Politics: How They Corrupt Education

Politics: How They Corrupt Education [+ favourites]

I heard something today that disturbed me quite a bit. I was taking notes in my Anthropology of Religion class today, and to illustrate a point, my Professor told us a story about when he taught High School.

He was teaching a U.S. History class to a class full of behavior-challenged students and his students kept bugging him about what there grades were, and how he graded, and why he graded their work this way or that; so he decided to give them all A's.

In doing this he eliminated all tests, quizzes, and graded homework. Naturally, the other teachers had a problem with this and confronted him about it. He defended his decision, and one thing led to another and he challenged the other teachers' students to the history test portion of the S.A.T.

All of the other classes were defeated by his class, including the Honors Class! They couldn't admit he was right and brought him before the Board of Education, where he ended up having to change his ways.

My question is, why is this acceptable? Why do we ban things that work in education, in leu of rules that are set in stone? This is crap to me. If it works, don't fix it! But it isn't working the way it is, so amend that!

"I'd like to say something profound....."SOMETHING PROFOUND""

I can see how this would work due to the kids not getting as stressed out about there grades. I think it was a good test but some kids zone in class so it wouldnt work for everyone.
I think the teachers should teach and at the end of every month give a test and they are graded from there. Maybe every 2 weeks but the only grades are the tests.

"Why try so hard to fit in when you were born to stand out!!"

You may be right, some kids zone, some wouldn't care, but the whole point is that it worked and they banned it.
They didn't care whether it was a great way to teach, they didn't ask him to test at least once a moth, they just said no!
This is crazy to me, they actually think that its bad because they have to follow the dogma of the education department. You might have great ideas, and I might have great ideas, but we would be unable to try them and test them-that's corrupt IMO.

"I'd like to say something profound....."SOMETHING PROFOUND""

I've never agreed with the school system anyways. They dont pay teachers enough so you dont get the ones that care. The people that can teach good cant afford to teach, they make more doing other things. What is wrong with us. Teacher are very low paid, it makes no sence. How are we going to have smart wise people? Kinda pisses me off!

"Why try so hard to fit in when you were born to stand out!!"

Kinda pisses me off, too!
Eldred

True, true Brann, Jake.
We should be pissed off at this crap (that we let them get away with no doubt). This is one of the reasons why I want to teach, I'm not so greedy as to worry alot about that couple more dollars an hour. I will get more satisfaction teaching than being someone elses slave.
On a lighter and brighter note, programs are starting to arise where the student loans of people becoming teachers are being paid off in full.

"I'd like to say something profound....."SOMETHING PROFOUND""

I sympathize with those teachers who challenge traditional methods of teaching; however, as a college English instructor, I have to deal with the flip side of governmental involvement.
To put it bluntly, I teach freshman and sophmores who have no business whatsoever being in a college classroom. My colleagues and I have had several meetings where we have discussed this burgeoning phenonmenon in universities across the nation. Federal and state governments have lowered eduational standards significantly in an attempt to pacify those kids who are not smart enough to excel to the next grade level. This is a major problem, for when these same kids decide to go to college, they are not adequately equipped with the tools to perform at the standard college level. Twenty-years ago, this kind of student wouldn't even be allowed to apply for college--but we willingly accept them and allow them to receive a college education even when they can not even write a complete sentence or adhere to grammatical rules or spell correctly (I was grading my students' papers last week and I had one misspell the word "college"; this is very ironic and scary, don't you think?).

"Les enfers sont les autres."

Collleage what a place!!!!! LoL

I'm just kidding, really I am. I completely understand the problem because I am a student and I watch idiots that will soon breed idiots, "learn" alongside of me.

I hate the fact that they are in a college level English 1A class and they are having problems with grammer, punctuation, and such. There is no time for the other students who are supposed to be in these classes, to learn what they are there for because the Professor ends up teaching a ESL class instead!

However, I think that new ideas (especially at the lower level) can help these idiots learn something.

"I'd like to say something profound....."SOMETHING PROFOUND""

Ok, I really don't agree with lowering standards in order to cater to those not putting in the work to meet them. This doesn't help the quality of education schools end up sending people out with.

That said, it really depends on the department when it comes to language proficiency. I've had people in my computer science and math classes who I hardly hear speak English pulling down A's and solving problems that look really confusing to me and other "English-speaking" people. Not to say that learning proper grammar/spelling and communicating properly isn't important, though. Understandability (er, is that even a word?) is certainly important when people need to communicate this knowledge to others. That said, the class shouldn't be held back by a prof who decides to take class time to "teach ESL." It isn't really fair and students needing help in that area should seek it on their own time.

In response to the first post, people in general tend to be resistant to change. I think that when an example like wesdawgy explained happens, it's worth taking the time to investigate, and seeing what it was that worked, rather than just squashing the idea altogether. Being progressive IMO, is a good thing. Too bad even schools can have too much beaurocracy.

"I'm here to live... OUT LOUD!"

The question is not "why do eliminate what works", its "why do we preserve what doesn't?" The simple fact is the majority of public high schools are just fucking daycare centers for teens so we're not out breaking the law and stabbing people and so forth...just do whatever you can to get the fuck out of there.

My view is the exams, the homework and the overall structure of High School is built to offset bad teaching.

What I mean is, if everyone was a wicked teacher, you really woudln't need grades or even exams. Or maybe they could be just for statistics purposes.

There is one good teacher for every 30, and all the bad teachers' students need homework and exams so the lack of interest they have in class due to bad teaching is offset by a requirement to study to pass the exams.

Problem is Wes, what are you going to do? Allow certain teachers to teach their way and force others to teach academically because they are bad teachers? You can't do that. It's the problem with reality and Brann hit it on the head: Teachers do not get paid enough.

A lot of people I knew in high school that went into university and failed at every career they attempted fell back on teaching as a last resort.

The moral of that story?

Life's rejects are teaching your students! Do you want to leave it up to them to decide whether your child has learnt all he needs to?

"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."

Decius,
There are a bunch of problems that would come along with different styles of teaching, including your example of the ones who can't teach. The point is though, what we have now does not work; just as spankster says above.

I am in no way saying that his teaching ideas are the right way to go for everyone, but new ideas are what is needed now.

What was said about the offset about of bad teaching has alot of truth to it, that's for sure.

"I'd like to say something profound....."SOMETHING PROFOUND""

Oh definitely.. change is needed... the question is, given the current infrastructure, what can you do?

Given that bad teachers will continue to exist, what can we do?

I, for one, think there should be a "social awareness" class that is a required class. Something where people discuss current events, life, philosophy, all that jazz. The true things that matter in life.

"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."

quote:

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I've never agreed with the school system anyways. They dont pay teachers enough so you dont get the ones that care. The people that can teach good cant afford to teach, they make more doing other things. What is wrong with us. Teacher are very low paid, it makes no sence. How are we going to have smart wise people? Kinda pisses me off!

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"I'm desperately trying to figure out why Kamikaze-pilots wear helmets."

How can Bin Laden (cave dweller) fuck up 2000 years of western modern progressive history?
Eldred
PS - You elite (academically challenged) morons better come out of your "Ivory Towers" before it's too late!