OT: US Education (Beware, even longe

[alicia5270]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C7219
From: alicia5270
Subject: Re: OT: US Education (Beware, even longe
Reply To: [Yahoo! #7217] OT: US Education (Beware, even longer)
Date: 8/18/00 6:15 pm  (ET)

Part 2 (If you're still reading, you deserve to be nominated for some
sort of award.....)

The point of the above was that the state of education must be pretty
poor if the smartest kids fail such a test. And that failure really
shouldn't be attributed to the kids.

I've had a wide array of teachers, from the best and brightest to the
most apathetic and agonizing. (I won't even go into the vicious cycle of
teachers that comprised my Freshman Physical Science course this year,
as the explanation for such is long and twisted.) Ironically enough, the
best teacher I've ever had was a man who's been in the field for years
and years. However, he seems to keep on coming up with ideas to make
literature more interesting to students, and has shocked the supervisors
on more than one occasion with his unconventional methods. He didn't teach
'down' to us, as most teachers do; he taught at a level that he saw fit,
and expected the rest of the class to work up to that level. For the first
time in my academic career, I felt as if I was actually be challenged;
and challenged I was.

It's a bit of a shock to have a paper handed back to you with, "From
anyone else, this would be fantastic. This *is* fantastic. But it's not
you. Get out of the habit of writing to please the reader and get into
the habit of writing to please yourself. Do this over in all the cynical,
sarcastic glory that I expect from you and have in on my desk by next
Tuesday," written on the top, but I got used to it. I got so into the
habit of speaking my mind that the local newspaper, which usually runs
outstanding student essays on various topics, refused to print my papers
because, and I quote, they thought that I was "too controversial" and that
"this material would shock some of our readers".

(Oh, wasn't that my liberal-to-a-fault-mother's proudest day-- she
found out that she'd produced a child who could look forward to a life
of creative oppression.)

The point of *this* tangent was, no matter how terribly educated students
are taught, there are a few great teachers in the world who can correct
the mistakes of others.

Signing off (finally),
Alicia/Sue "Feeling Bad For Boring Everyone to Death With This Horribly
OT Post" Spinnet