I am faced with the daunting task of writing down what 10-15 things I would want a student to walk away from the school that I taught at with.

More and more I'm convinced that our educational system simply doesn't work. The current press for "character-based" education is recognition of the deep-rooted problem in our education system, and I can appreciate it for that, even if the response will prove to be less than effective.

The problem is that everything about our systems... our educational systems, our economic systems, our religious systems... they're all centered on the self. Gratify the self. Meet your needs first. Spend some time in a classroom, or ask a high schooler. Ask one that actually cares about their grade why they want good grades, and I guarantee you that the response will be, "So that I can go to college and get a good job." Sounds common sensical, right? Why would I be doing it unless it was to prepare myself to take care of myself in the future? Is there something wrong with that?

Well, in a word, yes. The Ancient Greeks believed that education was about making better or more moral people, not advancement of the self. I don't necessarily have a problem with a person being concerned over how they're going to support themselves (I do it every day, despite the commands of my savior to not worry about it). But we've so focused our childrens' academic pursuits on that one goal, to the exclusion of all others, and our kids have gotten the message loud and clear.

How do you think they're going to respond when they're told that their only hope is good grades, a good college, and a good job? When they are forced to spend the first 18 years of their lives preparing for the pursuit of material comfort, with rarely a thought to morality? The way they've decided to respond is logical enough. They only want the grades. Attend a high school lecture and the first question you'll hear (with the exception, maybe, of "Can I go to the bathroom?") will be, "Do we need to know this for the test?" They'll do whatever they can in order to get the desired grade, and no more. Most don't even know what you're talking about when asked what they "got from the class." It doesn't matter! I heard it put this way: they want certification, not education. And they'll do whatever they have to to get it. Cheating is rampant. Plagiarism is so off the charts that software companies that offer to track down perpetrators are making a killing.

The question is, how does one change the institution so that it doesn't inherently cause students to focus almost solely on themselves? I think everyone can agree that selfishness is not a virtue, and we explicitly condemn it. Yet, this is the only explanation I can think of for what I consider to be true for the vast majority of students: They care nothing for real education, for learning wisdom from an experience (or from someone who has experience). All they want is a good report card. When you think about report cards in the grand scheme of human relationships and the passing down of values, they seem, well, stupid. Let's be honest, report cards just don't matter. If we want to be really honest right now, we'll admit that they rarely assess what they're supposed to assess, anyhow. Maybe in math class... you either get the answer right or wrong, right? Wrong? Maybe? Maybe not in a post-modern age? Ugh... whatever. But how am I, as a history teacher, supposed to assess understanding of a particular event, person, movement, etc.? With a multiple choice test? What a joke. Even my most dense of students can memorize a fact for just long enough to pass the multiple choice section of my exams. So that's not it. An essay? Okay... getting warmer. But we run into a major problem here. Essays are assessed SUBJECTIVELY (that's why they usually aren't included on an "objective" portion). There's no scale for me to put a paper in that will measure for depth of understanding. That's up for ME to decide... and that's the LAST thing we want. At least that's the message I'm getting from plenty of parents. "Show me how you get that grade for my child!" If I'm going to give a child anything less than a "B" (and in some cases, even that), I'd better be very ready to justify my action, and the answer, "It didn't seem to me that your son/daughter understood the material" won't fly for a second. So, in our desire to cover our butts, we try to take that which is subjective and make it as objective as possible. We give credit for less important things, like did they have a thesis statement? Did they have the required number of distinct points? The result? Some kids who don't really get it are making higher grades than they should, while others who really do get it, but who maybe aren't great test-takers, are punished.

Sorry... Idea purging. Maybe more later.
posted by Stephen at 12:29 AM | |

 
I feel like I'm watching an episode of COPS with this Iraq thing. You know, the episode where the cops respond to a domestic abuse situation, some husband has been beating up on his wife. The cops get there to help and find out that the wife may dislike the cops more than she dislikes her husband. They show up and she's all happy that the beating has stopped, but when they're trying to arrest him, suddenly she jumps on them.
posted by Jimmy at 10:28 AM | |

 
SARS....okay, apparently this thing is spreading. So here's what I'm thinking: SARS is a terrible name for a plague. I think we need to get ahead of this thing by giving it a new name right away. One that came to my mind this morning was the Hong Kong Flu. That way, when someone feels ill they could say, "I feel Hong Kong Flu-y."

Sorry. I couldn't pass it up.

I do think that SARS is a terrible name for a plague though...I mean, if it can't be preceded by "the" then it just doesn't work, i.e. "the flu", "the plague", and, although now a little archaic, "the cancer". In the vein of the X-Men and the rip-off Mutant-X (playing on the mutation theme), we could call it ColdX, PlagueX, or VirusX...heck, even XSARS sounds better than just SARS. Maybe just "the X". But of course that sounds a little too Gen-X...too played and 10 (Roman numeral: X) years ago. Maybe Xin Bien Flu? Ooohh...that gives me another idea, foreign words are always good....what about El Malo?
posted by Jimmy at 11:56 PM | |

 
"If Jesus loved people like we do, he would have lived a long, prosperous life."

--- a quote by someone I don't know
posted by Stephen at 11:39 PM | |

 
shut up
posted by Stephen at 11:38 PM | |

 
was there really a place?
or was it a people? who happened to be in a common geographical location.
posted by riddle at 9:29 AM | |

 
Maybe it's not a place?

Well, it was at one time.

I'd like to see it become one again.
posted by Stephen at 8:57 AM | |

 
Yeah stephen you need to post more!
"Where oh where is the place where everyone is filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs are done by the apostles? Where is the place where people meet together with glad and sincere hearts? Where people are together and have all things in common, and there is no one with any need? Where is this place?"


Maybe it's not a place?
posted by riddle at 7:35 AM | |

 
People don't post to this enough (he says on his third post, which follows his second post by almost a month).

Martha Stewart. Talk about the biggest symbol of perception being reality. I was really killing time this afternoon, and a little biography of her came on. Man... you want to talk about a woman who is supremely together, organized, and with-it until you pull the curtain back. It seems that, behind the matching bedspreads, homemade craftsy tableware, and chocolate cake recipes, that woman's life is a mess.

What about this... the church tm as Martha Stewart. Sure, everything is coreographed to the "T" when you arrive on Sunday... but what would it look like if you spent some time there during the week? People bickering about job descriptions. People pressuring other people because the church up the road (or in the next state) is doing it just so so why aren't we?

Oh, well, I suppose it's too much to imagine that Christ can actually change that. I mean, anywhere you find people, you find politics, and where you find politics, you find messes twice the size of Martha Stewart's marriage. It's just par for the coarse. Why should we expect anything more? Why should we expect old things to become new? Why should we expect there to really be a difference between the followers of Christ and the followers of this age? Besides, what the building looks like is important! We've gotta make a good impression if we want people to hang around long enough for us to tell them about Jesus.

Do I sound disillusioned? Is a pig's backside pork?

Where oh where is the place where everyone is filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs are done by the apostles? Where is the place where people meet together with glad and sincere hearts? Where people are together and have all things in common, and there is no one with any need? Where is this place?
posted by Stephen at 6:14 PM | |