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Originally Posted by Centurion
I am a college professor and I've just stumbled across these entries. Good Lord. I trust the language and attitudes used in this thread do not reflect what is being taught at the secondary level.
If so, this may explain why my Freshmen and Sophomore students are not prepared for college when they arrive in my classes.
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Not sure if you teach in the US or not, or your discipline.
US colleges and univs. are awash every year in graduates from US high schools (and keep in mind that the academic requirements to get into college here are going up and up) who require remedial courses just to have a chance of passing entry/core level English, writing, math, history and science classes.
You would think this would be discouraging and perhaps once once to institutions of higher learning. Not today. This is a major cash cow. Something on the order of 60% of all incoming freshmen have to take one or more such classes.
Kachiing!
In college, back in the mid-90s, I worked in the English Dept's tutoring lab (yes, my skills have deteriorated a bit since then). I was both astounded and horrified by some of the "writing" I was asked to help prepare for class.
But only among American students in the polyglot college. I tutored Aussies, Kiwis, Euros of all stripes, a few S. Americans and a number of Asians, any one of whom should have been on MY side of the desk (I was educated in American public screwels, too!) and all of whom were very ashamed of their "poor" English skills, even when English was their 4th or 5th language.
The American students were typically very pleased and could not figure out why their professor "hated" them so much that he or she told them to seek tutoring for their "writing."
Now, I have kids who've been in a public school one for 1/2 year one for 1- 1/2 after K-8-9 in a small private school where "old fashioned" English was the norm. Both come home laughing at English and other "teachers" who have a 4th grade command of the language.
They found English errors on the final exam in their HONORS English class.
And guess what their final project was in that class this semester (10th grade)? A collage.
That's where you cut purty pitchers out of magazines or get them off the 'net and paste them (don't eat that!) on a big piece of cardboard.
Just like you did in 3rd grade!
I sub teach all over this district and at most grade levels from 6th up and this is the NORM.
I subbed in a 12th grade AP English class last semester. They were analyzing some poetry from the WWI era. They did not KNOW it was from that era. I was told after one class by a student: I wish you were our teacher, she doesn't seem to know anything about all this history stuff you know about.
Call me old-fashioned, but I believe an utter ignorance of the history surrounding writing from a certain era...handicaps your understanding of that writing whether it's themes are archetypal and transcendant or not. If you can't tell a classroom full of kids the background for that field of poppies, then how can you speak intelligently about these other literary issues?
My kids were (we have taken them out of the school after the oldest came to us in tears saying she feels she is getting "dumber and dumber" every day she is there)in an AP World History class. The "teacher" decided to "skip" the Middle Ages in Europe entirely, in favor of analyzing Chinese poetry from the same time.
His reasoning is, apparently, that Europe's role in the world is "overblown" by our Eurocentrism. So, apparently, things that happened in the Middle Ages to shape Europe are not as important to WORLD history as 12th century Chinese poetry.
And this is an "award-winning" history teacher in the district.
Hope that gives you a bit of insight.
Tokie
by all the people that are postive their opinion is the correct one.
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