ix can our property be held for ransom for a midterm
Was I mistaken, or did Dr. Roger Casey say that upon entering the class on the day of the midterm we had to surrender our bags and place them up against the wall before proceeding with the test? If I heard mistakenly, please forgive the following (but I seriously doubt I heard him incorrectly).
Does it not offend or even bother anyone that this elementary totalitarian tactic is going to take place? Do we just sit idly by and let ourselves be treated like children whom cannot be trusted with our own belongings? Why stop there? Why not take it yet another step further and search our person for potential “threats” to the integrity of test taking? Have we not already pledged our allegiance to the Academic Honor Code? Won’t we be signing off on the test that on our “honor [we] have not given, nor received, nor witnessed any unauthorized assistance on [the] work?”
Firstly, nothing in the AHC says that I am obligated or conceding to submit my personal belongings.
Secondly, nothing in the overview of policies states that we are expected to comply with this requirement in order for us to participate in a midterm—in fact, nothing of this “grade-school-teacher” tactic is mentioned at all.
And finally, by taking our belongings, even asking us to surrender them before the test, negates the very purpose of our AHC pledge. We obviously are not trusted to keep our word, so we are still going to be required to participate in this phony signing of our complicity, but as an added precaution, they’ll take our cheating temptations away just in case. If the assumption of our cheating potential is so strong that we need to have our stuff temporarily confiscated, as if we were back in grade school, than at least spare us the hypocrisy of having to sign a pledge that has no more worth than a couple of squares of toilet paper. If this is the environment that is being fostered today in the Holt program, then I am glad this is my last semester. Still, it is a shame to have to leave such a great program with such a detestable last taste.
posted by blogsquatch @ 1:23 PM
2 Comments:
FYI: That you have nothing on your desk except a writing utensil is required for test-taking condition compliance.
Setting aside all belongings is a suggestion to avoid anyone else suggesting they have seen the test-taking conditions violated. I've always suggested students do this (and I've also never proctored an exam). I've made this suggestion to avoid potential false allegations, not to police the room.
it's good to know that the wonderful AHC's "students self-policing" clause has engendered such a paranoidal state, but false accusations have potential under any test taking scenarios (we can have answer scrap of paper in pockets, text message answers on cell phones, etc) barring maybe taking an exam in the nude.
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