Re: kids say the darndest things

[Clifford Poirot <cpoirot@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sven,

This is illegal in the U.S. only if you name the specific student. A few
years back someone wrote an essay compiled from Freshman European History
Exams. By coincidence, I was teaching european Economic History that quarter
and sure enough, someone wrote an exam that could have been taken verbatim
from that essay. The student wrote:

"During the Middle Ages the population lived on an incline. The surfs, who
were also pheasants, lived under the manor."

While we sometimes laugh at these incidents, there is a deeper and more
serious point here.

-----Original Message-----
From: Sven R Larson [mailto:larson@xxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2001 7:14 AM
To: pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: kids say the darndest things


Well, maybe it's just a matter of different approaches to integrity. I'd
risk being fired or sued if I publicly cited and commented on my
students' writings without their explicit permission.
/srl

"Forstater, Mathew" wrote:
>
> absolutely not! only someone who looks for the worst in things or someone
who
> doesn't carefully read or understand the sentence would assume such a
thing!
>
> the interesting thing about the sentence is that it can be read in several
ways.
> if it is read literally, what it says is that under conditions of risk,
one has
> a 100% chance of knowing the odds, but that under conditions of
uncertainty one
> has a 50% chance of knowing the odds!
>
> i sent this to John Allen Paulos, author of a number of popular books on
math
> and philosophy and humor (see his _I Think Therefore I Laugh_), who agreed
that
> it is one of those cases where a novice delivers an interesting, if
somewhat
> paradoxical, insight, perhaps unknowingly.
>
> mat
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sven R Larson [mailto:larson@xxxxxx]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 3:25 AM
> To: pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: kids say the darndest things
>
> Is this one of your students? If so it looks like a laugh behind his/her
> back.
> /srl
>
> "Forstater, Mathew" wrote:
> >
> > "Keynes made the distinction between risk and uncertainty.  When you use
risk
> > you know your odds, but when there is uncertainty the chance is 50-50."
> >
> > Principles of Macroeconomics Exam
>
> --
> Sven R Larson
> PhD; Assistant professor of economics
> Department of Social Sciences, Bldg. 22.2
> Roskilde University
> Pb 260
> DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark
> Phone: (+45) 4674 2910

--
Sven R Larson
PhD; Assistant professor of economics
Department of Social Sciences, Bldg. 22.2
Roskilde University
Pb 260
DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark
Phone: (+45) 4674 2910