A poem reflecting on the idea of standardization in statistics by Dane C Joseph from George Fox University in Oregon that earned an honorable mention in the 2025 A-mu-sing Contest. In his submission for the contest Dr. Joseph indicated:
"I wrote this poem to highlight the essential importance of standardization to some of the most basic scientific and social endeavors. Far from a perfect solution to many of the sociopolitical, educational, and technological issues we face, standardization is still immensely powerful when aptly done and is arguably indispensable to our daily lives—from making policy and admissions decisions to calibrating instruments and building machines. My hope is that learners will acquire a sense of the tension between the usefulness and appropriateness of standardization, appreciate how very simple tools like Z-scores can help us to responsibly rank various objects, as well as openly critique why they can also lead to problems when the objects to be ranked and compared are human attributes. Among other things, instructors should encourage students to explore the meaning of the contrasting big 'M' little 'm' moniker, and allusions to central tendency (e.g., C grades)."
