[AD from SpringBay]

No excuses, plenty of reasons. It's not just Civics. I teach at a community college. In my Composition II course (for many of them the final writing course they'll ever take in their lives) I give them a document called 'Need to Knows..." This document outlines twenty basics of writing (sentence fragments, apostrophes, run spell checker, etc...). I tell them that teachers have been trying to teach them these things since third grade and if they don't know it's their fault and that they need to go out, on their own, and fill in the gaps in their knowledge. There are always students who literally wail and gnash their teeth at the thought that something is their fault. Then there are students (college Sophomores) who whine and tell me things like grammar are stupid and and will never be used in 'real' life. I'd say fifty percent of the students are ok with it (not that they know the information, but they don't buck at the notions) - the others are adamantly against it and many drop the course.

[linda_22003]

That's very useful! Now, could you teach that topic here on FR? Many posters could use it.

[LaineyDee]

Sounds like my old English II course. My professor was trying to lead a "phonetically challenged" class filled with minority jocks who either slept through class or disrupted ...by talking constantly. None were interested in the course content but had to sit through it to stay on their team.

One morning as I sat down, one of the jocks tapped me on the shoulder and "told" me to give him my prep sheets for the upcoming test. I unleashed a loud "Mama" lecture on him for 3 minutes...concerning the importance of class participation. He hunkered down in his seat saying "Yes'm, Yes'm". After class the Prof said, "Can I take you to ALL my classes?" *chuckle*

[okie01]

As an adjunct professor, I taught an upper division professional course at one of the major state universities here in Texas.

It was a required class for an Advertising or Marketing major. It was on Monday night, opposite Monday Night Football. The kids were undeniably bright...and committed.

However, I was stunned to find that long division was a complete mystery to virtually all of them. Given a cost per page and the total audience of that page (in thousands), only six out of 36 were able to arrive at a cost per thousand.

With calculators!

I had no idea! I was there to teach Media & Marketing...and I ended up teaching 6th grade math.

Apparently, nobody had ever asked them to learn long division in the past. Is it just assumed by the teaching profession that, because kids have calculators, they don't need to learn any mathematical processes?