I was speaking with a fellow educator the other day and we were talking about educators who have somehow lost their passion (maybe never had it) for teaching. One of the things we were discussing is how so many teachers have become very mediocre in their 'profession' (if you want to call it that). I don't understand why people continue to do a half-assed job. Why don't they go elsewhere and do that? Oh wait, if you do that in many corporate jobs, you'd be fired before you were hired good.
It saddens me when I see or hear about educators that don't teach (or at least pretend to teach). The kids talk about them and often times they don't realize how that educator is saying they are stupid or dumb by not attempting to teach them. Most of the kids don't care, they just want to get a good grade and pass the class. What many of them fail to realize is the proof is in the pudding. How can you be number one in your class, in honors or AP classes, and when you take the ACT test, you score just the same as all the other students.
I don't get it. It doesn't make any sense. Either the teachers aren't really teaching these kids on that level, or the kids aren't applying themselves. I don't know. My friend and I were discussing this because she just got an AP class on her schedule because the former teacher wasn't really teaching the kids at an AP level. The former teacher got mad that this change took place.
What is really going on in America that people who are trusted to educate no longer seem to care. It seems like the focus is on passing kids and getting them to graduate. It doesn't really matter if they learn anything. I am always baffled how a country that is supposed to be so great, is lagging as it relates to education. Maybe if more money was spent to improve education and educate parents, there wouldn't be a need for so many prisons. Oops, then so many companies would lose a lot of money. That's another issue, another blog entry.
If America really wants to see improvement, we need to wake up. There are so many other countries surpassing us by and we don't seem to mind.
@Foxxychicago - As you know I am not a K-12 teacher, although I have taught adult learners at the community college level. I used to work for a school where all classes were honors and AP. I saw a top ten's student's ACT score. She had been National Honor Society with Honors and AP classes and scored a 17 on the ACT test. I believe this was her highest score. I experienced this back in 2002, so hopefully this young lady is working in her career. I have also followed young people who took AP and honors classes through high school but alas had to take REMEDIAL MATH when they arrived to their institutions of higher learning.
ReplyDeletePost secondary tracked some recently graduated students from 2008. Over 50% of those students had already left their schools where they first enrolled in September 2008.
Now post secondary departments are "Teaming" certain students according to ACT test scores, grades, and discipline records. These students are invited to scholarship expos and college tours. By the way, students in the highest team scored at least 18 on the ACT test. The underachieving young lady from 2002 would have been in the 2nd team.
So now it is apparent that children are graduating and not prepared for college. Many cannot construct an essay from a writing prompt. Then, others believe they can go to the Internet, copy and paste someone else work. Sometimes they actually get a grade for this. Other zero-tolerance teachers promptly give the student a failing grade. Other teachers give the student partial credit if they will resubmit the assignment "In their own words".
Well many students don't have their own words. Listen to them talk in the hallways. They know Kanye's, Common's, R-Kelly's words, but cannot articulate their own opinions. Many of the words are limited in the 4-letter variety. "I don't give a F*, what the F*, S*, M*F, You B*, My N*, Gay, Retarded, are the limits to their interjections and adjectives.
By the way, there is a new language which has supplanted Ebonics. Textbonics. Hvnt u seen dis ona papr, Mz engls, tchr? So hit me up coleg admisons raprezentv, i realy wanna attnd yo scool.
So is this the next generation?