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  1. Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
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  8.                 24 Jan 1993 16:31:56+0100
  9. X400-Originator:  ccurrie@clus1.ulcc.ac.uk
  10. X400-Recipients:  HISTORY@ibm.gwdg.de
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  13. X400-Content-Type:  P2-1984 (2)
  14. Content-Identifier:  Re: Large lec...
  15. X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL8]
  16. Message-ID: <4185.9301241532@clus1.ulcc.ac.uk>
  17. Newsgroups: bit.listserv.history
  18. Date:         Sun, 24 Jan 1993 16:31:56 +0100
  19. Sender:       History <HISTORY@PSUVM.BITNET>
  20. From:         Christopher Currie <ccurrie@CLUS1.ULCC.AC.UK>
  21. Subject:      Re: Large lecture sections
  22. Comments: To: HISTORY@ibm.gwdg.de
  23. In-Reply-To:  "no.id":
  24. Lines: 38
  25.  
  26. >
  27. >
  28. >
  29. > In article <4195.9301221359@clus1.ulcc.ac.uk> Christopher Currie
  30. > <ccurrie@CLUS1.ULCC.AC.UK> writes:
  31. > >
  32. > >There are Right Answers in History? At undergraduate level?
  33. > >
  34. >
  35. > *Sigh*...
  36. >
  37. > Yes, such a beast exists, at the freshman level anyway. In other  words,
  38. > consider the question below:
  39. >
  40. > "William defeated Harold at Hastings in which year:
  41. > a) 1047
  42. > b) 1086
  43. > c) 1066
  44. > d) 1096
  45. >
  46. > I posit that such tests bode ill for the teaching profession, and
  47. > for the future of humanities education in general.
  48. >
  49.  
  50. Especially as the question has been so phrased that none of the answers
  51. offered is right.
  52.  
  53. As every schoolboy knows, William defeated Harold at Battle, not
  54. at Hastings. That the battle has been known as the 'battle of
  55. Hastings' since the 12th century or earlier is one of those
  56. nuances that multiple-choice questions can't expose. You can't call it
  57. the Battle of Battle without sounding silly.
  58.  
  59. Christopher Currie
  60.  
  61. (who is struggling with an editor's insistence that some lists of
  62. probably incommensurable historical data should be put in a
  63. table..)
  64.