For Next Week

For next week I have asked you to:
1) read the Spelman articles in the packet (packet available by my office door)
2) read the Philosophy Toolkit
3) write a SLAP on some aspect of one of these readings
4) review the syllabus and raise any questions or concerns in class

See you Monday!

Grading Policy

Most students are very concerned about their grades. Many of them believe that this concern helps them to succeed academically, but most grade-consciousness actually interferes with learning (and hence, ironically, with getting good grades). Because the grade is merely an external motivator, it tends to undermine the attention, care, interest, and fun that makes for effective learning – and it is the effectiveness of your learning that the grade measures. Making a fetish of grades is a bit like marrying for money; lots of people do it, but the outcomes are seriously sub-optimal.

The following description of what grades mean in this course is to help you moderate your concern about grades. It is useful and legitimate to understand an instructor’s grading policy and plan a general strategy, but your grade will ultimately reflect your interest and performance in the coursework, the class process, and the subject matter, not your attentiveness to grades.

• F. These are surprisingly difficult to get. Even a student who has difficulty with the course material and dislikes the professor can generally avoid failure through diligence. Attending class as well-prepared as possible, consulting with the professor to pinpoint difficulties, responding to criticism, and putting written work through extra drafts in advance of due dates almost always keeps the F at bay. On the other hand, lack of preparation or attendance, not turning in assignments on time, and avoiding confrontation with the problem can lead to failure.
• D. A grade of D represents only a minimal level of understanding and skill with the course material, and usually reflects some problems in committing to the time and effort a college course demands. It is not, however, a failing grade; it represents some rudimentary learning and effort on the part of the student, and while it is generally unsatisfactory to both students and professors, it is not an insult to anyone’s intelligence.
• C. Few people like to think of themselves as average, but most of us perform most tasks at roughly an average level of proficiency. A course grade of C sometimes represents really good scholarly work that is inconsistent or lacks diligence, but often it simply reflects solid and reliable average work, in which there is no shame. Even a very good student may sometimes get a C in a challenging course, reflecting honest effort and respectable but modest accomplishment.
• B. B grades represent reliably above-average work, or excellent but somewhat inconsistent performance. Unlike the grading policies in some high schools, a B in a college course is not a reward for potential or personality, but a reflection of genuine achievement that goes well beyond basic expectations for one or more course elements. Earning a B in a college course is (and ought to be) very challenging.
• A. Work that earns an A is excellent overall, with no major weaknesses. It generally shows some well-developed talent for the subject-matter, and an imaginative passion to explore it further. Student work by the end of the course is on the whole clear, precise, and well-reasoned. A-level students are generally able and disposed to offer sustained analyses of competing viewpoints within the field of study, and are sensitive to important implications of their thinking. They also tend to be helpful to and considerate of others in the learning process.

(adapted from the Critical Thinking Institute)

Attendance

The syllabus is terse on the subject, so let me here explain my approach to the matter of attendance.

My first operating principle is that, as college students, you want and have chosen to be in college and to take this course, so you desire to be present for every possible moment. If that is not your orientation, I would respectfully suggest that you are not yet prepared for college work.

I also assume you are at once legal adults and morally mature persons who have the right and ability to make sensible judgments about your own schedules. Should a genuine emergency arise for which you must absent yourself, I trust you will
1) make that decision without the need to ask my permission (I am neither a parent nor a priest), and
2) make absolutely sure that you are fully appraised of what goes on in the classroom in your absence, so that you are up to speed immediately upon your return, and it is as though you had never been gone.

To the latter purpose, you should acquaint yourself with other alert students in the class with whom you can confer in detail if the necessity arises. Be prepared to buy them lunch and ask them to review the missed experience thoroughly. Again, I do not need to be a party to this; I presume on your good faith that you would be present if you could, and on your diligence in making your unavoidable absence as non-disruptive as possible to your learning and that of the rest of the team.

I will not, therefore, take formal attendance for the course, though I will notice when you are not there, and approach you if I think there are grounds for concern. You should meet with me if you have concerns about your understanding of the course material, or if your need to absent yourself threatens to grow excessive -- i.e., more than the three absences permitted by the Student Handbook.

Welcome to Women and Philosophy

This Blog is primarily for students in my seminar/ovular of the same name, though interested, collaborative others are welcome to lurk and comment. I will generally use this space for assignments, handouts, and other clerical details; most discussion posts will appear on Skeptiblog with the flag (WP).