following up
To be clear, Laura and I really aren't falling out about the thumb sucking thing and Sophia, I'm fairly certain, knows we love and adore her. So fear not, my friends, for this thumb sucking will not lead to divorce or estrangement within the family! I was simply employing the literary device of exaggeration to coax you into commenting for we really did want your advice.
I do appreciate the many comments you offered. Really good stuff to ponder. My desire for Sophia to quit, I've come to realize, stems from my own struggles with it as a child. I sucked my thumb for way too long. My mom tried everything. Socks. Hot sauce. (I grew to really like hot sauce!) Bribery. I was persistent in my ways. Eventually, mom and dad went for the orthopedic device. Picture Wolverine's claws glued to the top of your mouth. To say the least, it worked. But then my mom and dad and orthodontist forgot it was in there. It was left in way too long. Just ask the first couple of girls I kissed.
So I realize that some of my "she must stop" stuff is really my experience projected upon her. I just don't want her to go through some of the same stuff I went through. At any rate, you have offered some good sound advice and so Laura and I will proceed with what you have said in mind.
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Remember the ethical dilemma about which I wrote? The one about the person who interviews perspective students for his college alma mater? The guy googled one of the applicants and found a disturbing blog in the applicant's name. The guy wanted to know if he could use this information as part of his evaluation?
I asked you what you thought was the "right" answer. Almost all of you who responded said that "yes, he should be able to use the blog and whatever else he finds on the web as part of his evaluation." At first read, I thought the same thing. However, Cohen disagrees.
Cohen first makes the point that these high school kids are ignorant of how public these online sites really are. Most of them, Cohen writes, think their sites are semi-private. It's only in college that they are made aware of how public they really are.
He then goes on to say, and this is what convinced me, that "such material will not be considered for most students. It's unfair to subject your interviews to this additional scrutiny." In other words, unless the application process makes it clear that those kind of queries will be made for everyone, then it isn't ethical to expand the search in that particular way for that particular person.
Finally, Cohen points to what we all know by now to be true: Many times online info is unreliable.
With all that said, I agree with Cohen.
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I do appreciate the many comments you offered. Really good stuff to ponder. My desire for Sophia to quit, I've come to realize, stems from my own struggles with it as a child. I sucked my thumb for way too long. My mom tried everything. Socks. Hot sauce. (I grew to really like hot sauce!) Bribery. I was persistent in my ways. Eventually, mom and dad went for the orthopedic device. Picture Wolverine's claws glued to the top of your mouth. To say the least, it worked. But then my mom and dad and orthodontist forgot it was in there. It was left in way too long. Just ask the first couple of girls I kissed.
So I realize that some of my "she must stop" stuff is really my experience projected upon her. I just don't want her to go through some of the same stuff I went through. At any rate, you have offered some good sound advice and so Laura and I will proceed with what you have said in mind.
--------------------------------
Remember the ethical dilemma about which I wrote? The one about the person who interviews perspective students for his college alma mater? The guy googled one of the applicants and found a disturbing blog in the applicant's name. The guy wanted to know if he could use this information as part of his evaluation?
I asked you what you thought was the "right" answer. Almost all of you who responded said that "yes, he should be able to use the blog and whatever else he finds on the web as part of his evaluation." At first read, I thought the same thing. However, Cohen disagrees.
Cohen first makes the point that these high school kids are ignorant of how public these online sites really are. Most of them, Cohen writes, think their sites are semi-private. It's only in college that they are made aware of how public they really are.
He then goes on to say, and this is what convinced me, that "such material will not be considered for most students. It's unfair to subject your interviews to this additional scrutiny." In other words, unless the application process makes it clear that those kind of queries will be made for everyone, then it isn't ethical to expand the search in that particular way for that particular person.
Finally, Cohen points to what we all know by now to be true: Many times online info is unreliable.
With all that said, I agree with Cohen.
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posted by jch at
9:30 AM
4 Comments:
I guess I kinda see Cohen's point because high school students are involved and not college students or older. I guess. I am not sure how much longer such "really, things on the internet can follow me?" ignorance can be pled, even by teens. I think with a few more years of facebook, myspace, and the like under our belts, high school counselors will be joining college career services in counseling students not to put anything on the web they would not want a potential employer or university to view.
I agree with you Richie but that wasn't the point that sold me on his argument. It was his point that the standards of admissions needs to be the same for everyone. Just because he has a little extra time to google his applicants doesn't mean that others who are in the same position as him will. Again, if it isn't stated in the admissions process then it isn't fair game.
All of Cohen's points are true. My husband is a high school teacher and had to explain to a student that she should not go meet her myspace boyfriend because he might not be who he claims to be. Plenty of people have been the victims of fake information put up about them and even those with uncommon names often find that they are not the only one's out there. And its not fair not only because not all interviewers are Goggling, but also because the interviewer won't be able to find information about those with common names. This will put women and minorities at a disadvantage since they tend to have less common names.
Unless that counselor has confirmation from the individual himself that that's him, he shouldn't trust it. It's remarkably easy for anybody to post a fake web page to make someone else look bad. There have been court cases over angry ex-friends/ex-lovers/ex-whatevers who posted offensive personal ads in the name of the person they were mad at.
Personally, I've found that there are a lot of web pages with my name on them. Most of them belong to some NASCAR driver. God forbid some future employer should associate me with *that*. ;)
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