Are the SAT/ACT reliable representations of how freshman will perform in their first year of college?
I'm going to go ahead and start out by saying no. Multiple-choice question tests in general are unreliable. As my 7th grade Latin teacher was so fond of saying, as we prepared for the National Latin Exam, "A monkey could ace this thing." And it's true. Usually you are given 3-4 answers to choose from, so for each question you have about a 25% chance of getting it right if you just guess random answers. The probability that you will ace the test if there are 40 questions and you guess randomly for each one is very small, yet quite possible.
Further, the SAT is not a simple multiple choice test, it does some funky thing where you lose more points for answering wrong than you would for leaving the question blank. The result is that a family with excess money can spend thousands of dollars on tutors who teach their kid all of the little tricks for getting a few extra points, and in general, how to work the system. Thus someone with below average intelligence can easily get a much higher score on the SAT than a kid with above average intelligence, simply because he has been taught how the system works. This particular phenomenon is personal for me, since one such rich family stole one of my favorite high school teachers and paid him ridiculous sums of money to tutor their kids about how to work the SAT. We never got him back.
I suppose I have only answered a part of the question at this point, that is, no, the SAT/ACT are not reliable representations of the intelligence/reasoning ability of those who take it. People who get high scores might be dumb as a stone, while those with lower scores might be quite intelligent. As for whether the tests are reliable at predicting the academic performance of first year college students, again, I say no. I have at least two friends at Ithaca whose SAT scores were higher than mine, and yet their college GPA is far lower than mine. I watch them struggle in classes where I have very little trouble. Thus our relative SAT scores are unable to predict how we perform in our first year of college.
I do acknowledge that my data pool consists of only three people out of the many thousands of college students in the world. However, it is only an example of my point, and that is that any multiple-choice test, particularly one with easily manipulated factors, such as the SAT, is unreliable in determining how a student will fare in their first year of college. Also, the SAT only attempts to predict pure academic ability. It does not take into account the psychological effects of being effectively stripped of your family and friends and given a place to sleep in completely unfamiliar surroundings. It does not take into account the need to balance a social life with an academic life. It does not take into account the need to find a job, maintain it, and balance the time that takes with your social and academic life. Thus a kid with below average reasoning abilities might end up being a fantastic organizer, and thus get better scores on college tests because they get a good night's sleep every night, and they have general peace of mind and reduced stress.
In conclusion, I say once again that SAT scores are unreliable representations of how a student will do in their first year of college.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Is Torture Ever Justified
Is torture ever necessary? Is it ever considered justified?
Torture: the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty.
Ooh. Tough topic. Here we go
Well, to start off I am just going to throw out my initial, gut feeling, and that is that no, torture cannot be justified. I suppose we will have to look at some scenarios to more completely examine the topic. First off, we will look at different levels of torture.
I will begin with less severe forms of torture. Chinese water torture seems to me to be not terribly severe. Now, before all you who may have experienced it tear my head off, let me qualify the statement. I have never undergone Chinese water torture. I am not very qualified to comment on it. However, I am doing the best I can. This type of torture is purely psychological, as I understand it. It seems that the way it works is that hearing that drop so consistently and over long periods of time just drives you nuts. However, I do not believe that the affects are in any way permanent, and there are several ways we experience it in daily life. For one, every morning, my alarm rings in the exact same way at the exact same time. And every morning, I wake in very nearly a murderous rage. I really need to change that ringtone. A child, when trying to get something from its mother will often say "mommy!" at the exact same pitch over and over and over...and over...and over again until the mother can not take it anymore and caves. Also, back to my own experience, on Saturdays, one of only two days a week when my alarm does NOT go off, I like to sleep until a ways into the afternoon. However, the doors in my dorm are quite loud when they are allowed to close by themselves, and the soundproofing in the building is a joke. Thus, every Saturday morning, the JERK down the hall goes in and out of his room over...and over...and over again. Needless to say, I feel like strangling him, throwing him off the roof, running him over with a car, and burning whatever is left.
These three examples seem to be similar to water torture, particularly the example of the child, and yet we do not try that child for psychological abuse, and the mother is not scarred for life. However, these are very light examples. To couple the water aspect with sleep deprivation and other such things can leave lasting psychological damage. So now it falls to us to examine the needs of a given situation. If the knowledge that we know someone ahs will immediately deliver thousands of people from certain and gruesome death, and the only way to get the information is by severe torture, such as waterboarding or the extreme version of Chinese water torture, then you may have an argument. However, I still can not condone such extreme methods. I would gladly beat the stuffing out of the man with my own two fists for being such a (Insert many nasty things). I could not permanently damage the man's psyche. But would he not deserve it, you may ask? I am sure that he would deserve it, yet I am not so prideful as to take it upon myself to render that judgment on him. I believe that whatever horror I inflicted on him would echo in my own soul, and in a way, damage me even more than I would be damaging him. To take it upon oneself to make the judgment of how much one human life, one soul, is worth when measured against other lives and souls is folly. In order to do so would be to quantify the soul, which I defy you to do. Assuming that it is possible to quantify the soul (Which I have to say it is not), and rejecting the case of divine revelation, to quantify the soul would require immense experience, knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge and experience aside, wisdom is the very thing that tells you not to try it.
So ignoring the numerous minor tortures that people subject themselves and others to on a daily basis, and taking only the case of waterboarding and extreme water torture, I am going to stand by my original gut feeling. Under no circumstances is psychologically damaging or physically disfiguring torture justified. Furthermore, it is not necessary. Pain is not the only thing that can get someone to talk, there are any number of things that one can appeal to in another human being. Pain is simply the easiest. In the movie Body of Lies, Leonardo DiCaprio is a US intelligence agent in the middle east. He is stationed in Jordan, where he begins working with the Jordanian Head of Intelligence, Hani, the equivalent of the US CIA. In one scene, Hani shows DiCaprio the elegance with which he runs his operations. He captures a young man from an insurgent safe house. This is a young man that Hani has known since the man was a teenager. The man has not talked to his mother in a long time, and is currently running missions with terrorist insurgents. Hani hands the man a cell phone, and turns toward DiCaprio. He says that on the phone is the man's mother. She will say that she loves the gift and the note he sent her, and she is very happy to hear that he is shaping up to be a good young man, and has stopped running around with terrorists. She will say that she is proud of him and she loves him.
The gifts and the note are not from the man. They are from Hani. After the man hangs up the phone, Hani turns to him and says that if he does not cooperate, his mother will learn the truth about him. You never see nor hear from the man again until the end of the movie, when it turns out that he is the one who gives up the information that leads to capturing the terrorist leader, and saving DiCaprio's life. This is in stark contrast to the less elegant, often brutal methods that DiCaprio's boss has him use most often, and in the end, it is far more effective. Hani did not appeal to the man's fear of pain, nor any of the baser, animal instincts in human nature. Hani appealed to the man's love for his mother. Love, not pain.
Torture: the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty.
Ooh. Tough topic. Here we go
Well, to start off I am just going to throw out my initial, gut feeling, and that is that no, torture cannot be justified. I suppose we will have to look at some scenarios to more completely examine the topic. First off, we will look at different levels of torture.
I will begin with less severe forms of torture. Chinese water torture seems to me to be not terribly severe. Now, before all you who may have experienced it tear my head off, let me qualify the statement. I have never undergone Chinese water torture. I am not very qualified to comment on it. However, I am doing the best I can. This type of torture is purely psychological, as I understand it. It seems that the way it works is that hearing that drop so consistently and over long periods of time just drives you nuts. However, I do not believe that the affects are in any way permanent, and there are several ways we experience it in daily life. For one, every morning, my alarm rings in the exact same way at the exact same time. And every morning, I wake in very nearly a murderous rage. I really need to change that ringtone. A child, when trying to get something from its mother will often say "mommy!" at the exact same pitch over and over and over...and over...and over again until the mother can not take it anymore and caves. Also, back to my own experience, on Saturdays, one of only two days a week when my alarm does NOT go off, I like to sleep until a ways into the afternoon. However, the doors in my dorm are quite loud when they are allowed to close by themselves, and the soundproofing in the building is a joke. Thus, every Saturday morning, the JERK down the hall goes in and out of his room over...and over...and over again. Needless to say, I feel like strangling him, throwing him off the roof, running him over with a car, and burning whatever is left.
These three examples seem to be similar to water torture, particularly the example of the child, and yet we do not try that child for psychological abuse, and the mother is not scarred for life. However, these are very light examples. To couple the water aspect with sleep deprivation and other such things can leave lasting psychological damage. So now it falls to us to examine the needs of a given situation. If the knowledge that we know someone ahs will immediately deliver thousands of people from certain and gruesome death, and the only way to get the information is by severe torture, such as waterboarding or the extreme version of Chinese water torture, then you may have an argument. However, I still can not condone such extreme methods. I would gladly beat the stuffing out of the man with my own two fists for being such a (Insert many nasty things). I could not permanently damage the man's psyche. But would he not deserve it, you may ask? I am sure that he would deserve it, yet I am not so prideful as to take it upon myself to render that judgment on him. I believe that whatever horror I inflicted on him would echo in my own soul, and in a way, damage me even more than I would be damaging him. To take it upon oneself to make the judgment of how much one human life, one soul, is worth when measured against other lives and souls is folly. In order to do so would be to quantify the soul, which I defy you to do. Assuming that it is possible to quantify the soul (Which I have to say it is not), and rejecting the case of divine revelation, to quantify the soul would require immense experience, knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge and experience aside, wisdom is the very thing that tells you not to try it.
So ignoring the numerous minor tortures that people subject themselves and others to on a daily basis, and taking only the case of waterboarding and extreme water torture, I am going to stand by my original gut feeling. Under no circumstances is psychologically damaging or physically disfiguring torture justified. Furthermore, it is not necessary. Pain is not the only thing that can get someone to talk, there are any number of things that one can appeal to in another human being. Pain is simply the easiest. In the movie Body of Lies, Leonardo DiCaprio is a US intelligence agent in the middle east. He is stationed in Jordan, where he begins working with the Jordanian Head of Intelligence, Hani, the equivalent of the US CIA. In one scene, Hani shows DiCaprio the elegance with which he runs his operations. He captures a young man from an insurgent safe house. This is a young man that Hani has known since the man was a teenager. The man has not talked to his mother in a long time, and is currently running missions with terrorist insurgents. Hani hands the man a cell phone, and turns toward DiCaprio. He says that on the phone is the man's mother. She will say that she loves the gift and the note he sent her, and she is very happy to hear that he is shaping up to be a good young man, and has stopped running around with terrorists. She will say that she is proud of him and she loves him.
The gifts and the note are not from the man. They are from Hani. After the man hangs up the phone, Hani turns to him and says that if he does not cooperate, his mother will learn the truth about him. You never see nor hear from the man again until the end of the movie, when it turns out that he is the one who gives up the information that leads to capturing the terrorist leader, and saving DiCaprio's life. This is in stark contrast to the less elegant, often brutal methods that DiCaprio's boss has him use most often, and in the end, it is far more effective. Hani did not appeal to the man's fear of pain, nor any of the baser, animal instincts in human nature. Hani appealed to the man's love for his mother. Love, not pain.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Are professional athletes/musical artists/actors overpaid?
The prompt for this week's blog is this: First, explain the criteria by which you define "overpaid," taking into account such factors as how you determine the value of a product or service, comparisons between athletes and other members of the workforce, etc. Then, explain how the compensation of professional athletes does or does not meet that criteria. You may choose to discuss one particular sport, if you wish, or you may compare some sports to others in order to fine-tune your arguement.
First, the category I will be examining will be professional athletes. I know exactly no specifics about how much anyone in the sports industry gets paid, but I know that there are those who are paid upwards of several millions of dollars over a 2-3 year contract.
Now, to put forth a starting definition of "overpaid." One is overpaid if one is being paid more than one can dispose of on food, reasonably comfortable housing, education of one's own family, and the necessities of leading a fulfilling life.
Based on only that definition, I believe that there are athletes who do not fall under this criteria, making the answer to the broader question of whether professional athletes are overpaid "No." I know that there are athletes who donate large amounts of their wealth to charities and other organizations that do good works. However, my basic understanding of the sports industry is that this is not common. While it is common that athletes donate money to good causes, it is true that they keep unnecessarily large amounts of money to themselves, more than they can honestly claim to spend well.
I think that I should clarify some of the terms I have used, such as "fulfilling." I am decidedly Christian, Catholic, to be more precise, and so my view of fulfillment may be quite a bit different than most peoples'. When I say a fulfilling life, I mean one in which one has a loving relationship with God (Which requires no money at all), in which one earns respect not through what he has but who he is, and in which one gives wholly of himself, that others might breathe easier.
Now, to further determine whether or not athlete X is overpaid, let us examine the value of his product, entertainment, versus the value of other products such as food, security, and sanitation. The broad question is, coud we live without the entertainment we derive from watching football? Soccer? Any sport? I would have to say definitely yes. Can we live without food? No. Can we live without at least basic sanitation and health care? I am sure that there are those who can, but let me ask you this. Would you really want to live in a hovel with no running water or plumbing at all, no medicine, and nothing stopping someone from walking into your "house" and taking your stuff or murdering you, yet have a tv that can get you the latest sports games live? I think not. So athlete X's contribution to society pales when it comes to the need for basic necessities, and yet farmers, plumbers, policemen/women are paid, over their entire lives, a fraction of what athlete X is paid in only 3 years.
Now, one might criticize me for choosing such an extreme example, so let me choose another. The Constitution of the United States of America states that the president of said united states be paid 200,000$ a year. Given, that amount has been adjusted for inflation but somehow I doubt that inflation has turned that 200,000$ into upwards of 5 million dollars. And, as I understand it, five million dollars over 3 years can actually be a low estimate of how much many football players are paid.
In conclusion, as a general statement, yes, I believe professional athletes are overpaid, but as yet I have no simple solution to put forth, as the issue is extremely complex and trying a simple fix would lead to even worse problems. However, I respect and admire those athletes who give back to those wh oare around them, and who are needy.
First, the category I will be examining will be professional athletes. I know exactly no specifics about how much anyone in the sports industry gets paid, but I know that there are those who are paid upwards of several millions of dollars over a 2-3 year contract.
Now, to put forth a starting definition of "overpaid." One is overpaid if one is being paid more than one can dispose of on food, reasonably comfortable housing, education of one's own family, and the necessities of leading a fulfilling life.
Based on only that definition, I believe that there are athletes who do not fall under this criteria, making the answer to the broader question of whether professional athletes are overpaid "No." I know that there are athletes who donate large amounts of their wealth to charities and other organizations that do good works. However, my basic understanding of the sports industry is that this is not common. While it is common that athletes donate money to good causes, it is true that they keep unnecessarily large amounts of money to themselves, more than they can honestly claim to spend well.
I think that I should clarify some of the terms I have used, such as "fulfilling." I am decidedly Christian, Catholic, to be more precise, and so my view of fulfillment may be quite a bit different than most peoples'. When I say a fulfilling life, I mean one in which one has a loving relationship with God (Which requires no money at all), in which one earns respect not through what he has but who he is, and in which one gives wholly of himself, that others might breathe easier.
Now, to further determine whether or not athlete X is overpaid, let us examine the value of his product, entertainment, versus the value of other products such as food, security, and sanitation. The broad question is, coud we live without the entertainment we derive from watching football? Soccer? Any sport? I would have to say definitely yes. Can we live without food? No. Can we live without at least basic sanitation and health care? I am sure that there are those who can, but let me ask you this. Would you really want to live in a hovel with no running water or plumbing at all, no medicine, and nothing stopping someone from walking into your "house" and taking your stuff or murdering you, yet have a tv that can get you the latest sports games live? I think not. So athlete X's contribution to society pales when it comes to the need for basic necessities, and yet farmers, plumbers, policemen/women are paid, over their entire lives, a fraction of what athlete X is paid in only 3 years.
Now, one might criticize me for choosing such an extreme example, so let me choose another. The Constitution of the United States of America states that the president of said united states be paid 200,000$ a year. Given, that amount has been adjusted for inflation but somehow I doubt that inflation has turned that 200,000$ into upwards of 5 million dollars. And, as I understand it, five million dollars over 3 years can actually be a low estimate of how much many football players are paid.
In conclusion, as a general statement, yes, I believe professional athletes are overpaid, but as yet I have no simple solution to put forth, as the issue is extremely complex and trying a simple fix would lead to even worse problems. However, I respect and admire those athletes who give back to those wh oare around them, and who are needy.
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