My son's teacher's note.

[insanity]

I once had a honors English teacher assign us to read a classic book for a book report. When I turned up with H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, she had neither heard of him or his books.

That said, my girlfriend is a teacher and is perhaps the most amazing woman in the world and would never be an idiot like that. So its a mixed bag.

 

[Quick_Nick]

I once had a honors English teacher assign us to read a classic book for a book report. When I turned up with H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, she had neither heard of him or his books.

Incredible! :lol:

 

[Linguofreak]

Let me relate a "math" story that occurred when I was a sophmore in HS (let's not get into how long ago that was!)...

In a move borne of economic necessity, I transferred from a top-tier school district into one not even ranked in the state.

Sitting in algebra one morning, I nearly fell out of my chair when I heard the teacher talking about subtracting one number from another. I'd always been taught that one of the basic tenets of algebra is that equations are never expressed as subtraction, but as adding a negative number (yes, the net result is the same, but we're talking about a basic concept). I pointed this out to the teacher, which netted me 3 days central detention.

I'm the type that corrects teachers a bit too much myself, but this strikes me as a little too nitpicky. The teacher was being quite a jerk to send you to detention for three days, but there's really no difference at all between "subtraction" and "flipping the sign and adding". I'm sure you will hear many a well educated mathematician use the word "subtract" in similar situations.

 

[Bj]

and why is it so hard to find qualified teachers?

Maybe because no one gives a , including most teachers, most students and some parents.


Dad tells me that once people are hired, it takes months of time and a lot of money to fire someone. You see in the news all the time, principles and teachers doing all sorts of things and still it takes months to get them out of the position.

I guess most businesses/schools rather try to put up with the person rather then getting rid of them. Unfortunately this thinking seems to promote laziness in people.

This sums up everything:

 

[computerex]

So far, I have had two teachers call my house to speak with my parents, and two others have attempted to kick me out of their classes altogether...It is very hard to keep my mouth shut when the teacher wonders out loud as to why things don't go through one another when the atom is mostly empty space (and the teacher has a PhD in biochemistry and was teaching first year university level biology...)

As far as math is concerned, I managed to get three years a head of the standard curriculum. Second year college math (calc II) in my junior year of high school xD I am also taking second year college literature. And next year I will be going to college full time with the expenses paid by the state. Lots of savings .

 

[Quick_Nick]

So far, I have had two teachers call my house to speak with my parents, and two others have attempted to kick me out of their classes altogether...It is very hard to keep my mouth shut when the teacher wonders out loud as to why things don't go through one another when the atom is mostly empty space (and the teacher has a PhD in biochemistry and was teaching first year university level biology...)

Wow, that's just sad.
Luckily, this year, my chemisty teacher is epicly OVERqualified and has a ton of knowledge on all things science. It's quite an enjoyable class, and he's amazing at actually TEACHING students things including a few highly advanced things every so often.

As far as math is concerned, I managed to get three years a head of the standard curriculum. Second year college math (calc II) in my junior year of high school xD I am also taking second year college literature. And next year I will be going to college full time with the expenses paid by the state. Lots of savings .

You need to tell me how you pulled that off!!! XD I just might have to move to Florida... :thumbup:

 

[computerex]

You need to tell me how you pulled that off!!!

By being OP :thumbup: In all seriousness, hardly anyone at the school actually cares for your well being, you need to fight for the best courses yourself. No one is going to do it for you. But the possibility of getting ahead is there.

 

[dansteph]

I received your notification you sent yesterday and i don't know if laugh out loud or sit to cry. The reason is as folllows:

One of things that a professor should do in a student, is forming a critical thought. If my son obeys "as-is" your statements AND/OR/BUT_NOT_XOR is punished for critize them, his education clearly is formed with POOR bases.
[/QUOTE

On which I do not agree at all

This would open the worm can. Every kid come usually with parent's beliefe and too often they are made of trash as hoax, conspiracy, elves, creationism, urban legend etc. etc. You can imagine how would look a lesson if anyone would be allowed to give his opinion

School at least is supposed to teach common and standard knowledge.

This teacher made an error but he was 100% correct to punish the kid for his behaviour.

I having "the truth" authorize to perturbate being disrespectefull or violate rules you can imagine how a society would look as almost 100% peoples think they have it even those with the most idiots beliefe. World is full of peoples that bomb other because they think they have the truth

Now if a teacher become mad and start to teach for example creationnism the right way is that parents submit an official complaint to hierarchy.

Best

Dan

Well I’m dragging myself all along the pavement
Up in the sky, there’s someone behind
And he’s guiding my steps
Up and down the life stairs
Helps me thereby leaving again
Listening: Jil is Lucky - The Wanderer
http://www.deezer.com/listen-4769538

 

[TSPenguin]

Does this means without a permission slip he gets to go along but may not leave the bus?

 

[computerex]

Well in the ideal system teachers shouldn't really be the teachers, they should be guides. You learn things much better when you have to teach yourself as opposed to having the information shoved down your throat. I think discussion in a civilized manner should be permissible, because it encourages critical thinking, which is a rather important skill that a lot of people lack. This is largely the problem. Some teachers are so defensive that they interpret any disagreements as an attack on their authority. A classroom in which no discussion takes place is of little use.

 

[RangerPL]

I got into an argument last year with my Modern World History teacher. He told the class that in the September Campaign of 1939, Polish troops used mounted infantry against German tanks. I tried to disprove that (it was just German propaganda, the actual incident was different, a group of mounter cavalrymen finished off a German infantry company when they were ambushed by tanks), but my teacher didn't want to hear it.

Now that I think of it, I used to argue with that guy all the time in class.

We also had some hilarious substitutes, like this one lady who never stopped talking about how she thinks Pope John Paul II, Martin Luther King Jr. and Ronald Reagan are the three greatest people ever. We also had one guy who was a conspiracy theorist and always told us how the government lies to people.

 

[Brycesv1]

the government DOES lie to ppl

 

[Andy44]

Well in the ideal system teachers shouldn't really be the teachers, they should be guides. You learn things much better when you have to teach yourself as opposed to having the information shoved down your throat. I think discussion in a civilized manner should be permissible, because it encourages critical thinking, which is a rather important skill that a lot of people lack. This is largely the problem. Some teachers are so defensive that they interpret any disagreements as an attack on their authority. A classroom in which no discussion takes place is of little use.

Bingo. That's the idealized version of how the ancient Greeks used to do it.

But modern school is based on a regimented military-style model born of the 19th century. It's useful for producing drones to make widgets in the centrally-planned economy.

My favorite classes were those with small enrollment and a discussion style, which encouraged you to think out loud.

Math and engineering can't be like that all the time, of course, but literature and history should be.

As for college, that's been reduced to "remedial high school, binge drinking emphasized", in many cases. I know a lot of engineers with bachelor's degrees who cannot spell, and they are proud of it. The meaning of the word "university" is lost on them and the money-addicted people who run their schools.

In the end, of course, the best-educated people are the ones who want to be educated. You can't force the horse to drink, as they say. Speaking of drinking...

 

[dansteph]

and why is it so hard to find qualified teachers?

My theory is because a good teacher is made of a mix of exceptionnal talents and that talented peoples are rare in the average population. Knowledge is not sufficient the guy must be also psychologue, pedagog, good storyteller, have leader habilites without being too much commanding, etc etc.

Usually each of use have only encountered 2-3 exceptionnal teacher in his life. Most other do a good job and some are horribles it's true

Just like in real life.

Dan
PS: my father was teacher :lol: (now retired)

 

[Bj]

Well in the ideal system teachers shouldn't really be the teachers, they should be guides. You learn things much better when you have to teach yourself as opposed to having the information shoved down your throat.

That would be a truly desirable system... but what then happens to the students that don't want to learn?

We know everyone here has that desire to learn because obviously no one is 'teaching' us about the basic space-flight knowledge it takes to use Orbiter.

Unfortunately we have this no-child-left-behind style of teaching so that the more advanced students get dragged down along with everyone else for the slower ones. However if the more advanced people are really into learning, they will go beyond the classroom, to learn new and different things.

 

[Andy44]

but what then happens to the students that don't want to learn?

Somebody has to clean toilets in every society. At least until we build robots to do it for us.

Speaking of which, it's 2010, where's my robot and my nuclear spaceship and my flying car and my talking computer?

 

[Bj]

Somebody has to clean toilets in every society. At least until we build robots to do it for us.

Speaking of which, it's 2010, where's my robot and my nuclear spaceship and my flying car and my talking computer?

...that's a lot of toilets..

And isn't the robots rule the world thing come in at 2020 or 2035

 

[Istochnikov]

This would open the worm can. Every kid come usually with parent's beliefe and too often they are made of trash as hoax, conspiracy, elves, creationism, urban legend etc. etc. You can imagine how would look a lesson if anyone would be allowed to give his opinion

With a little of order, the lesson could be done almost without problems... I can say it, because i had high school teachers (specially my History/Geography/Citizenship Ed. teacher and my Spanish Grammar/Litherature teacher -i should say, THE BEST teachers ever i had -) that had a different concept for giving lessons with more aperture. They always said "No se crean todo lo que digan" ("Don't believe everything the world says"). What is the result of the lack of critical thought? U.S.A between 2001 and present. Or better even: Costa Rica now, a country who decides how fast becomes on presidential elections next February (if Ar81 were here...).

Also... do you know the "Humanities" courses in the Colleges? Being you from another country, you possibly know them or not (but, being France the cradle of Illustration movements, i doubt that you doesn't know them ), for this reason, i made the question. These lessons are precisely designed for anyone would be allowed to give his opinion.

School at least is supposed to teach common and standard knowledge.

This teacher made an error but he was 100% correct to punish the kid for his behaviour.

Ok, but if the "common and standard knowledge" is a... you should questionate it...

Now, about the punishment. Ok, if the behavior is irrespectful, the punishment is ok. BUT, if first, the statement is questioned respectfully but the teacher continues foolishly on his mistaken thought... if i was parent, the teacher will receive a good fish-tail slap...

The things become worst if the physical punisment is also present. I remember an era in Costa Rica, when the educative politics was known like "La letra con sangre dentra" ("The letter with blood penetrates" -aclaration: "dentra" means "entra" (enters or -in this context- penetrates in the campiran costarrican accent). And inclusive, two years later that the letter posted by agentzoo was written, i had a teacher with this politics... this made of my primary school a complete hell.

The punishment should be done very cautiously... Rosa Parks, a civil rights activist said one time "Not all by being law is correct".

I having "the truth" authorize to perturbate being disrespectefull or violate rules you can imagine how a society would look as almost 100% peoples think they have it even those with the most idiots beliefe. World is full of peoples that bomb other because they think they have the truth

With a completly fool called George W. Bush governing USA from 2001 to 2009, i can imaginate everything. You could be completly sure that you said is a recipe for the disaster...

Now if a teacher become mad and start to teach for example creationnism the right way is that parents submit an official complaint to hierarchy.

Posts upper yours, other orbinaut did it and read the answer... I don't know how is the thing in the USA, but in CRC, you submit a complaint to hierarchy, well, you have deaf ears... bad treats... even people more stupid than the teacher that motivated de complaint (!!!!). If you knew the things that my parents should suffer for giving to my sister and me a good education... more than a time my father should fight fist-to-fist with some teachers and incompetent principals, he, though being illetrate, know a couple of things that many professors don't: respect and openning of thought.

Unfortunately we have this no-child-left-behind style of teaching so that the more advanced students get dragged down along with everyone else for the slower ones. However if the more advanced people are really into learning, they will go beyond the classroom, to learn new and different things.

Shhhht!!! please don't remember me this!!! :'( I was a library-mouse all my childhood and teenage. I know how frustrating is being dragged along the slower (and the people don't interested in learning). Instead of being stimulated for increasing the learning process, the educational system only frustrates.

 

[Xyon]

Personally, if I received that message about the kilometre from my child's school, I would pay that teacher a little visit and question their ability to teach. The closing comment about basically not arguing when you know what you're being taught is not correct... warrants some serious concern.

 

[Istochnikov]

Well, here is a possible solution: Diagnostic exams for the teachers.

The info is available in spanish at http://infierno.ticoblogger.com/2009/12/pruebas-diagnosticas-docente-una-buena.html

I'll try to translate it because i doubt that all the readers understand the "costarican" spanish (this variation is sometimes so complicated that the people from Spain put a "WTF?"-face when i talk in my spanish )

Diagnostics exams for teachers: a good initiative.

Posted on 24/12/09 - 5 Have spooken with the devil-

Greetings (dear souls). This devil looks with good eyes the new administrative administrative decision of the MEP to submit "voluntarily" to the professors of mathematics to a test written to measure its know-how. By happiness is a small percentage (but not to stops existing) of educational of this subject that are some complete horses.

Is a pity that the MEP doesn't apply this measure in all the branches, subjects and modalities, so that we realize how the educational quality of this country walks. It would be interesting to see the know-how that have the teachers of grade school, to leave the doubt immediately for all, if is fault of them that the performances of seventh level be the worst to national level, or if is fault of the professors of secondary.

At present, if you opt for a place of educational of foreign language, is mandatory that you do an exam, if you don't pass, sorry for you; now the MEP is going to do the same thing with the ones that want to be professors of mathematics, which helps to filter a little better the people that goes to the classrooms.

I hope in the future they put these tests as requirement for any that desire to be an educator, in any area; in this moment there is not package, we would be able to observe which are the universities more "Pure crap" in the formation of educational and shame them in front of the public opinion (to as does the MEP with the institutes that prepare people for degree by maturity). In reality, alone removing these things to the light, is that the institutions worry in reality by improving their quality. In the future...who knows, with luck, these evaluations will be annual for the educational and with a lot of more luck, who not the pair are going to face consequences in their labor status, which would oblige the educators to be brought up to date and to know to the fingertip what are teaching.

But this it is a first step...for the moment the tests will be "voluntary" and I hope that the 100% of the faculty of mathematics accept to be submitted them, therefore the one that it do not, will remain as a brute and ignorant. And I hope that be certain that the MEP truly be going to offer training to correct the defects; not as in other occasions that the same do not arrive or that be STOLEN THE MONEY like happened in the case of Carlos Barrantes Rivera.

Only i hope that "El Chamuko" (the pseundonimus of the guy that made the blog) doesn't send me to the hell for this translation