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Aug. 2nd, 2007 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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kalichan
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/education/01education.html
This type of shit makes me spitting mad and is happening on all levels of education. A student who rarely attends class, misses examinations and hands in few homework assignments isn't "marginal". Marginal involves students who either never show up and do well, or diligent students with legitimate obstacles or unique situations that fall on the border. Certainly, no one should get 45 points for showing up to A SINGLE CLASS ALL SEMESTER.
High graduation rates are completely meaningless if they are not indicative of attainment.
College education for all is a meaningless goal if college is teaching people what they should have learnt in high school, or, dare I say it earlier.
I am a hardass and a half about education, despite the fact I was something of a fuckup at various points in school.
A BA used to mean something. It didn't mean enough when I got mine in 1994, and now it too often seems to mean little more than you paid money, did some marginal time and can handle comprehension of a story in The Daily News, which is, for the record, written at a third grade reading level -- sadly, I'd be happy if most college students could write that cogently. I have taught college senior journalism majors who could not properly use quotation marks or make sure their sentences generally contained both subjects and verbs.
This stuff INFURIATES me.
And don't even get me started on the view that arts education isn't necessary or useful, that kids from poorer backgrounds don't need or aren't capable of succeeding at foreign languages or other components of a traditional education, or that athletic education doesn't also have the capacity to enhance the mind. I think it's CRAP, and if I were less selfish or a day had forty hours in it, I would teach and fight the good fight of being the most hated teacher ever if it would make a damn difference. Sadly, I'd probably get fed the fuck up and take my ball and go home like the dude in the article too.
kalichanhttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/education/01education.html
This type of shit makes me spitting mad and is happening on all levels of education. A student who rarely attends class, misses examinations and hands in few homework assignments isn't "marginal". Marginal involves students who either never show up and do well, or diligent students with legitimate obstacles or unique situations that fall on the border. Certainly, no one should get 45 points for showing up to A SINGLE CLASS ALL SEMESTER.
High graduation rates are completely meaningless if they are not indicative of attainment.
College education for all is a meaningless goal if college is teaching people what they should have learnt in high school, or, dare I say it earlier.
I am a hardass and a half about education, despite the fact I was something of a fuckup at various points in school.
A BA used to mean something. It didn't mean enough when I got mine in 1994, and now it too often seems to mean little more than you paid money, did some marginal time and can handle comprehension of a story in The Daily News, which is, for the record, written at a third grade reading level -- sadly, I'd be happy if most college students could write that cogently. I have taught college senior journalism majors who could not properly use quotation marks or make sure their sentences generally contained both subjects and verbs.
This stuff INFURIATES me.
And don't even get me started on the view that arts education isn't necessary or useful, that kids from poorer backgrounds don't need or aren't capable of succeeding at foreign languages or other components of a traditional education, or that athletic education doesn't also have the capacity to enhance the mind. I think it's CRAP, and if I were less selfish or a day had forty hours in it, I would teach and fight the good fight of being the most hated teacher ever if it would make a damn difference. Sadly, I'd probably get fed the fuck up and take my ball and go home like the dude in the article too.
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And what use in the future, this?
Date: 2007-08-03 06:22 am (UTC)I got myself--of all things--a degree for writing poetry. Mind you, I worked my way through college to pay for it. I made a living for a handful of years as a technical writer. I read a lot and I write a fair bit. I can follow most of the rules of grammar--certainly better than I can teach it.
I had a job as a freshman tutoring basic English to English-as-a-primary-language type of people. To this day, I am still amazed at how many people going into university hadn't a clue what a noun was. I mean, you can't get much more basic than nouns and verbs.
When it gets to the point where it's more important to justify next years' budget or maintain community graduation levels, I have to wonder just what the hell these people are going to be doing a decade down the road.