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From: ok@quintus.uucp (Richard A. O'Keefe)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.math,sci.physics
Subject: Re: Student and Course Integrity
Message-ID: <871@quintus.UUCP>
Date: 15 Dec 88 22:28:03 GMT
References: <1131@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu> <1887@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> <859@quintus.UUCP> <9940@quacky.mips.COM>
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Reply-To: ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe)
Organization: Quintus Computer Systems, Inc.
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In article <9940@quacky.mips.COM> danny@mips.COM (Danny Ammon) writes:
>In article <859@quintus.UUCP>, ok@quintus.uucp (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes:
>> In article <4362@Portia.Stanford.EDU> zimm@Portia.stanford.edu (Dylan Yolles) writes:
>> >The fact that he actually *posted* the results is despicable,
>> >though--he shouldn't have carried through with his promise.

>> I still don't understand this.  WHY would it be despicable?
>> I have been in this country for nearly 4 years now, and have never felt
>> so alien:  I honestly do not see why anyone would object to this.

>Grades are personal information which a student may share with others
>if he/she wishes.  The student's grades are nobody else's business.

Look, this is simply repeating the same assertion over again.
Why is it ok for other people to know whether you passed or failed,
but not whether you got a C+ or an A-?  The granting of a degree is
a matter of public record, for heaven's sake!  It's as if people were
saying that it was ok for the public to know whether you were over or
under 180cm tall, but despicable for someone to say in public that
your height was 160cm or 170cm.

Also, it is not the case that "The student's grades are nobody else's
business."  In a society which does not exalt competition, a student who
is having difficulty with a problem would do well to consult another
student who is more capable than he in that subject, because the more
capable student is likely to understand the _difficulty_ as well as the
answer.  So it is to the advantage of the less capable student to know
which of his fellow students are in fact more capable in that subject.
In a society which was so evil that students didn't help each other,
this advantage would not exist, but in NZ and the UK it was a real help.

>Not to say that grades and money are the same, but consider the analogy:
>	Bank tellers do not broadcast the balance of my account
>	to all their customers.
But banks *DO* provide this information to a hostile agency (the IRS).
Not a good analogy.