The problem here is the assumption that the students are lazy and have NO natual aptitude for the material. I had plenty of classes where I really enjoyed the material and have kept up with it afterwards just for my own reward. I have known plenty of people who “could just play”, to borrow a phrase, no matter how little they studied. So the lesson then would be that Socialism could work with the right sinario/setup?

[Author]

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