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I have to admit that I instantly recoil at any system that tracks what a child does and potentially penalizes them with such granularity. I suppose it's not tha

I have to admit that I instantly recoil at any system that tracks what a child does and potentially penalizes them with such granularity. I suppose it's not that far removed from getting a gold star for behaving well...but pair that with technology, and an officious school board, and I can easily envision a kind of perverse social-credit system for students, following them for their entire scholastic careers.

alexis_fr 7y ago
Even gold stars, aren’t they outdated? In France we used to have “Remise des prix” until the 1980’s (It was prizes for the best in class in each category... well everyone had a prize, the worst student generally had “the prize of friendship”. See “Le Petit Nicolas” for fun descriptions of that times). But we stopped giving prizes because they generally made the children jealous, competitive or lack confidence. Our current civilization has changed, now we emphasize more on collaboration than individual performance, at least in public statements. For example we prefer to give a collective performance at the end of the year than rewarding for behavior.
crankylinuxuser 7y ago
I believe there's a recent book about that very topic. Except, it follows you your entire life. "Permanent Record", is its name.
henrikschroder 7y ago
I've made a personal pledge to never, ever give out numerical ratings for people or service any longer. Because you know that if I give out a number from 1 to 10, that number is getting attached to he customer service rep I happened to be interacting with, and go into a bullshit statistical system that tells management which reps are "good" and which reps are "bad". It's de-humanizing, lazy, and nothing good will come of it.
- ThrustVectoring 7y ago
  I have a similar personal pledge. When companies ask for numerical ratings, I do one of two things: 1. Put the highest number in every field. 2. Write up an official complaint. IMO there's no morally justifiable middle ground; non-perfect ratings are a de-facto punishment. If someone's behavior was so reprehensible to warrant that, you should be airing some kind of grievance and going through an official process.
  - saghm 7y ago
    I have a similar policy for the rare occasions that I use a ride-share service; so far, I've always given 5 stars to every driver, because I've yet to have an experience so bad that I think that preventing other people from having it is worth hurting the livelihood of the driver. Sure, sometimes I might have a really good conversation with one driver or a boring one with another when I'd rather just listen to my headphones, but I've never had any significant issues (though granted, I don't ride often). If I ever had a serious issue, I doubt that I'd be satisfied with just filing a review into the void, so I kind of doubt I'll ever give anyone fewer than five stars and not take some additional action to report the issue.
    - sokoloff 7y ago
      I have generally the same policy, but i have given perhaps 1% 3 or 4-star ratings on Uber/Lyft. Why? Unnecessarily aggressive driving. Not road rage and not unsafe per-se but 10 lane changes in 3 miles, none of them smooth or signalled. Dramatically excessive perfume in the car. Neither is a safety issue; neither is worth a formal complaint to the platform; both are annoying. For CS reps and the like, many (most?) companies using 1-10 scales treat 9 and 10 the same (promoter), 7 and 8 the same (passive), and 1-6 the same (detractor). See also “net promoter score”
atroche 7y ago
On the other hand, my housemate (a high school teacher in Australia) has an awful time keeping his kids behaving, partly because they know that as long as they stay under the threshold for detention / suspension there are almost no negative consequences to being a dickhead.
benj111 7y ago
Gold stars are purely about positive reinforcement, you don't get a black star for doing X. I seem to have less problem than others here about schools getting dictatorial etc, but to me the school is at least partially responsible for bringing up a functioning human being, so they do need to say what is acceptable or not. Obviously they need to do that in an acceptable way, gold stars seem like a good way. An app for recording every single detail good and bad, not so much.

alexis_fr 7y ago

Even gold stars, aren’t they outdated? In France we used to have “Remise des prix” until the 1980’s (It was prizes for the best in class in each category... well everyone had a prize, the worst student generally had “the prize of friendship”. See “Le Petit Nicolas” for fun descriptions of that times). But we stopped giving prizes because they generally made the children jealous, competitive or lack confidence. Our current civilization has changed, now we emphasize more on collaboration than individual performance, at least in public statements. For example we prefer to give a collective performance at the end of the year than rewarding for behavior.

crankylinuxuser 7y ago

I believe there's a recent book about that very topic. Except, it follows you your entire life. "Permanent Record", is its name.

henrikschroder 7y ago

I've made a personal pledge to never, ever give out numerical ratings for people or service any longer. Because you know that if I give out a number from 1 to 10, that number is getting attached to he customer service rep I happened to be interacting with, and go into a bullshit statistical system that tells management which reps are "good" and which reps are "bad". It's de-humanizing, lazy, and nothing good will come of it.

ThrustVectoring 7y ago
I have a similar personal pledge. When companies ask for numerical ratings, I do one of two things: 1. Put the highest number in every field. 2. Write up an official complaint. IMO there's no morally justifiable middle ground; non-perfect ratings are a de-facto punishment. If someone's behavior was so reprehensible to warrant that, you should be airing some kind of grievance and going through an official process.
- saghm 7y ago
  I have a similar policy for the rare occasions that I use a ride-share service; so far, I've always given 5 stars to every driver, because I've yet to have an experience so bad that I think that preventing other people from having it is worth hurting the livelihood of the driver. Sure, sometimes I might have a really good conversation with one driver or a boring one with another when I'd rather just listen to my headphones, but I've never had any significant issues (though granted, I don't ride often). If I ever had a serious issue, I doubt that I'd be satisfied with just filing a review into the void, so I kind of doubt I'll ever give anyone fewer than five stars and not take some additional action to report the issue.
  - sokoloff 7y ago
    I have generally the same policy, but i have given perhaps 1% 3 or 4-star ratings on Uber/Lyft. Why? Unnecessarily aggressive driving. Not road rage and not unsafe per-se but 10 lane changes in 3 miles, none of them smooth or signalled. Dramatically excessive perfume in the car. Neither is a safety issue; neither is worth a formal complaint to the platform; both are annoying. For CS reps and the like, many (most?) companies using 1-10 scales treat 9 and 10 the same (promoter), 7 and 8 the same (passive), and 1-6 the same (detractor). See also “net promoter score”

atroche 7y ago

On the other hand, my housemate (a high school teacher in Australia) has an awful time keeping his kids behaving, partly because they know that as long as they stay under the threshold for detention / suspension there are almost no negative consequences to being a dickhead.

benj111 7y ago

Gold stars are purely about positive reinforcement, you don't get a black star for doing X. I seem to have less problem than others here about schools getting dictatorial etc, but to me the school is at least partially responsible for bringing up a functioning human being, so they do need to say what is acceptable or not. Obviously they need to do that in an acceptable way, gold stars seem like a good way. An app for recording every single detail good and bad, not so much.