I’ve only just seen this.Indeed.
What has always pissed me off about my academic colleagues is most of them are sheep (I once described a colleague as someone who, if told one of her kids had to die, would conduct a brief survey to determine which - she ended up as my HoD), and some of them are psychopaths (getting on with their own research and spending a little time as possible doing 'regression to the mean' marking; another colleague of mine boasts he can mark an essay in 15 seconds by skim reading it).
So the shit rises to the top (or management). Just as he electorate always get the governments they deserve, large 'meritocratic' institutions like universities get the senior management they deserve.
We NEVER rebuke individuals for shoddy marking. Instead, in order to preclude student complaints we invent ever more elaborate systems of assessment, culminating in this absurd blind independent marking. This works well at much lower educational levels where all staff know all the curriculum, and is intended simply as an error check mechanism. At higher level it is proven to be inappropriate due to lack of expertize among the independent markers. I have explained this to various committees with the evidence but the response is 'nevertheless, we feel that it is fairer and more transparent to use blinded independent marking'. Twats, indeed.
You also remind me of an episode when I was 6. I got bored in class and started experimenting with 'wavy' writing. My parents were told I may have to go into the 'backward' class. Then I got a crush on the smartest girl in class and started to work hard to show off. Then through junior school I did the same - massive crush on a super bright girl, and so working hard had to be my thing (for reasons of logic that now escape me). Fast forward nearly 60 years and I find I'm on the Aspergers/autism spectrum, and the reason for my instinctive lack of engagement, disdain for other peoples' wormy routine, and half baked foolishness, dancing to the rhythm of my own drum all becomes clear. Had I not had a childish crush when very young I could easily have been dumped in the education dustbin, and ended up like wokeworrier.
Who’ve you got a crush on now, Harry?
