The Exam Lottery

Is it some kind of new practice in Universities to have exams where the students are aware of the subject matter involved but not the specific content the exam examinates?

Do professors think they're doing a service by having students study more than is necessary just to hit them with a battery of specific, well-aimed questions?

My point: Shouldn't kids be able to know what they need to study to pass an exam?

My opinion: Can't you tell by the way I wrote the above question?

Professors who casually assign a chapter just to gouge a question from a single line of a single paragraph on a single page in that chapter are in fact doing a disservice
to the very students they intend to help, to TEACH.

Exams are, in effect, an evaluation of a student's ability to remember and assimilate what is IMPORTANT from a chapter, from a discussion, from a lecture. If you have kids writing down even your "Um"s and "Well"s you're setting them up for failure. This is why there's a discrepancy between "Time Studied" and "Grade Received." In our University (and, for that matter, complete Scholastic) system, a grade received by a student does not necessarily reflect the time the student spent studying, the effort the student spent studying, or the intellect of said student. Concepts and facts are memorized, tested, and forgotten. Those with the best grades are the ones with the best memories. Studying is an activity that is hit-or-miss at best: either you studied and memorized a fact you'll need, or you didn't. You don't get any time back for the things you studied and didn't need to.

Not telling students what is important to remember is in fact telling them that either nothing is important to remember or everything is. And since everyone knows that exams test SOMETHING, then they'd rather err in the corner of caution and attempt to remember every scrap of everything you've ever said, posted or assigned in the hopes that they retain that one percent that will actually be tested.

And I'm completely in awe of the Professors I have who promise that the next exam will be "much harder," or "more in-depth," or "graded with stricter expectations." Are you kidding me? Not only do I not know what to study in the first place, now I can't even expect regularity in the exam structure?

Are professors doing all they can to SCREW STUDENTS OVER just so that only the "very best" get 4.0s? Whatever happened to equal opportunity? If EVERYONE can't get a 4.0, why should ANYONE be able to? This isn't a small problem - not if a student enters every class knowing that the best percentage of the students will get the best grades, and the other majority won't - for whatever reason - it forces the average student (a group in which I'd consider myself) into the position that unless he does his absolute best, the best outcome is out of his reach. And so, he must study EVERYTHING the teacher says, posts or assigns so that he might remember that one key fact on the exam.

Now, you might say - Sure, well, just let him do his absolute best. Ok. So he does. In THAT class. What do you do about the other three, four, or five he's taking? Is one 4.0 and three 2.5s justified?

Are you getting any of this yet?

Do you understand why so many University students suffer from severe stress,
depression, and sleep disorders?

Professors - You're reading this. Listen:

If you're going to have a certain number of exams, each one weighing heavily on the outcome of a student's final grade in the course, make the exams reflect the effort the student put into the course. If he went to class, if he read, if he took notes - he should do well. Make the exams exemplary of themselves. Don't change the rules in the middle of the game.

University is about teaching, and learning. It's about equal opportunities. It's about fairness, and helping students grow into healthy members of society. Exams are about testing key concepts and things that are important to remember, not arbitrary facts that have no bearing on the course.

Remember - you're here to help the students learn.

Not to teach them that what they learned doesn't matter.

More Than We Could Chew?

Maybe that's all right.

I mean, turning around a losing team in one year, getting to the playoffs and beating the storied Yankees in four games...maybe that's enough.

My point is: Were Tigers fans really ready for this anyway? Wouldn't you have burst out laughing if a man claiming to be from November 2006 showed up in your living room a year ago and told you the Tigers had won the World Series?

Don't answer that. Of course you would have.

My point is: There's no precedent for a team turning back from 12 losing seasons to absolute baseball Providence in one season. The Tigers would have been that precedent. Should have been that precedent? Maybe, but who really decides that? I knew Brandon Inge was going to strike out in the situation he was in - bottom of the ninth, 2 outs, 2 on, go-ahead run at the plate. He swung at perhaps one strike, but it was all right. In that situation, I was almost rooting for him to fail. Because if the Baseball Gods put that game-winning home run into his arms right then, they're just toying with us.

Detroit fans, it was inevitable, whether you pitched Kenny Rogers or not (impending Christy Mathewson record in sight or not). Better to lose in St. Louis than in Detroit.

Bit off more than you could chew, young Tigers? I don't think so. I just don't think it was your time to swallow.

Smudgegate...Yes or No?

I say yes. Yes as in, "Yes, that was pine tar on Kenny Rogers' hand."

I mean, he's on my team, and I want to believe him, but he needs to do a better job of convincing me. And when we find out he lies to the press about whether the officials said anything to him about the smudge, it only heightens the suspicions. Here's a picture I want to share.


All right, so he says it's dirt mixed with rosin. Right? You think dirt and rosin make your skin all shiny like that?

I climbed trees as a kid, I know what pine tar (or pitch, as we used to call it - perhaps even getting that particular nickname from the baseball connotation)looks like on my hand. It's sticky, and it's shiny. Like whatever was on Rogers' hand.

Now, I'm not saying that's what it is for sure. I mean, pine tar isn't exactly easy to get off your hand. You have to wash, and sometimes soap isn't even enough. I used to have to AJAX or COMET the stuff out of my skin back in the old days, and if Kenny wiped it off like he says he did, then it's a new breed of pine tar. But maybe he did wash.

Of course, avid Tiger fans will argue (as if I'm not one myself) that even if it was something substantial, it didn't matter - since the Cardinals got the first of their two hits that inning and didn't get another one until all the way in the eighth. Is this good logic?

Nope. Cheating is cheating. LaRussa didn't push it because he's rather fond of old Leyland and doesn't want to put that friendship on the line for something so small as the World Series. Of course, if he DOES push it, and it IS pine tar, Kenny's out of this game and suspended for 10 more. That happens, and the Cardinals win this game. No doubt, they win it. Even if it was for only an inning, and even if it didn't affect the outcome of the game, it's still wrong - even in the eyes of guys who might be secretly juicing on the side.

Baseball is full of cheaters, that's for sure. To my assessment of what happened today, Kenny Rogers might be one of them. I really don't want to believe that, and I wish I didn't, but Kenny - you didn't really leave me any other choice.

It'll be great if the Tigers are sparked by this and go on to win the Series...but do you really want to be looking back at this series twenty years from now wondering if Rogers' historic 23+ consecutive scoreless inning run was something of a doctored run? Sure, the guy's got talent, but I've got other loyal Tigers' fans telling me they've seen the same smudge during his other starts. It's always fun to see a great feat performed as you watch, but if you find out it was a trick later on, a fake, a hoax - it's not real.

And I'd hate to be wondering in twenty years if Kenny Rogers, the man Detroit's rallied behind, wasn't real.

This is Glory, Detroit, with a capital G. And you're representing us, with the D's on your chests. Don't take that Glory away from us by scuffing it up with words like "Cheating" and "Controversy." This is for the players. This is for Kenny Rogers. If you did it, own up. If you didn't, deny it. But be honest.

This is for the fans.

Tell Us We Can't Win

Detroit fans are used to disappointment. Whether it's the Lions, struggling to win four games in a season, or the Pistons, who seem unbeatable only to falter in the playoffs, to the Red Wings, largely dormant in the last five years after the Age of Yzerman, or the Tigers who have had twelve straight losing seasons, we've all had to turn our heads at some point.

Now, losing game 1 of the World Series, analysts who have picked the Tigers are silently kicking themselves, because it's clear now that Detroit is Detroit - and the Tigers can't bring it home.

This, of course, is complete bull.

Even if the Tigers lose this World Series - even if they get swept by the Cardinals, this season is a success. Going from 119 losses three years ago to the World Series, truly bringing it home (to Detroit) for the first time in 22 years.

And if we lose, that's a failure? Come on.

Do you think Jim Leyland expected to come on as manager of the Tigers and get to the World Series in his first year? Do you think that if he lost he'd be crushed? I don't. He wants to win, that's clear. He'll manage his team to win. But if he loses, if our Tigers lose, it gives him something to work for next year, or the year after that.

Our guys played not so good tonight. The Cardinals' Reyes pulled a no-hitter on all but 2 of our batters. It's impossible to win a game with that combination. Impossible.

You've got a hundred sports analysts ready to jump off the Tigers' bandwagon at any moment. Looking for any sign that they might have been wrong. For many, tonight was that sign.

Tonight, you've got guys saying words like "shock," and "upset." But is there such a thing? In baseball, or even a best of seven series? I don't think so. Just because a game is on a national stage, and it's called "The World Series" doesn't mean it's not baseball. And in baseball, these things happen. Any given day, the worst team takes the best team to the ground. Any given day, something new happens - something you've never seen before. Scott Rolen plowing Brandon Inge over to get awarded home plate. That's something I've never seen.

It's impossible to predict baseball, and that's why you'll find that baseball analysts are routinely wrong, and in hindsight have predictions that are laughable. Look at the Tigers against the Royals, last series of the season. Look at the ALDS versus the Yankees. Look at the ALCS versus the A's. Look at tonight's game, and you'll know what I'm talking about.

If you want to know what's going to happen, take the opposite of the "analyst" consensus. More often than not, you'll be right more than they are. That's why I want the analysts off the bandwagon. Now.

Tell us we're going to lose. That we're going to be swept. That we can't hold our own. That we're embarrasments to our fans. That we can't come through in a clutch. That we can't hold a lead. That we can't come back to win a game.

Tell us that.

And then watch.

Mindless Propaganda

Why Not?

Never Giving Up

So, here we are. Four days ago we were sweaty, and we were nervous, but those of us out there with an olde English D emblazoned proudly on our hearts were also excited and optimistic at the prospect of facing Oakland's A's in the American League Championship Series. Our team had proved to us that they had the stuff, even when we'd (at least I'd) counted them out before they'd begun that turn-around series against the Yanks. Lucky to win one game, I said. Well, I was wrong.

Wrong by about six, and an adjective.

Lucky? No. Skill and determination, hard work and a "don't tell us we can't" attitude, have replaced Luck for these 2006 Detroit Tigers. And if you didn't believe, like I didn't, shame on you. Shame on you and shame on me, because the players never gave up.

Never giving up means coming from behind to beat the supposed best team in baseball by one.

Never giving up means making every sports writer, announcer, prognosticator, eat their words - especially when the words are "fluke" and "Yankees game." It means shutting out the most highly-touted offensive lineup since the '27 Bombers. It renders a two run home run in the ninth by catcher Jorge Posada meaningless, when your offense has already put up eight runs.

Never giving up means taking a game into the bottom of the ninth tied, and having players believe. One out, ok. Two outs, and it's not over. A hit, another hit, a walk-off home run. Second round-tripper of the night for a man who was simply trying to fulfill his son's birthday wish. And the wishes of everyone in the dugout, the bullpen, and the stands.

Never giving up means giving something back to a city that has watched its team go 12 straight years without reaching .500. It means trusting in the tried as well as the untested, from Jim Leyland and David Dombrowski to rookie Justin Verlander and unlikely DH Alexis Gomez.

Never giving up means...it means never giving up. Never.

And if there were a movie that better played out the events of this season with that message, with actors and plots and the eventual token "winning moment," I'd watch it, sure. But I would never in a million years take it over the feeling I have from the real thing.

This is happening, sports fans.

The Tigers are going to the World Series.

For The Love of Lilly

Well, it's done. The big 14,000 word monster that's been giving me a constant migraine for a week. Trouble is, I don't know if it's good enough.

Good enough for what, you ask?

Well, I want to be published. Specifically in Orson Scott Card's IGMS...(oscigms.com) - since I have sort of an in there, and it's a good place to start out as a new writer.

Actually, strike what I said earlier. I think it's good enough, but I don't know if it's short enough.

It's called "For The Love of Lilly."

Think about this - when I print it out tomorrow, double-spaced and all that, it'll come in at a hefty fifty pages. Maybe that's too much...but I have read plenty of stories that seemed that long - most in "Best Of" collections. Also, it seems the average over at IGMS is 10,000 words...based on the one story I looked at. No, don't worry - I'm off to do more research on it at the moment.

And by the way: In searching for something that would help me format the thing, I ran into a distinction that makes me uneasy. "Up to 7,500 words is a short story. Up to 17,000 words is a novelette."

Dear God, I've created a monster...novelette.

I Feel...

...like I could have woken up, stabbed myself in the heart with a dagger, and gone back to sleep.

...like my head is a pumpkin that several rock bands have been taking turns smashing over the last few hours.

...like all I care about is baseball, even though that's not true - the feverish dreams, however disagree.

...like this is the fourth or fifth consecutive day I've had a migraine...pain so intense it seems to bleed out my earholes.

...like I should have stayed in bed and skipped class, even though I would have felt guiltier than I want to admit.

...like maybe I won't get better until I finish writing this story, even though it's twelve thousand words long and I can't seem to find a way for it to...just end right.

...like it's weird that I keep dreaming the Tigers are winning, and even though I've been right up till now, I don't want to trust that it's going to happen. Current bets, though, are on the Tigers for game one.

...like maybe I'm tired of just waiting to be cured of whatever I'm sick of. Like maybe I'm going to visit the health center later on.

Aww...

Oh, how I do love being wrong (about things like this).

To New York

Not me. The Detroit Tigers lost 5 in a row at the end of the season...and now, the lead we've had the majority of the season. We're going to New York to play the Yankees.

We'll be lucky to win one game.