A funny/sad train ride

[Yemme]

I forgot to share this story. I wanted to just to put it out there and see if anyone had any thoughts ... just thoughts. I was on the train today... and at first I laughed because it was funny but then I was sadden by the thought that this is our future. I'm on the train and I see a carving on the window panel opposite me. The carving was....

" I WAS HEAR 4 - 2002 "

Now I hated English growing up... yes...But for some reason I just felt sad. I don't know who wrote it. But I hope that the educational system/parents are not failing these children.

[monkeykoder]

From what I've seen yes the educational system IS failing has been since it was instituted. The thing is you as a person have to make it work for you because no system works for those that don't want it to and almost any system works for those that want it to.

[LaFoto]

Stumbled upon something similar, not on a train, but scribblings on a public info board, obviously in German, but with as many orthographical errors, and I thought, boy, if you can't even spell "a**hole" right, what CAN you spell?

Two of my friends work as primary school teachers. Now here in Germany, the teachers start with their First Graders and stay with them until they finish Grade 4, so the classes don't get new teachers in every new school year.

This automatically means that the teachers start all over again with a new set of First Grade Students once in four years time. And they are both in total agreement (although they work in all different schools and all different parts of the country) that every time they start over again with First Graders, those know a little less of our language.

You should expect a certain vocubularity among 6-year-olds. It cannot be as large as that of learned scholars, of course, but basic things should be expected. But then that one friend was all upset when she found out that in her (largely mixed nationalities class) the GERMAN students didn't even know the names of different fruit. A "pear" was all unknown to them ALL! This startled her (and me, too, when she told me about it). It really makes me wonder where there is our future. To me it means that these faults don't start with school (and are entirely fault of the educational system), but they start at home and are largely contributed to by the fact that even the families no longer really TALK! They may jointly watch TV, or individually use their computers, but they no longer TALK. (But I myself am guilty as charged when it comes to using my computer for long periods of time during the day...).

[MBasile]

It really is sad how little some people know of the English language. I don't consider myself to be super smart (I have loved my MacBook since day 1 because of the system-wide spell check that saves me on a few words ) by my god there are some stupid people that I've talked to. The worst part is, they don't even realize what they are saying is wrong!

[monkeykoder]

All I can say is that if you can't spell a word don't carve it into something...

[LaFoto]

Try to tell this to exactly THOSE who DO the scribbling and carving in the first place ...

[Overread]

Must say its not only talking, but also reading that is lacking in a lot of people today. Online reading does not count, even without excessive use of texttalk there is enough leniancy in online communications for people to get by with very little vocalublary (or in my case little spelling )
I agree that the education systems in the UK need a complete overhaul - its all got to test results and grades at the end of the year. Which at almost meaningless as the grade mark boundaries are not set by quality of answers, but by government quotas for the number of students that will pass at each grade level (so its no surprise that with no increase in teaching quality the number of A* students goes up each year!)

Its really the basics that are truly lacking, take maths, the times tables are just not beat into kids like they were in the old days. Once teachers have taught the basics once that's it - they move onto using calculators and trying to do advanced maths without the backing of good basic understandings. They even took long division out of the sylabus at one time - and honestly the number of times I have used that is too many to count and I don't do anything with heavy maths.

As for teaching I think its a very painfull job now - at least in the UK - since you don't teach a subject, but you teach a sylabus which is prewritten content by the exam board and might very well contain older information that is wrong, but must be taught because the markers will be looking for specific points only. Any teacher that goes against this (or any student that goes deeper into a subject) is likley to get low marks since only specific points are looked for in marking rather than accurate answers and research. Thus learning a subject is not encouraged, rather it is parrot learning facts for a test.
Best thing is they are going tickbox with multiple choice in many subjects (or they want to at least) so that marking is cheaper and quicker. Thing is even essay subjects are getting the tickbox treatment. Also there will be students that get high marks not because they have understood the subject, but because they can work out the right answer from the options given (and 5 mins before the end of the test randomly tick answers for questions they could not answer)

*/rant*

[clarinetJWD]

Quote: Originally Posted by monkeykoder

From what I've seen yes the educational system IS failing has been since it was instituted. The thing is you as a person have to make it work for you because no system works for those that don't want it to and almost any system works for those that want it to.

This! If you want to learn and have a great education, all the tools are there, but it's up to you.

[stsinner]

Sadly, our government schools here in America are failing miserably at educating our kids because we've embarked on a collective mission to protect their feelings, rather than to educate them.. We won't fail them any more and make them repeat grades for fear of stigmatizing them and hurting their precious wittle feelwings. As a result of this we have dumbed our classes down to the dumbest kid in order to not have to fail them. We also practice immersion, which means that kids with special needs or learning disabilities are put in class with normal kids, again, to not hurt their feelings and make them feel different, even though they are. This does a disservice to the normal kids, because it hinders their learning and ensures that they'll never reach their learning potential, and it does a disservice to the special needs kids because they would do better being taught by teachers who have specific training in the areas of concern for these kids.
It's disgusting, and it's also why other countries, such as India, are turning out more engineers and doctors, by far, than America. They aren't politically correct or soft like we have become. It's our sad future, indeed.

Kids are "graduating" high school today barely literate, and our colleges are having to put them immediately into remedial classes to get them to the very basic level of competency they need in order to get anything out of college.

Just Google, "College freshmen not prepared," or, "High schools failing," and you'll see plenty of links that detail how our schools are failing our kids..

[stsinner]

Quote: Originally Posted by LaFoto

Try to tell this to exactly THOSE who DO the scribbling and carving in the first place ...

Sadly, Corinna, you speak better English as a second language than many high school graduates here in America where it's their first language..

[MikeBcos]

Quote: Originally Posted by monkeykoder

From what I've seen yes the educational system IS failing has been since it was instituted. The thing is you as a person have to make it work for you because no system works for those that don't want it to and almost any system works for those that want it to.

Unfortunately some systems don't work even if you do want them to. When we first moved to St. Louis 8 years ago we put our daughter in the public school system. That lasted nine weeks, the teachers were not qualified, discipline was non-existent and the class she went into was two years behind what she had been studying at her previous school.

We pulled her out and sent her to a private school. She will graduate this year with an understanding of language and math that is better than mine was at her age!

Last year the St. Louis City schools lost accreditation, the system is broken and nobody seems to be able to fix it.

[stsinner]

Quote: Originally Posted by MikeBcos

.....in the public school system..... discipline was non-existent .

BINGO!!!! It's broken and nobody seems to be able to fix it because nobody is honest anymore.. If you're honest with people, they call you a big meanie.. Political correctness is a cancer that is ravaging our society. It won't allow you to tell a kid's parents that their kid is being lazy with their school work or discipline their precious snowflake when they're in your class without an irate parent storming into the school bitching about you yelling at their crotch fruit who was disrupting class. Until we eradicate the PC sickness from your society, we can't call a problem a problem for fear of offending someone, and if you can't identify a problem it's impossible to fix it.

It has ruined schools, and it has ruined school sports. Our schools don't even have tryouts any more because those require you to tell the fat kid that he didn't make the track team or the uncoordinated kid that he really just can't play soccer.. Every kid gets to play, and oh boy, let a coach yell at a kid that isn't doing what he's supposed to be doing and watch the parents start to whine..

Excellence is being shunned in our society so that the underachievers never have to be told they aren't the Einsteins they think they are. Everybody's equal, and they're all just perfect. Just ask them.

Where I live, you can't even correct a child's work with a red pen because it's too harsh and may make them feel bad.

[Overread]

I have to agree there is a disipline problem as well as a break down of communication between teachers and parents - sadly teachers and parents are at odds too much of time and the PC groups and media hype up fears of abuse and such.

And the private area is not much better for kids - since everything in the UK is based on tables set up showing the schools with the most high grades in each year. That means that private schools aim to get as many high grade passers as they can so as to look better than their competators - thing is they do this not by teaching better, but by accepting only smart kids and also by removing dimmer ones (dislexia and special need is abused as system with it being far too easy for a child to be listed as needed special support - of course that means moving to another school with the specialst teachers.).
My own view is that people do develop at different speeds and one 10 year old will be very different from another - so I do support allowing kids to be able to retake examinations and to be able to have another try. Sometimes they are just not as mature as the common person of their age - its not to say they have problems just that they have not "grown up" as fast as the others.

[mrodgers]

Has no one watched the movie, Idiocracy?

Because this is exactly where our society is heading.

[Big Mike]

I don't know if this in 'on a similar note' or not...but I read it on a blog that I follow and it might say something about the state of our youth...

Quote:

OVERHEARD. Two 12 or 13 year old girls.
First girl: "KFC gets its ingredients from Shindler's List."
Second girl (Nodding, stone faced) "I know. "