Thanks to Kathleen Joaquin of SAISD for making her lesson plans ...

Dunce Cages, Hickory Sticks,
and Public Evaluation:
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Michael A. Fata s
Department of Sociology mUniversity of WisconsinThis paper is published and circulated by the following groups on the
Madison campus of the University of Wisconsin; Teaching Assistant
Association, Radical Caucus of the Student Health Organization, Wis-
consin Sociology Students Association, Science Students Union, English
(of the Economics Department), Psychology students Association. It
was prepared by members of the Connections staff. Although all these
groups do not necessarily agree with this critique, we feel it is an
credits: cover and p. 2, The Great Speckled Bird; p, 40, ConnectionsOther groups contributing to the publication and circulation
of this article ere the History Students Association and the Center
for Esdical Education.
n6 col. 1, nesr bottom For ]rese£rch retiard structure." reedp-
"research revrard structure,"
8 col. 1, line one For "role determining" read "role ofp.
determining"
11 col. 2, near top For "the idea." read "the idea of educationp-
uithln on authoritarian fremenork is
incompatible with the idea"
col. middle For "drafted during the in period of vul-p. 1* 2,
nerability," read "drafted during their
period of vulnerability"
2S col. 1, end of 1stp. For "able to do for him" read "able to
para do for himself, or anything society
is able or willing to do for him"
col. 1,33 top of 2nd For "virtually overlap" reed "virtuallyp.
pcro no overlap"
note36 For "radically separate doimitory," read
"rrcicillye dormitory"
33 note 12 For "For the century point of vie.:," readp.
1"For the contraryt of vie ,;"
39 note 15, to-vard end For the first cccurence of "eliminated isP'
that pass-fril students are less,"
read "relatively difficult courses.
The one theory that"
v>For copies of this article, contact: Eernrrd E. Johnson, 4.39 . Dayton
rStreet, Madison, isconsin 53703. Donations greatly appreciated.page 3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
The Functions and Dysfunctions of Public Evaluation ....3
CHAPTER II
Non-Authoritarian Learning Environments: Findings and Opinions..18
CHAPTER III
Input/Output '.. ..26
...within an anthropological frame of re- linked with the party, while in fact this
linkage is the consequence of his ownference that recognizes man as free, we
choice. It can easily be seen that "badcan usefully apply what Jean-Paul Sartre
has called "bad faith." To put it very faith" covers society like a film of
simply, "bad faith" is to pretend some- lies. The very possibility of "bad faith,"
however, shows us the reality of freedom.thing is necessary that in fact is volun-
Man can be in "bad faith" only becausetary. "Bad faith" is thus a flight from
he is free and does not wish to face hisfreedom, a dishonest evasion of the "agony
freedom. "Bad faith" is the shadow ofof choice." "Bad faith" expresses itself
human liberty. Its attempt to escapein, innumerable human situations from the
that liberty is doomed to defeat. For,
most commonplace to the most catastrophic.
as Sartre has famously put it, we areThe waiter shuffling through his appointed
"condemned to freedom." Peter L. Berger.rounds in a cafe is in "bad faith" insofar
Invitation to Sociology; A Humanisticas he pretends to himself that the waiter
role constitutes his real existence, that,
if only for the hours he is hired, he is
the waiter. The woman who lets her body
be seduced step by step while continuing On July 9, 1968, I read the following
statement, with slight modifications, toto carry on an innocent conversation is in
my colleagues in the Department of Sociol-"bad faith," insofar as she pretends that
what is happening to her body is not under ogy:
her control. The terrorist who kills and With the end of the 1967-68 academic
year, 1 have completed my first year asexcuses himself by saying that he had no
a member of the faculty of the Univer-choice because the party ordered him to
kill is in "bad faith," because he pre- sity of Wisconsin and my seventh .year
as a teacher at the university level.tends that his existence is necessarilypage 4
My experiences during this period have grades, as required by university regula-
led me to a'number of conclusions tions), I have a responsibility to.try to
about student evaluation and related substantiate the assumptions underlying
problems: them and to clarify the rationale that
led me to accept them. My approach to
First, the responsibility for making this problem will be sociological, philo-
public evaluations of students, es- sophical, and axiological.
pecially grades, confers on me the
g ISSLS.™,E£ £££"£ ?l. I. THE FUNCT.ONS
life chances of many students.
AND DYSFUNCTIONS
Second, such power, now exercised by
teachers at virtually all levels of OF PUBLIC EVALUATION
incompatible with the creation of The conventional wisdom on the social
healthy learning environments, and it purposes of grading systems and related
has been especially so in my case. structures is readily summed up by the
The social, educational, and spiritual following series of platitudes:
costs of maintaining this structure
far exceed whatever benefits may accrue Graduate schools, employers, and
from making student evaluations avail- parents are, for various reasons, in-
able to the various agencies—including terested in evaluation. Graduate edu-
the Selective Service System—that may cation is expensive and therefore
request them. limited, and ought to be limited to the
best prospects. Graduate schools could
setThird, while the faculty and adrainis- entrance examinations of their own,
tration of this university have a right, °r rely on letters of recommendation,
indeed a responsibility, to demand that but if an evaluation of a candidate's
I uphold as teacher and researcher the competence can be conveniently deduced
f
high standards of scholarship for which rom a grading system in the under-
this university is justly renowned, graduate college, so much the better.
there is no legitimate authority that Identical remarks hold for prospective
jmay impose orime and my students the employers of students not going to
encumbrances that almost invariably,e school
in my experience, have arisen out of
the grading-rating structure. In my Not every seventeen-year-old will
view, public evaluations should be come to the university athirst for
made only with the mutual consent of knowledge to such a degree that he
. individual professors and individual "HI spend all his waking hours at
students. lecture and the books. Some of his
time will be, and ought to be, spent
and responsibilities are such that I sex. How much? Students look to the
feel compelled to announce unilaterally university for an answer. Some stu-
that I am no longer willing deliberate- dents need the answer more than others;
ly to exercise any potentially negative they genuinely don't know. If they
power over the life chances of my stu- receive no answer at all, but only a
dents, and that I consider the imposi- recommendation to make good use of
tion of any such responsibility to be their time, they are being deprived
an affront to my academic freedom and quite artificially of a guide which
to that of my students. serves all other persons in all other
walks of life....
Although I have the impression that many,
if not most, of my colleagues are inclined Professors do not ordinarily, like
to agree, at least at an intuitive level, Demosthenes-of old, lecture to the waves
with the gist of this series of statements, They must have a way to judge the recep-
yet it is clear that as author of these tiou of their teaching. Examinations
propositions and as one who has deemed it and assigned papers and exercises accom-
necessary to take action on the basis of plish this in part. If teaching were
them (by refusing any longer to turn in conducted always in small groui>s, withpage 5
conversations, and papers presented anxiety over the problem of finding some
orally, more formal methods might not alternative way of making appropriate
be so necessary; but as it is (and "status allocations" in the absence of the
must be, if professors' wages are to grading system. But because I believe
remain decent) many classes are large that the Schelling principle fairly per-
and many assignments must be unsuper- vades the academic community, I seriously
vised. A system of examinations is doubt that any equivalent evaluation pro-
a guide to both partners in learning.... cedure would be any less rational than
The administration of the university, ages several possible alternative proce-
too, being even further removed from dures ranging from a reliance on the use
personal observation of their students' of partial GPA's to the use of compre-
accomplishment, will want to look over hensive examinations to an insistence