For once, blame the student

[Jay_Gatsby]

Interesting op-ed piece from Yahoo:

http://tinyurl.com/f9mwq

Here are some excerpts:

Politicians and education bureaucrats can talk all they want about reform, but until the work ethic of U.S. students changes, until they are willing to put in the time and effort to master their subjects, little will change.

"Kids have convinced parents that it is the teacher or the system that is the problem, not their own lack of effort," says Dave Roscher, a chemistry teacher at T.C. Williams in this Washington suburb. "In my day, parents didn't listen when kids complained about teachers. We are supposed to miraculously make kids learn even though they are not working."

"Every year, I have had parents come in to argue about the grades I have given in my AP English classes. To me, my grades are far too generous; to middle-class parents, they are often an affront to their sense of entitlement. If their kids do a modicum of work, many parents expect them to get at least a B. When I have given C's or D's to bright middle-class kids who have done poor or mediocre work, some parents have accused me of destroying their children's futures."

Colleges keep complaining that students are coming to them unprepared. Instead of raising admissions standards, however, they keep accepting mediocre students lest cuts have to be made in faculty and administration.

 

[Marshac]

I can recall a few things from high school-

1. Teaching to the lowest common denominator.
2. Up until the 11-12th grade, a student culture that ostracizes "smart" kids.
3. Parents unwilling to accept that their children are bastards and/or dumb. "oh MY Timmy couldn't have been disrupting class...it must have been that OTHER child"
4. Presentation of information without context or discussion- the spoon-feeding of predigested facts creates students unable to think, or to incorporate/apply new knowledge on their own.
5. A teaching culture that "values and respects all ideas"- and then attempts to rationalize and interpret them in such a way to validate the student's really dumb idea. In history class, I probably could have said something like "Hitler was an awesome man, and a role model for millions." I did have some teachers that would have called me on that and said "Son, that's the dumbest thing I have ever heard", but they were in the minority.
6. Teachers who are not qualified to be teaching in a particular subject area. Example: my "health" teacher was also the PE teacher. He taught us that "REM Sleep" is what allows your eyes to move quickly, and that if you don't get enough "REM Sleep" during the night, then you can't move them quickly... he then demonstrated what a lack of "REM Sleep" would look like- he fixed his eyes on the back wall, and tossed his keys up in front of his face without moving his eyes. I remember just rolling my eyes.... indicating that I had obtained enough REM sleep I suppose.


I could probably come up with more

 

[maddythebeagle]

I had a good english teacher in h.s. that actually was preparing kids for college and not handing out "A's". He ended up teaching general english and retiring shortly after.

 

[Marshac]

I had a good english teacher in h.s. that actually was preparing kids for college and not handing out "A's".

I did too. I hated him at first. He made us memorize stuff, and every friday did something called "cultural literacy".... he used the alphabet and went from A-Z. I don't remember 'A', but 'B' was "Burma Shave" and their ad campaign. Z was Zyclon-B, the fumigant used by the Nazis in the concentration camps....

Looking back, he was probably one of the better teachers I had.

 

[OldAgePensioner]

Marshac,
I'm commenting on this after having breathed (second hand) about a billion cubic liters of high grade ganja. The neighbors must have lit up a Genetically Modified Cucumber sized doobie. Wow.

When I went to school, the students who were dumber than a rock moved on to more well suited pursuits. That left the harder working ?, smarter ?, gifted ? or connected ?, students to get a real education. Not ever one can handle it.

See GWB for reference.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Well, its up to the parents to influence their kids to get the most of their education...and the kids to do the work...AND the school to provide adequate curriculum and teaching.

Any part of this missing and the whole thing fails.

Unfortunately, two or all three are not doing too well in many cases...