Dont Know Much About History...

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_COLLEGE_REMEDIATION?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

Don't know much about history
Don't know much biology
Don't know much about a science book
Don't know much about the French I took
But I do know that I love you
And I know that if you love me too
What a wonderful world this would be

Don't know much about geography
Don't know much trigonometry
Don't know much about algebra
Don't know what a slide rule is for
But I do know one and one is two
And if this one could be with you
What a wonderful world this would be

Now, I don't claim to be an "A" student
But I'm trying to be
For maybe by being an "A" student baby
I can win your love for me

 

[Tio_Narratore]

And the Board of Regents in Texas two years ago identified a significant problem with new university entrants. Having graduated with high grades from high schools with "accountability" based on multiple choice exams, the grads were unable to write a coherent essay. In fact, though they were quite successful at identifying the plot of a short story they had just read when presented with it in a list of choices, they were entirely unable to state the plot in their own words.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

In graduate school I took some elective courses thru the college of education. I was astonished at how easy education courses are. The only requirement for admission to an education college is some sign of your breath on a mirror.

Detecting life in an education major is how MDs qualify for signing death certificates.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I've been to ed courses, too, JBJ; they represent the greatest threat to education imaginable. And 10 years spent as a school trustee only served to underscore the vacuity of each new fad in "education." As a college prof, I'm amazed at how much my students can do in spite of their "education."

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I took the same course 3 times (3 different course titles) for 9 hours of graduate school credit. No tests.

 

[alwayswantedto]

I took the same course 3 times (3 different course titles) for 9 hours of graduate school credit. No tests.

It must have been an illustrious school, indeed, to allow that.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

fuck me, this is one boring thread.

mind you, given that it was el cunto wot started it ...

JBJ, you dumb cunt.

... i'm done here now. go fuck yourself, you wanker.

 

[CharleyH]

fuck me, this is one boring thread.

And what. You offer something more exciting?

JBJ ... fascinating Yale lectures ... nothing to do with your current query, but take a look at one link I was excited by recently: Philosophy of Death

PS. Thanks for posting your opinion.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

And what. You offer something more exciting?

JBJ ... fascinating Yale lectures ... take a look at one I was excited by recently: Philosophy of Death

as it happens:

yep

 

[CharleyH]

as it happens:

yep

Well, this thread must be interesting to you otherwise why bother directing us to a link that reads 'who gives a fuck'.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

Well, this thread must be interesting to you otherwise why bother directing us to a link that reads 'who gives a fuck'.

no, seriously, i don't find it interesting. i just enjoy fucking with you.

 

[CharleyH]

no, seriously, i don't find it interesting. i just enjoy fucking with you.

You FAILED ( well okay, almost - lol - I give you almost)

 

[geronimo_appleby]

You FAILED ( well okay, almost - lol - I give you almost)

are you still here?

OK, try this

then see if the cunt ... sorry, the cunt JBJ can better it.

 

[CharleyH]

are you still here?

OK, try this

then see if the cunt ... sorry, the cunt JBJ can better it.

With your ass hanging out like it is in your photo? So many things to say, SO little time!

Bedtime for me over here. Good luck with your vein (?) of thought. Much luck with JBJ, G

 

[bronzeage]

I took the same course 3 times (3 different course titles) for 9 hours of graduate school credit. No tests.

Does this diminish the value of your degree?

 

[Boxlicker101]

And the Board of Regents in Texas two years ago identified a significant problem with new university entrants. Having graduated with high grades from high schools with "accountability" based on multiple choice exams, the grads were unable to write a coherent essay. In fact, though they were quite successful at identifying the plot of a short story they had just read when presented with it in a list of choices, they were entirely unable to state the plot in their own words.

I must have been luckier than I realized at the time. Even in eighth grade, we were required to complete a weekly essay on an assigned topic. And, it had to be coherent and grammatical and punctuated properly.

That was in 1952 and 1953.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Does this diminish the value of your degree?

Yes and no. The courses were built around the GENERAL APTITUDE TEST BATTERY. Probably the best vocational aptitude evaluator ever. But the Federal Government stopped using it because the tests tagged too many blacks as natural janitors, boot-blacks, and vegetable pickers. Its hard to convince people you oughta be a brain surgeon when the tests say you were born to pick cotton.

But the test battery was on the money. PC killed it.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

And what. You offer something more exciting?

JBJ ... fascinating Yale lectures ... nothing to do with your current query, but take a look at one link I was excited by recently: Philosophy of Death

PS. Thanks for posting your opinion.

My 3rd great-grandfather wrote a very long funeral sermon about his philosophy of death. For 1821 its quite enlightening. I was expecting theology and its mostly science.

 

[xssve]

And yet this is an example of what the people who complain most about education pass off as real thinking: Is the universe full of water?

It's stuff like that that cries out for a wanking smiley.

 

[trysail]

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.''

-Robert A. Heinlein
"The Notebooks of Lazarus Long"
Time Enough For Love

 

[dr_mabeuse]

In my first "Philosophy of Education" course, the teacher refused to identify himself for 3 class periods. He sat in with the students (it was a night class; lots of adults), and pretended to act as bewildered as the rest of us about who was supposed to be in charge of the class. I guess the point was to make us think about where a teacher's authority comes from, or what makes one a teacher, or some bullshit like that, but those first 3 classes were pretty indicative of the value of the entire course.

In my methods class we all got to prepare and present one sample lesson to a bunch of well-behaved, polite adults, and that's all we ever did. It was Show and Tell for grown-ups. History of Ed was the only class that was of any interest whatsoever, in that histories are usually interesting, but it was totally irrelevant to the art of teaching.

Nowhere did we get any hints on how to handle a class and maintain order, how to actually present material, how to evaluate students' performance, how to grade, learning styles, teaching styles, what resources were available, child psychology, any of that.

As far as I could tell, Education was total bullshit designed for one thing only, keeping the supply of teachers low.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

In my first "Philosophy of Education" course, the teacher refused to identify himself for 3 class periods. He sat in with the students (it was a night class; lots of adults), and pretended to act as bewildered as the rest of us about who was supposed to be in charge of the class. I guess the point was to make us think about where a teacher's authority comes from, or what makes one a teacher, or some bullshit like that, but those first 3 classes were pretty indicative of the value of the entire course.

In my methods class we all got to prepare and present one sample lesson to a bunch of well-behaved, polite adults, and that's all we ever did. It was Show and Tell for grown-ups. History of Ed was the only class that was of any interest whatsoever, in that histories are usually interesting, but it was totally irrelevant to the art of teaching.

Nowhere did we get any hints on how to handle a class and maintain order, how to actually present material, how to evaluate students' performance, how to grade, learning styles, teaching styles, what resources were available, child psychology, any of that.

As far as I could tell, Education was total bullshit designed for one thing only, keeping the supply of teachers low.

At my alma mater the minimum GRE score for the education masters degree was 800; my school required 1200. So every half-wit applied to the college of education for counseling programs.

So, enrollment standards need to be increased. But more important education needs to stop being a political football. It needs to be run like the army was 40 years ago NOT Special Olympics or Little League Baseball of today.

 

[TE999]

When I was taking courses to earn a BA Ed. degree, a working internship at the grade level you planned to teach was required. I wanted to teach English at the High School level so that's where I interned in 1964...at my old high school.

What a revelation that was!

Short version: Teacher morale was lower than whale shit, the essay papers I was asked to grade were pathetic given they were written by HS Seniors and when I'd red penciled a dozen or so 'essays' I was told to 'ease up' on the corrections so the poor things wouldn't become discouraged.

I left the College of Education not long after that and earned a BA and later an MA degree in Geography and City Planning.

ETA: Don't get me started on my classroom experiences.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

TE

Now I had a totally different experience in high school. A few of my teachers were mother fuckers about standards; it was awful, but they were my best teachers ever cuz they just wouldnt accept half-assed crap, and you either buckled down or you failed. In college I think I had 6 teachers who were as strict and as good.

I recall one old boy, he told our class that he never failed anyone but passing was no piece of cake. You re-did tests and papers until you got it right otherwise you got incomplete.

 

[CharleyH]

My 3rd great-grandfather wrote a very long funeral sermon about his philosophy of death. For 1821 its quite enlightening. I was expecting theology and its mostly science.