Shane
>Kelley wrote:
>
>yes. i was thinking of Deborah Stone's work. here's something i
>wrote elsewhere, coz i'm too lazy to type up fresh stuff
>
>
>remember how i said once that "fair" doesn't mean equal slices of
>the pie for everyone? priest dug that as i recall. one of the
>functions of participating in voting is to have people go through a
>process. by participating in it, they feel it's legitimate. it's
>not about real influence, but participation in the process.
>
>every semester i illustrate this by making a big chocolate cake.
>the students know that the price for a piece of cake is homework.
>they have to figure out all the ways we could divide up the cake so
>that the distribution is "fair" or "equitable" and not necessarily
>equal (this is what sin is getting at in his response to cp.).
>
>when chocolate cake day comes, however, i pretend that i didn't have
>enough to make a whole cake and so i made a very small one, only big
>enough for two people.
>
>so now they have to decide how to distribute limited resources.
>what would be fair. the answers are usually
>
>1. vote (participation in the process; this is SD's thing in a
>couple of posts when he suggests that it's not good to have a large
>mass of people disenfranchised)
>2. give everyone a fork and go at it in a contest where might makes
>the winner (equal starting resources; unequal results = fair)
>3. an essay contest. the best essays win
>4. base it on grades (then i ask: for this course? for this
>semester? for your entire college career? include high school? why
>or why not?) this approach is the use of merit to determine the
>distribution of scarce resources
>
>then i have the secretary and dept chair or dean bring in the real
>cake. they have been instructed to complain and say that they want
>some too. the secretary reminds everyone that she helps make the
>course possible and does a lot of hidden work that none of them
>notice, but she still deserves some of that luscious cake. the dean
>says that faculty make the university. that w/o the fac, then there
>wouldn't be a uni and so he wants a slice for himself and the
>faculty, the same portion as everyone else, but to be served a
>clothe napkin and silverware.
>
>then i ask who did their homework and tell the ones who didn't that
>they can't have any. i also usually get one of my favorite
>students, someone who likes to ham it up, to burst into the
>classroom and complain: had he known that there was going to be cake
>served, then he would have signed up for the course. he wants some
>too. he also claims to speak for all the people who dropped the
>course or who were absent that day. they deserve a chance to change
>their minds. they want a remedy for their stupidity or for my
>irresponsibility in full disclosure about the full benefits of
>course membership. had they had full information to make their
>choices on, then they would have made better choices. (i figure
>you'll like that one what with that rant on structural oppression)
>
>he, its always a he, also says, "this sucks. women should get less
>be/c they've historically had access to the kitchen, have always
>baked cakes with the exception of a few lucky male pastry chef homos
>in france. they even got to lick the bowl and got to have the
>crumbs AND a piece of cake. therefore, men deserve more cake than
>women because men have been denied access to the kitchen. we must
>make up for historical oppression against men."
>
>usually someone gets a kick out of it all and says, "i don't like
>chococlate (I don't like the benefits being distributed by the
>state) or i'm allergic (i'm disabled) and so i want something else.
>it's not fair that people are getting cake. i don't want any. i
>want something else.
>
>another person, usually a woman , says she's on a diet and she
>thinks that all of this is a real waste and she wishes her professor
>(the state) would spend resources (time and intellectual
>development) on something other than baking cakes. godamnit. she
>paid for a college education, for knowledge, not a cake! she demands
>that the teacher stop wasting time on chocolate cake. or she wants
>arefund.
>
>
>heh. thort you'd enjoy that kmart. kinda ties together all these
>discussions, eh?
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