It's funny...I can watch vintage science fiction from the '50s where the future looks like this:
and '60s where it looks like this:
but then along comes the '70s...and this is our future:
(shudder)
Posted on 08/04/2013 11:13:50 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Heez rite u noe. Their aint no reeezen wutsowever two lern too rite good and tawk so to. Tecknowlegee will make awl are lifes bettur. Hurrray!
These are problems as well, but don’t try to tell me the unions aren’t protecting bad teachers — or that knowledge of subject matter isn’t a fundamental problem because as a teacher I know better than that. I’ve seen too much get a pass here in the deep south. (And please re-read my post because unions were not “all” of the problem — and I did not say they were!) Try reading with a little less defensiveness and a little more objectivity.
I thought it was just another futuristic story until I went to McDonalds (this was in the '70s) and saw that the cash registers didn't have numerals, just pictures of what was for sale. I quit reading Sci-Fi after that as too much of the off-the-wall scenarios were coming true.
This aricle just reinforces the future. Kornbluth wrote about that also in The Marching Morons".
There was some poster on FR claiming to go to college a person had to be above average intelligence. lol.
And that nonsense is perpetuated by the Education Depts. — which do not teach anything that is useful for the classroom. (I know there are those who will screech about “classroom management” but they don’t teach that either and the lack of discipline in a classroom is a problem that is multi-faceted.)
Yes, I’ve seen not-that-great teachers get a pass as well. Most of them were little cutie pies right out of school who had the chairman wrapped around their finger. Others were veteran lickspittles for whom we offered to buy some brown lipstick. Since everyone is paying equal union dues, everyone gets equal protection—not-that-great teachers and really great ones. Otherwise, you would have a legitimate complaint that not-that-great teachers and great teachers should pay different amounts of dues, right? It is the job of unions to protect their dues-paying members, not to judge them. There are far too many vindictive and outright dishonest administrators to do that.
It's funny...I can watch vintage science fiction from the '50s where the future looks like this:
and '60s where it looks like this:
but then along comes the '70s...and this is our future:
(shudder)
Ah, good point. They're the elite, you see. They get to have an education. The rest just get some sex-ed, arugula for lunch, and pass out from hunger till the bus drops them off at their driveway.
I’d like to see a system that allows for good teachers to stay in the classroom and poor ones to be fired. I have a problem with ANY organization which promotes the same type of “shuffle them around if they aren’t good but don’t fire them no matter what” MO that we see on the federal employee levels everywhere. I hate that poor teachers often get moved into administration rather than “let go”. If they cannot teach they have no business making decisions which affect what happens in a classroom because academics is clearly not their forte. Private school teachers do not pay union dues, do not get that level of protection and are dismissed if they are not qualified. It’s one of the reasons that private schools succeed where public ones cannot. Not the only reason, mind you — but yes, it’s part of the equation.
Hey, don’t knock arugula! I happen to love the stuff! :))
That happens in public schools ALL the time.
I know. That’s the problem.
Of course what this “professor” fails to grasp is that
he too is obsolete and will be replaced probably within
the next 10 or 20 years.
I missed out on slide rules by a couple of years... I hit high school about the time that electronic calculators were coming down in price, even the full featured scientific calcs - like the Texas Instruments SR-50.
So while I did get a gift of a slide rule from an uncle who was an engineer with McDonell Douglass, I never did learn to use it.
Mark
One of the reasons that private schools succeed where public ones cannot is the POPULATION of the school. Private schools have a select group of students whose parents can pay the tuition and whose parents care about their schooling. If the students misbehave, there is definitely a responsible parent at the end of that telephone number.
If you try to call a public school student's parent, I can tell you with certainty you have about a 25% chance of actually getting hold of that parent. Plenty of times you hear "Doo ooo ooo; this number is no longer in service." Also, if a student chronically misbehaves and disrupts a private school class, they will be tossed out the back door to public school. Can't do that with a public school student. If a private school student is having academic problems, in addition to the student's willingness to spend extra time with the teacher for extra help, the parents are right there ready to help them with their studies or hire a tutor. Many of the public school parents don't even speak English or have any education, let alone money to hire a tutor. If you schedule a help session for students, guess what? Nobody shows up. And they grin at you the next day, because you HAVE to pass them anyway or be harassed about "poor passing statistics".
Here is the thing public school needs. Not "Core Curriculum" socialist indoctrination, not all these fancy BS ivory tower methodologies, but DISCIPLINE. The ability to discipline the students without having charges brought up against you. That doesn't mean beating over the head with a birch rod, but it does mean that there are real consequences for bad behaviors. That you can tell them to be quiet, that your referrals for detentions and suspensions are actually followed up on.
The way it is now, if you so much as "make the student feel NER-VOUS", whatever that means, you can, in NYC, be brought up on CHARGES. That a bunch of the student's cronies will absolutely fabricate stories about what you actually said or did, and they will have been COACHED by the administration to include all the right buzz words.
So, it doesn't matter what you know or how well you can put it across. If you don't have the ability to have authority in your classroom, because you have been cut down at the knees by your administration, which in turn is told to do this by demagogue liberal non-educator politicians, you might as well not even get out of bed.
I agree, however I realize that "texting" is faster and more convenient when done in a short sentences and words. I've learned a lot of that from my kids. There's a time and place for it and messaging on your phone seems to be the time and place...not when you are writing an essay or answering test questions or filling out a job application.
It isn't or shouldn't be used as a general manner of writing. If this "professor" believes that, he shouldn't be teaching. The world is not your smartphone.
When I heard they stopped teaching phonics in school, I was alarmed. That is a basic need for learning to spell, I think.
My oldest grandchild used Hooked on Phonics for a few years and was top in her class in reading comprehension and spelling. She’s 13, now. I plan to buy it for the 2 younger ones (a toddler and a baby).
Agreed on that!
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