Can I just say as a teacher that I am highly offended by the comments in this thread! I simply can't put into words how wrong you are! I will
try to stay within the AUP guidelines with my response...
It seems to me that many of you have absolutely no idea what goes on in the current education systems or you are so caught up in how you were taught at school that you think what happened when YOU were at school happens today or simply that you went to terrible schools.
Quote: " It worries me that children are not taught to think critically, nor taught the first thing about politics and how it affects their daily lives. Schools are so obsessed with drumming facts and figures into the minds of children that they completely neglect the power of thought itself."
Everything about this is incorrect. Critical thinking is taught in schools. It has been taught to any student in my class since 2004 (when I became qualified) and it was taught many, many years before then. Politics is taught in schools. Teaching facts and figures is NOT what is deemed important in education, in fact teaching students to think for themselves and how to find out information for themselves is one of the most important things we do. Facts and figures are like trivia, it's not deemed important.
Quote: "I despise the idea that some are born more intelligent than others; there may be some minor differences, and in some cases disabilities that restrict brain function, but the difference is usually negligible. There's no reason why someone smart enough to become a mechanic is not smart enough to engage in intellectual debate. The fault is that of the teacher not the student. So many people are discarded as "inferior" at such a young age, simply because they didn't catch on to one aspect of learning as quickly as the rest, or because they were unlucky enough to have a bad teacher."
Some children are born more intelligent than others. FACT. I have a student in class with an intellectual impairment (note this does not mean retarded, i hate this word but use it here to make a point), he is not as intelligent as the others in my class. He NEVER will be. He will always be behind. All you have shown in your example, is that you yourself have a biased attitude to what is deemed intelligence. You have said in your statement, whether or not you intended to, is that mechanics are unintelligent so they became a mechanic because "that's all they can do". That's what I read from that sentence, that
YOU think a mechanic is unintelligent. SO who else in unintelligent in your mind? Postmen, Garbage collectors, Store workers???? They have those careers because they are not intelligent? What nonsense. My cousin is a very intelligent man, he is also a mechanic. Not because he did badly academically but because... dun dun dah... he LOVES cars. Oh what a strange idea that someone might choose their profession not based on what you (or society) deem as intelligence but because they want to work in a field they enjoy!
But hey let's not forget if someone doesn't learn well that it's
definitely their teachers fault. A teacher only has one student to work with and can spend their time wholly serving that one student. Oh hang on, that's not right, a teacher might have 30 kids in their class. Who's responsible for the education of those other 29 students. WHAT!!! That same teacher... and they only have 5 hours in a school day to do everything for everyone??? Stupid teachers. It's a shame that these kids don't have anyone else in their life who could help with their education. Those stupid teachers do parent/teacher interviews, report cards, phone calls home. If they spent less of their own free time (and yes I'd like to point out now to all the smartass people that say I get paid to do a job, that I only get paid for the 5 hours a day the kids at school... so the other 5 or so hours a day or more I work are unpaid and so my 'free time', how many other jobs have so much unpaid overtime?????????) thinking up better ways to educate we wouldn't have any problems. How about, and this is a funny notion I know, that when a teacher says have you thought about getting your child's hearing/sight testing that the parent just does it. A child who can't see properly or hear properly can't learn effectively. Yes this is definitely the fault of a bad teachers. We should be Optometrists and hearing specialists too!!!! If only teachers gave feedback to parents about how their child is travelling at school, they could use that information before it's too late!!!! Stupid teachers. Overpaid and underworked. We get far too many holidays, in which we do nothing but laze about in the sun. All that lesson planning, unit planning, creating of resources, that all gets done by the magic school faries! It's so nice that they do all that work for us so we can lounge about the pool sipping cocktails laughing at how easy we have it, and how everyone respects us and our career.
Also I hate the phrase bad teacher, do you any of you who throw the words around so easily have
any idea at all about what it is like to teach. Do you know anything about the theories behind education? Clearly not when you say things like " I honestly don't believe that childhood is the best time for a lot of people to learn". Please show me your research which backs this up. Can you? Beacuse, if you like, I can show you all the literature which tells you why it exactly
is the best time to learn. It has to do with brain development, but I'm sure your research will enlighten me as to why it's all wrong. There are bad teachers, but they way you describe it's all bad teachers.
Quote: "I find I'm much more interested in learning now than I ever was at school"
Now is this learning in general or learning about topics that interest you? Because if it is the latter then you've merely proved the point that people in general are more eager to learn about things that interest them. Just like the students at school who have subjects they prefer and do better in because it interests them. Unfortunately all they're learning at school is facts and figures though! I know this because you told me!
Quote: "I barley passed every year of high school with D- grades. and i would certainly fail for the year, if the fear of staying back didnt give me sudden motivation making my last major assigments of the year the most high quality work i ever did."
What I read here, is that you were capable of doing fantastic work, but chose not to. Teachers don't make up mental disorders! Seriously! IF your teachers thought you had ADHD then you must have been an absolute nightmare in the classroom. Reading that makes me think you are a lazy individual who didn't want to work at school, made your teachers life hell and then got upset when they didn't treat you with any respect. How much respect did you show them? You only get what you give! Seems like a lot of wasted potential if you ask me. All this proves that when you wanted to you could do great work, but you didn't want to. You lacked motivation. But that's the teachers fault because they didn't motivate you, what a terrible teacher. Poor you.
Now I'm going to write something here that you may or may not disagree with but it is true.
A TEACHER CANNOT MAKE A STUDENT LEARN. All a teacher can do is create an environment in which learning can occur. If a student doesn't want to learn, then a teacher can do nothing. It's never the students fault, though, it's
always the teacher who is to blame.
All of you who dismiss teachers so readily and easily. I, honestly and truly, believe that you couldn't do my job for a week. Not one single week. And if any of you would like to prove me wrong, I'd be more than willing to set it up with my school to let you come in and prove me wrong. Put your money where your mouth is.
Or maybe, just maybe, instead of talking absolute trash, why don't you do some research about education and education systems. Then come here and back up your statements.
Don't take me as saying the education system is perfect. It's not. However, it's certainly not as awful as you point out!
