From Fark: Failure from 0 to 50.
"It's a classic mathematical dilemma: that the students have a six times greater chance of getting an F," says Douglas Reeves.
Dumbass.
His retarded probability estimate defies belief. This isn't how tolerances work.
I can't imagine anyone saying something as stupid if they were talking about parts from an assembly line. For example, if the tolerance of a resistor is +-5% from some factory, claiming "resistors have a nine times greater chance of being discarded [than being shipped] on the basis that 100% - 2*5% = 90%, and 90% / (2*5%) = 9" is utterly asinine. The quantity 90% is meaningless and says nothing about the underlying probability distribution.
Goddamn. This is stupid.
Free academic credit awarded to encourage self-esteem in spite of sucking at school is also a bad idea, but the douchebags mentioned in this article disqualify their own opinions long before we can even approach the topics of psychology and education.
That said, you know what might help students to feel better about themselves? Being able to get right answers on their own.
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