Important notice from the GRAMMAR POLICE. Plz read. This means you.
LMahesa:
Quote from: awrevell on 2009 June 11, 07:08:11
Quote from: Stitches on 2009 June 08, 18:20:05
Am I the only one that feels that any teacher that needs to outsource their grading is DOING IT WRONG?
My sister is a teacher. ... she replied "(i)f I don't grade their papers, I won't know what they need help with."
I sympathize. I teach ESL in Indonesia, and it is an unfortunate fact that many, if not most, of the teachers here aren't overly concerned with learning what the students' needs are, beyond what they glean in-class -- especially in a Korean school, where the grades can be completely arbitrary, and are quite frequently fixed to reach class average goals set by the Korean Department of Education.
However, not all the blame can be shouldered by the teachers - timing is an issue. I currently work in a Korean school's native speaker department, whose focus is iBT TOEFL. We are currently at the beginning of the end-of-semester testing period. Usually, we have one week to test speaking and writing with an extra 3 days to finish grading. THIS year, the Koreans decided to add another, unrelated, integrated (1 unqualified Korean teacher, 1 native speaker) iBT class which resulted in an additional week of testing. So that's 2x speaking and 2x writing to grade, in 3 days, for roughly 150 students per grade, per teacher.
The temptation is understandable.
teebs:
Quote from: LMahesa on 2009 June 11, 07:28:11
Idiocracy. A disturbingly prophetic movie disguised as a lame comedy.
Idiocracy is brilliant...and tragic in its dead-on glimpse into our future. Mike Judge excels at social commentary channeled through sophomoric humor.
Quote from: LMahesa on 2009 June 11, 07:28:11
I don't know about the states, but that phrase is being bandied about more and more in the UK, and gaining a foothold in Asia. "Our system of education is borked, so we're going to make the tests easier to make it seem the kids are brighter."
In the states "leveling the playing field" is the politically correct terminology for catering to the lowest common denominator, and is being used all too frequently.
professorbutters:
Quote from: teebs on 2009 June 11, 07:14:26
My main concern with the whole concept is the incessant brainwashing used by teachers or the university to further their own social/political agendas. I've seen first hand the power that professors wield over children away from home for the first time.
Children. Interesting choice of words there. I'd go so far as to say that this is part of the problem. CHILDREN have no place at a university. The university is a place for young adults who are given the opportunity to sample ideas, weigh them, choose what makes sense to them, make choices, and experience the consequences of said choices. "Brainwashed" young adults, in my experience, are simply those who go home at Thanksgiving and get an enormous charge out of freaking out their parents with social and political ideas that they know won't be welcome (and tattoos. Let's not forget the tattoos.) It's easy to blame professors for this, but stupid, as I don't know any two professors who agree on anything. The problem, if there is one, comes from the administration and the political pressure exerted on the administration.
Rohina, a lot of my students aren't even clear that Shakespeare wrote plays. They insist on calling his work "books," or worse, "novels." And I don't think many of them can do something as practical as knitting.
daisywenham:
Quote
In the states "leveling the playing field" is the politically correct terminology for catering to the lowest common denominator, and is being used all too frequently.
10-15 years ago in Wisconsin there was some talk about lowering the eligibility grade for high school sports to a D because apparently there were a lot of athletes having trouble remaining eligible to play. So um, your son is getting bad grades and your response is "OMG WHAT IF HE CAN'T PLAY FOOTBALL?!"
On a related note, a town near where I attended high school built a third high school around the same time. It was a huge school with all the best of everything. They changed the zoning so that there were some kids from both existing high schools who would now be going to Appleton North as the new school was called. The parents of some of the kids from Appleton East (which has long had a very successful football program) were upset that their children would have to go to North and would thus no longer have a winning football team to cheer/play for.
My favorite though is the bumper stickers you see around. "We honor ALL students at <insert school name here>".
kiki:
It really IS just as bad for gifted children though; I started school at 4 years old as a 6, and was already reading at a significantly advanced level compared to my peers. I was breezing through books in Kindergarten that 2nd and 3rd graders were struggling with - my mothership told the school this, but due to my age and the belief in wanting to keep the status quo my school fought my family for a good 6 months attempting to hold me back a grade.
I'm still thankful to my parents that they fought so hard to keep my place and refused to let my school hold me back for my age - I ended up graduating approximately 18 months younger than everyone else in my class, but was equal dux of my grade senior year despite it. I spent most of my school years attempting to not appear to be that much smarter than everyone else and blending in, because in the modern schooling system you do NOT want to draw attention to yourself if you're too far advanced of the system you're in.
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