Edit: this article has been featured on the front page of Hacker News.
Most would agree: the United States’ education system is broken. Funding is disproportionate, politics mess everything up, regurgitating is emphasized more than understanding, et cetera. That said, there are still a lot of teachers who really care about education and do their best. Sadly, virtually all those teachers use an asinine grading system, which if fixed would improve education even despite all the other, arguably bigger problems.
A more reasonable grading system could be implemented very easily and completely fairly. Your grade should be the higher of these two scores:
- The average of your homework and test scores. This is the way grades are calculated in every class I’ve ever taken from middle school on.
- The average of only your test scores.
This simple change would go a long way to improve education both philosophically and practically. You the student are given the choice how to learn and master the material. You need not busy yourself with more homework than is necessary to prepare for the tests, because good test grades equal a good course grade. Conversely, if you struggle with the material, or you tend to do poorly on tests, you can by all means complete all the assigned homework to offset your lower test grades. In the latter case, you aren’t affected in any way by the new grading system. The excuse I’ve heard from some educators is that emphasizing homework prepares students for “busy work” in the workplace. Yeah, just like breaking my leg would prepare me for the inevitable future injury. Any job that requires more than a middle school education is going to be more analogous to tests than to homework. For your job, you will need to know what you’re doing and get it done within a time frame: that is a test.
Also, letter grades must be done away with, or perhaps used only as a shorthand way of expressing a final grade. Making the tenth of a percent from 89.4 to 89.5 worth immensely more than the 9.4 percent from 80 to 89.4 is idiotic. By extension, GPA must be done away with. Nearly all university and most high school grades are done on a computer. Computing the average of decimal percentages is no harder than assigning a score for letter grades and computing the mean of those on a scale of 4.0 (or 5.0, etc.). Giving the student with nine course grades of 80% and one grade of 90% a higher GPA than the student with ten grades of 89% is, quite inarguably, unfair.
These changes would take minimal effort and cost to implement, would affect no decrease in any one student’s grade, would make grades reflect more accurately a student’s merit, and would give some deserved choice and responsibility to the student.
50 Movies of Summer
As of this moment, I have completed watching Vicky Christina Barcelona, bringing the number of movies I have watched for the first time this summer to fifty. Granted, prolific film critics easily view two hundred films a year–I am no less impressed with my accomplishment. I set out to expose myself to films which I normally would not pick up from the video store, watch with a friend, or see in theaters. I viewed a mere two films in a theater; the majority came from Netflix. Were I destined to become a filmmaker, I would certainly list my education as NFI: Netflix Film Institute.
Sure, Quentin Tarentino may have been a “film geek filmmaker,” in stark contrast to the film school crowd headed by Spielberg and Lucas, but the “small world of cinema” that Netflix creates allows for a new kind of filmmaker: one with unprecedented access to a vast quantity and range of films.
My tastes have evolved during this summers’ viewings. Early this summer, I became obsessed with the notion of plainness in filmmaking. I was initially drawn to minimalism since its definition seemed similar to my new-found taste for plainness. I sought after some directors known specifically for minimalism: Bresson, Ozu, and Kaurismaki. Even now, I am unconvinced that minimalism is something I like, or even what exactly it entails. I felt certain Kaurismaki films employed minimalism too visibly, ironically defeating what I interpret to be the point of minimalism. While I am unconvinced the interpretation and application of minimalism has been purely good, I do enjoy many films often labeled as minimalist. I believe that filmmakers should do only that which immediately portrays action to the audience. Identifying disciplined filmmaking is more important to me than great acting, great dialogue, or a great plot.
The number of Woody Allen films I viewed this summer is no coincidence: I have found such consistency in his work that I am always anxious to see another of his films. Conversely, the common themes and plot points in his films can become monotonous when viewed often in a short period of time. I find his humor top-notch, and his portrayal of romantic relationships interesting, if but pessimistic.
Elitism is prevalent among critics both amateur and professional. I feel that having seen and/or enjoyed “the right films” is of no value. On the other hand, seeing many films and a wide a range of films is invaluable. When dealing with a film that falls into a category of no particular interest to me, instead of reviewing the film poorly and pointing out its “flaws,” I will rather abstain from reviewing it. All films are not created with the same audience in mind, so critically treating all films as such is pointless. For example: Pixar can masterfully create all the animated features it wants; I will not be interested, and I will not condemn them.
Many critics condemn certain blockbuster action movies for not being “smart,” implying “smartness” is the single or most vital requirement for a movie. However, the medium of film can deliver many other virtues to its audience. Critics who are not seeking a particular virtue should not condemn a film for focusing on that virtue. Nor should critics seeking a certain virtue condemn a film for not delivering that virtue.
Film is as broad a medium as literature. In fact, a film may have more in common with a novel than with any other film. As such, genres of film can accurately be considered separate media of art altogether. This consideration should allow a film critic to, say, not enjoy the critically acclaimed Star Wars films without offending fans of those films, just as a music critic’s apathy toward a Degas painting shouldn’t offend a passionate fan of Impressionist painting.
The important requirement for art criticism is honesty. If a critic shares no tastes with you, ignore his or her recommendations, but do not label his or her opinions as “incorrect.” The only useless critic is a dishonest one–one who deliberately adheres to a group of critics, or automatically disagrees with another.
A list of the films I have viewed this summer follows:
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