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Posted by Randy Howard on 03/11/07 03:42
On Sat, 10 Mar 2007 15:57:19 -0600, Willem wrote
(in article <slrnev6adv.2mb6.willem@turtle.stack.nl>):
> Randy wrote:
>> I've had this problem on more than a few occasions with my own kids,
>> where their textbooks have outright falsehoods in them, which of course
>> you can either argue with, and get answers wrong on the test, as the
>> current crop of "teachers" know nothing that isn't in their class guide
>> given to them by the education agency, or you can spend a lot of time
>> having the kids give the pseudo-correct answers in the class homework
>> and on the test(s), while making sure they know the real truth
>> independently.
>
> Ideally, you would go speak to the teacher immediately after seeing the
> mistake, so that the mistake would get corrected before the test.
Indeed. In the most blatant examples, I've gone down that path, but
even when done with good intentions, it is never well received. You
see, it's like trying to tell a process manager that one of the
checkboxes in their flowcharts is incorrect. It cannot be incorrect,
but the process itself is their "bible". It, by definition, cannot be
flawed.
Yes, I'm jaded on the topic. Looking at the level of "knowledge" of
our youth today, the outlook is not good.
> Of course, the world is not ideal by a long shot, and cynical minds would
> agree that teaching your kids to pretend to agree with their mana... er, I
> mean teachers, would help them to get along better in the real world.
Exactly, and a point I've made to them on numerous occasions.
Pre-warnings about some college professors that use their position to
espouse propaganda rather than fact, how to detect them, and fill the
little bluebooks with the silly bile they expect in order to receive an
A have already been discussed. Clue #1: The professor requires you to
purchase a book or books for the class authored by themselves. Sure
sign of a waste of 3 credit hours memorizing their version of reality,
only to be forgotten asap afterward.
> I should know. As a kid, I got some pretty bad grades after publically
> correcting the teacher on a mistake he made. Which he, obviously, insisted
> upon and 'to teach me a lesson' he then made me look up the 'right answer'.
> Me, cynical, ya think ?
Indeed. :-)
>> Don't get me started on teachers that can not spell or do math problems
>> correctly. On more than one occasion a grade has been reversed because
>> it was marked incorrectly, and then I had to actually go speak with the
>> teacher and show them how to solve the problem correctly on their own
>> tests.
>
> Well, teachers that can't do math problems correctly should be shot on
> sight,
Agreed. Especially at the basic level currently attempted in the
primary and secondary school systems. Of course, if we extended that
to all adults, the population density issue could be resolved almost
overnight. :-)
> but with all the spelling reforms that seem to have come into
> fashion, one could argue that it's way too difficult for the teacher to
> know the spelling rules-du-jour.
Any spelling found in the OED should be a reasonable metric. Yes it
changes over time, but fairly slowly relative to the invented stuff in
public slang over time.
--
Randy Howard (2reply remove FOOBAR)
"The power of accurate observation is called cynicism by those
who have not got it." - George Bernard Shaw
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