May 2009
5 posts
Response from TheLiberalCollector and CarpeOmnia...
Great response from Max and Graham to my previous post on Community and Grinding.
To summarize what I take from Max’ points:
Regulating dancing because some are unhappy with its results veres towards a “depressing utilitarianism.” Total happiness is important, but other things are important, too (for example: free expression, justice, etc.)
If its bad that dancing...
Thought 2: Community-Based Arguments in Free...
In high schools across the country, there have been debates regarding grinding during dances. Basically, the question asked is: Should people at a public dance be allowed to dance sexually, or should said dancing be regulated?
Many discussions center on rights-based arguments:
Pro-grinders argue, “We have the right to dance this way,” which is accompanied by sub-points such as...
Idea 2: Combat Nocturnal Boredom and Provide...
Okay, so this idea’s been lingering in my head.
Problem A: Suburban kids tend to be bored at night. [Sorry, I hate generalizations, too, but just run with me]. Though we were relatively good at being active in the day, my friends and I spent most of our late high school nights driving around and finding parks, parking lots, and 24-hour restaurants. We would have loved to just have...
Thought 1: Varied Assessment
During finals, I was thinking a lot about assessment, and I think its worth discussing if our current assessment tradition is the best one.
Currently, timed essays have close to a monopoly on final assessments in the liberal arts. Why not have the option of showing your knowledge through a timed discussion with the assessor?
Benefits of allowing an assessed discussion:
-It provides fairness to...
Idea 1: Using Wikis for Political Causes
What if we built public interest congressional lobbying pushes through a wiki.
Granularize (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granularity) tasks:
-Page for research
-Page for coming up with a slogan
-Pages for crafting personalized letters to each congressman
-Pages for crafting specific letters to the editor
-etc.
It’s hard for the average guy who cares about, say, fishery protection to quit...