The Dumbest Generation?

Discussion in 'Education & Learning' started by Ed Wilson, Aug 10, 2020.

  1. Silvia Benoit

    Silvia Benoit Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Nov 23, 2020
    Messages:
    1,239
    Likes Received:
    1,154
    Thanks...
     
    #31
    Martin Alonzo likes this.
  2. Silvia Benoit

    Silvia Benoit Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Nov 23, 2020
    Messages:
    1,239
    Likes Received:
    1,154
    All kids count...The mistake is to place them in "separate classrooms" since ALL KIDS BENEFIT FROM ALL KIDS. I was a HS teacher (Spanish Lang. / Lit) for more than 25 years; you would be amazed of "" how much" the kids taught me.
     
    #32
  3. Martin Alonzo

    Martin Alonzo Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Mar 7, 2015
    Messages:
    6,504
    Likes Received:
    6,751
    They are doing all this BS on a virus that has a 99.95% survival rate. How stupid is the public. Child are next to immune and there is proof if they have it it will not effect others..
     
    #33
    Jeff Elohim likes this.
  4. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2016
    Messages:
    9,297
    Likes Received:
    10,619
    @Silvia Benoit

    As an Engineer having strong Math background, our local rural, small-town high school Principal appealed to me to come teach high school Math, having suddenly lost his Math teacher, and faced with the prospect of not offering any Math during the semester just due to start. He expressed the difficulty of attracting teaching expertise in our very rural area. After a lot of soul-searching and discussion with my wife (I had retired early 3 years earlier with no income), I accepted the position, expecting that teaching young adults would be attractive to me, which it was.

    However, those young people taught me as much as I did them, only of a different nature. Many of the facts of high school existence I remembered from my own past were certainly unchanged. Some were, however. I had always enjoyed sharing my technical knowledge with others; it had always previously been on an impromptu basis.

    The school had a faculty of close-knit thinking, part of the Baptist Bible Belt; they hated me. The students soon realized I could be trusted with any of their intimate little secrets; procedure called for me to dispatch any out of order student to the Principal's office, where he or she might very well undergo "swats", over their behinds by wooden paddle, believe it or not! Soon enough, I realized the "Boss" enjoyed doing this. Students told me they often laughed at him while being so reprimanded. These were, after all, not young children but rather young adults; many owned firearms of their own and were avid hunters. They loved the fact that I was a "gun nut". Many a study hall included a discussion of hunting tactics, safety, calibers in use, etc. The student body voted me "teacher of the year", much to the disgust of the faculty. But, the Principal liked me, I had bailed him out of a difficult position.

    Confided in, I learned from the kids of drug-using parents, extreme discipline derived from religious belief, and was astounded by several top-notch students who had the worst home-life. I turned down an offer to renew my contract at year's end; I had been teaching without certification, a violation to be sure, which seemed to not bother the school administration at all. This was a most astonishing year for me!

    Frank
     
    #34
  5. Silvia Benoit

    Silvia Benoit Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Nov 23, 2020
    Messages:
    1,239
    Likes Received:
    1,154
    Hi,
    I taught in NYC (The Bronx and Harlem) and I could add my name to your post since the lives / experiences of my students were not very different from what you stated.
    You weren't certified but you had the knowledge and covered an emergency. I am sure the Dept. of Ed understood.....and thanked you.
     
    #35
    Frank Sanoica and Martin Alonzo like this.
  6. Silvia Benoit

    Silvia Benoit Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Nov 23, 2020
    Messages:
    1,239
    Likes Received:
    1,154
    When I suggested to my Principal to create a program ""to help the parents to help the kids" I was told the parents were too busy working to learn teaching techniques. Gee, both my parents -between electrical engineering and building houses- they always had time to check our school work, to review the homework, to explain things....We were lucky.
     
    #36
  7. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
    Staff Member Senior Staff Greeter Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    May 29, 2020
    Messages:
    22,673
    Likes Received:
    32,148
    But there are also schools that actively shut the parents out. That's what made me make my comment. Perhaps your principal was pushing back on something that was not being welcomed by the system and the guy just made an excuse.
     
    #37
  8. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
    Staff Member Senior Staff Greeter Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2015
    Messages:
    24,325
    Likes Received:
    42,610
    When my son was in high school, he was having trouble with Algebra. Having had trouble with Algebra myself when I was in high school, I suggested he ask for help. Not really expecting him to do so, I contacted his teacher, who told me that other students weren't having any trouble with it so he didn't know what he could do. My son was not a particularly stupid kid, and I realized that there was a point where something would click, and the algebraic equations would start to make sense. But, I had been out of high school for a while. Looking at the book he was using, I could see that the text would offer a simple example, but then pose several far more difficult questions. I bought a copy of the teacher's edition of the book that he was using and figured it out for myself so that I could tutor him on it. He didn't do great because he had already lost much of the year, but he passed and did much better in the second year of Algebra.
     
    #38
  9. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2016
    Messages:
    9,297
    Likes Received:
    10,619
    @Ken Anderson

    Your comment above about being away from the taught material brought back memories: I was thrown into the arena to teach, daily, Algebra I and II, Plane Geometry, Trigonometry, General Math I and II, and, the last semester, Calculus I. Told by my nephew it was a very heavy load, nationwide that being about 4-1/2 teaching hours per day, as opposed to 6- (Mike was an instructor at Northern Arizona University).

    During my working years, the usual Engineering formulae were employed, but it had been nearly 30 YEARS since I had learned the Maths themselves! Quite a time.

    Frank
     
    #39
    Bobby Cole and Ken Anderson like this.
  10. Silvia Benoit

    Silvia Benoit Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Nov 23, 2020
    Messages:
    1,239
    Likes Received:
    1,154
    I had the feeling he didn't care...
     
    #40
    Ken Anderson likes this.
  11. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
    Staff Member Senior Staff Greeter Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2015
    Messages:
    24,325
    Likes Received:
    42,610
    I taught a Pharmacology course for my paramedic students as well as nursing students on the same campus. The pharmacology course included algebra as that was essentially what was used to calculate dosages. However, in the field, the calculations were already done for us and in our protocols, so we didn't actually have to use algebraic calculations; they were just necessary in order to pass the class and the certification/licensure exams. I taught the Pharmacology course every two years and, each time, I had to refresh myself on it before I could get in front of the class because my default was that algebra doesn't make any sense. In preparation and during the course, I would be using it, and it wasn't all that difficult, but I'd lose that during a period of disuse.
     
    #41
    Bobby Cole and Frank Sanoica like this.
  12. Jeff Elohim

    Jeff Elohim Very Well-Known Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Nov 26, 2020
    Messages:
    2,346
    Likes Received:
    774
    With or without all the government mess, the one thing almost any parent or someone in charge of one , two, or of even a group of children could accomplish with the least time supervising and the best (I know of) results is
    using the Robinson Curriculum. For decades it has done better than any other private or public methods I've seen or been aware of. The reviews online and the information online gives evidence , if accepted, of this.
    Some people did not like it, and this is included in the online reviews, and does not affect the far greater numbers of good reports.
    The biggest danger is the government and religion, I think.
    But the curriculum works very good , potentially even for 'difficult' students,
    and at a far less cost with much better results than public schools anywhere I've seen.
    It is good preparation for those who go on to college also - they are better prepared for the rigorous demands of a good college, and for being able and ready to work also (while in school or college, and afterwards) ....
     
    #42
  13. Martin Alonzo

    Martin Alonzo Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Mar 7, 2015
    Messages:
    6,504
    Likes Received:
    6,751
    As President Reagan said, "The nine scariest words in the English language are I'm with the Government and I'm here to help."
     
    #43
    Bobby Cole likes this.
  14. Silvia Benoit

    Silvia Benoit Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Nov 23, 2020
    Messages:
    1,239
    Likes Received:
    1,154
    I disagree...the best approach to learning is the use of Sarah and Nick (my parents) curriculum, Trust me, I learned everything...and fast. :)
     
    #44
    Frank Sanoica likes this.
  15. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2016
    Messages:
    9,297
    Likes Received:
    10,619
    @Silvia Benoit

    Trust you, trust me, but trust no one else................

    Frank
     
    #45

Share This Page