XPost: rec.music.artists.beach-boys   
   From: grammatim@worldnet.att.net   
      
   mjoann wrote:   
   >   
   > Peter T. Daniels wrote:   
   >   
   > >>The state of education in the United States is horrifying. My city sent   
   > >>out a newsletter about the great schools (that I pay huge property taxes   
   > >>to support!) 20% of the 2005 students were valedictorians of their   
   > >>class,   
   > >   
   > > Your "city" is so tiny that each class has only five students? (There's   
   > > only one valedictorian per class.)   
   >   
   > Why in the world did you decide there were only five? They had over 200   
   > students, and allowed 41 valedictorians. There should be only one (which   
   > was my point) but they had 41 students that were given straight A's.   
   > Clearly, there could not have been 41 geniuses in that class.   
      
   That's not what "valedictorian" means. I hope they paid the word extra.   
      
   > > Mensa is ridiculous. A place for geeks to congregate before there was   
   > > fantasy gaming.   
   >   
   > I find that the people who don't like MENSA are the people who can't get   
   > it ;) I can, and I do admit to being a geek, but I've never been a gamer.   
      
   The then assistant headmistress of my school, who administered my   
   (first?) IQ test when I was 5, told me at my mother's funeral 46 years   
   later that my score was 185.   
      
   >  >> Anyway, my point is, even undeserving people make it through the system   
   >  >> because no liberal wants to see a kid get less than an A. I know darn   
   >  >> well, that 20% of that class was not geniuses! And I know darn well that   
   >   
   >  > But 80% was?   
   >   
   > Whoa... no wonder you couldn't get that MENSA membership with faulty   
   > logic like that. If the "top" 20% were not geniuses that doesn't mean   
   > the other 80% were. Out of about 200 students, maybe four should have   
   > been technically geniuses, (that makes 2 %.)   
      
   So you're not clever enough to interpret speech act jokes (or to express   
   yourself unambiguously in the first place)? If you assert "20% of X is   
   P," then a logical inference is that "80% of X is not-P."   
   --   
   Peter T. Daniels                       grammatim@att.net   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)