Assessment

Teachers are obligated to attend to specific objectives that their class should fulfill. These objectives are determined by the state without the direct consent of its teachers. It is supposed that they are an educated bunch distinguishing what belongs to a foundational formal education. In response, teachers are responsible to prove that every student is learning certain material. It is also supposed that if teachers can swallow hard and fudge a few numbers, then they can demonstrate that all their students are achieving a standard for which they were never desirous.
Now, many would say that numbers fail to prove that a student is learning, while others declare that numbers empirically do. Teachers have been known to prove that all students are learning by virtue of assessment. That is, of course, they practice assessment in their classroom synthesizing the two (instruction and assessment). But one may ask: how can teachers be sure that learning is measure by their tools? How can one respond? They do by virtue of their tools. It is true that good numbers are praised by the state. It is true that the state praises education on these basis; however, the question remains unanswered.
It is true that if you attend to the demands of the state, as it demands, regardless if bribery is involved, then you will be rewarded. Teachers are taught to swallow hard, accept the baggage for the sake of its gold. If teachers follow the states proscription exceedingly better than others they are rewarded proportionately. This probably would be labeled indentured servantry by others, but the state likes to call it free and appropriate education. In retrospect, assessment proves that students can preform a skill or regurgitate material. However, teachers are still subject to a system over and above education. For educators have defined what belongs to education so that the educator's pedagogy can assume that they are educating as well. But educators have long built structures before assessing the strength of its foundation. And they have redefined assessment so that their measurement tools no longer assess qualitatively. They are only adept to measure quantitatively so that this circle has retrieved itself.

Economics considered

Clason's Concerns Measured

In the Richest Man in Babylon, George S. Clason advocates three laws that explain how to successfully acquiring wealth. He articulates a way toward fiscal liberty to avoid the perils of debt. However, Clason's principles disguise the reality of acquisitions overpowering influence on those who seek it. These principles are a most dangerous trap.
Clason caricatures persons, readily embodying citizens who have much and citizens who have little. He depicts affluent men who understand the laws of acquisition, middle-class men who live from payday to payday, and slaves who seemly have no capacity to have financial liberty. Arkad is the richest man in Babylon; he willingly pronounces practical principles that he learned from Algemesh, who preceded Arkad as the richest man in Babylon. Bansir and Kobbi, although free, laboriously scrape the bottom of the tin in order to meet the demands of their financial obligations. And Dabasir became a slave because he had spent more than he had made.
At the end of the book, Alfred H. Shrewsbury, a professor of archeology finds five tablets that tell the story of Dabasir, a man whose own debt forces him to seek help. Shrewsbury listens as Dabsir tells about the three principles of acquiring wealth. He informs Shrewsbury about acquisition (how to acquire money), possession (how to keep money), and accumulation (how to use money). Dabasir spends himself into slavery because of his financial incompetence; yet, through his determination, he masters his miserable circumstances. Shrewsbury says: “Here comes an old chap out of the dust-covered ruins of Babylon to offer a way that I had never heard to pay off my debts and at the same time acquire gold to jingle in my wallet (Clason, 107).” These laws that the professor happened upon are eminently helpful; their aim complements the nature of the author's scheme.

Bansir and Kobbi live day to day on the verge of financial failure. They complain about their enslavement to their monetary demands. Bansir exclaims, “Income!” convinced that income was a necessary want that would bring happiness and contentment to him (6). Clason argues that desire must precede acquisition and acquisition is the primacy for happiness. He says, “Wealth is a power... that brings delight for the senses and gratification for the soul (11).”
Bansir and Kobbi are without wealth even as they earnestly work in their respectable trades. They observe that their pouches are empty, so they seek means that might foster a flow of income. They seek counsel from Arkad, the richest man in Babylon; he willingly pronounces practical principles that he learned from Algemesh, who preceded Arkad as the richest man in Babylon. Algemesh provides the way towards acquisition, possession and accumulation: the three laws of successfully acquiring wealth.
Firstly, ones income provides a means of acquisition; however, if he/she spends as much as he/she makes he/she pays everyone else but himself/herself. Furthermore, if he/she determines what he/she needs as a result of what he/she possesses: his/her necessities aptly become proportional to his/her income. Algemesh taught Arkad that the farmer who kept one egg for every ten he gave away, acquired an income. Arkad insisted on setting aside ten percent of all his income because “A part of all you have earned is yours to keep (17).”
Secondly, possession means keeping what you have acquired. In order to keep what you have accumulated contemplatively consider where and who best accommodates a risk-free investment. Arkad experienced the folly of partnering with someone in an investment foreign to both of them. He invested in a bricklayer who was interested in jewelry. He lost all his earnings. Arkad says, “Advice is one thing freely given away; yet, watch that you only take what is worth having (17).” He qualifies his proposition by saying, “seek advice from those competent through their experience to give it.” Keeping what you have worked so diligently to accumulate demands just as much circumspection as your endeavor to accumulate. “It is so easy to lend. If lent unwisely it is difficult to get back (74).” As one accumulates it becomes easier and easier to become imprudent and liberal. Mathon, a prudent and wise money lender, offered advice to Rodan, who was contemplating whether or not he should lend his hard-earned stash of fifty gold pieces to his brother-in-law. He said, “better a little caution than a great regret (88).” Mathon conjectured about how tragic it is to bring upon yourself the burdens of the ones you are helping. Out of the many ways one can lose money, one consists in imprudent investments with inexperienced partners; another consists in helping others to the extent that their burden becomes your burden.
Lastly, accumulation consists of the modes and means of how one invests his money making it work to acquire more money. If one finds profitable employment for his money, he necessarily accommodates profitable investments. “Put each coin to laboring that it may reproduce its kind even as the flocks of the field and help bring thee income, a stream of wealth that shall flow constantly into thy purse (32).” Bansir fancied a flow of gold that would come no matter if he stayed seated or if he traveled to distant lands and profitable investments precedes accumulation.
Clason plainly articulates in the forward of the book that his purpose is to inspire his readers to grow bank accounts, to grow greater financial success and to provide incomes for the future. Clason caricatures Algemesh, Arkad, and Methon to disseminate his message. Although, Clason is full of practical advice and wisdom concerning what is now finances, he offers a program that mediates a method for monetary gain. He overlooks its overpowering influence on those who seek it. He does not tell his readers that “the love of money is the root of all evil.” Conversely, the Apostle Paul said, “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith... But flee from these things, you man of God; and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called… (I Tim 6:9-12)”
Jesus taught many parables that included characters with monetary problems; yet, He emphasized the eternal over the immediate. The Scriptures may condone Clason's method; however, they condemn his motives. Clason offers practical advice that closely resembles wisdom inherent in biblical stewardship like debt reduction and monetary discernment. Clason articulates the dangers inherent in unpaid debts. Debt devastates people. Dabasir's debts took control of him, and he became a slave because of his incompetence. He notes, “being young and without experience, I did not know that he who spends more than he earns is sowing the winds of needless self-indulgence from which he is sure to reap the whirlwinds of trouble and humiliation (Clason, 97).” Proverbs says: “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty (Proverbs 21:5).” Clearly, Clason's concern for monetary wisdom coincides with biblical principals concerning practical insights implicitly and explicitly interwoven in Scripture.
As His scheme embraces acquisition, however, it mitigates the dangers that emanate from a love of money. “Where your treasure is there shall your heart be also (Matt 6.).” Wealth is a power and the power is a consequence of acquisition. Acquisition is a necessary component in any quest for monetary success (11). Yet, acquisition, possession and accumulation are practical expressions that run on the basis of their result. Result-oriented programs fail to accommodate good values.
Money provides the means to accumulate all the worldly necessities of any physically dependent entity; yet, Jesus says, “Do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” He offers the reason in one passage before, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other You cannot serve God and wealth.”And this proposition is predicated upon, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Thus Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”