Thank goodness for research.

[_Moniker]

Most of the time it seems like school is arranged to actively prevent learning...

What do you mean by that, Blixa? No worries if you don't wish to get into it. Just thought that was an interesting statement.

[_Yoda]

Most of the time it seems like school is arranged to actively prevent learning...

A truer statement could not be spoken. That may be my new sig line.

I'm burned out, too. I'm counting down the days to my sabbatical. March 20th!!!! Yay! I'm excited to be doing research and learning for a while. Teaching is draining me big time right now, too.

My take on what Blixa means is that there are so many perimeters that institutional learning forces you to teach in, that even at the college level, you feel like you are suffocating in a neat little box. It's unnerving.

[_Blixa]

Most of the time it seems like school is arranged to actively prevent learning...

What do you mean by that, Blixa? No worries if you don't wish to get into it. Just thought that was an interesting statement.

Well things like the fact that two or three teachers should be hired for every one teaching now. I could actually teach students to write better if I had writing classes with only 6 or students in them...and only taught say two of them a semester (while teaching other courses). When I have to deal with ovver 400 papers a semester there is no way in hell I can work on the nitty gritty of teaching someone to be a better writer---especially someone who likely doesn't read. If I had the time and space to sit down with a student at a computer and do a line-by-line edit with them of just TWO of their papers, I know I could increase their abilities 200%. Writing is editing after all.

That's just one example. Others? Many students pre-college have never been asked to read an entire book. They've been given rote exams and multiple choice quizzes but not written papers where they've had to deal with ideas---with concepts. Abstract thinking baffles them. They cannot point to Scotland on a map. They have no historical sense. They have never taken classes in philosophy or art. They have not been encouraged to learn another language. When I give them an essay to read and begin a discussion with "So what did you think?" they are mystified. If I ask something like, "So what was the author's name?" or "Where did the character take a train to?" they can answer (by looking at the text). They have been taught that learning is a matter of giving a "correct answer" and not a matter of reasoning through a topic, or speculating or thinking on their own. That one can use their own head to produce ideas boggles them. They've never been asked to read aloud in a class and they can barely do it. They've been allowed to think of themselves as "too shy" to participate in class, theyve only been exposed to a model of learning in which individuals may occupy the same space, but are not understood to be collectively engaged in any endeavor. They sincerely do not understand when I explain that the behavior or lack of participation of individual students has effects on the class as a whole.

That's just problems with how they've been produced before I get them. Colleges and Universities have their own problems caused by administrations more concerned with bottom lines and retention of "clients" and undermining teacher's unions and trying to take away health insurance and create bigger teacher loads. There was a brilliant summary of these issues published in the NEA journal Thought and Action over a year ago: "From Art to Alienated Labor: The Degradation of Academic Work," by Jeff Lustig. I think its available online, if I remember correctly, I don't have a link handy, but perhaps you could find it by Googling.

[_Bond...James Bond]

I hear that Blixa. I'm suprised by how many people I come across who have never even read an entire book. It boggles my mind that college students exist like that. As to critical reasoning and what not...I get frustrated by the lack of interesting comments coming from people. I mean don't people think at all?

(I'm no superthinker but I like to think that I can go outside the box a bit occasionally.)

[_Bond...James Bond]

Precisely why I will never become a gynecologist.

LMAO!

[_Moniker]

Most of the time it seems like school is arranged to actively prevent learning...

What do you mean by that, Blixa? No worries if you don't wish to get into it. Just thought that was an interesting statement.

Well things like the fact that two or three teachers should be hired for every one teaching now. I could actually teach students to write better if I had writing classes with only 6 or students in them...and only taught say two of them a semester (while teaching other courses). When I have to deal with ovver 400 papers a semester there is no way in hell I can work on the nitty gritty of teaching someone to be a better writer---especially someone who likely doesn't read. If I had the time and space to sit down with a student at a computer and do a line-by-line edit with them of just TWO of their papers, I know I could increase their abilities 200%. Writing is editing after all.

That's just one example. Others? Many students pre-college have never been asked to read an entire book. They've been given rote exams and multiple choice quizzes but not written papers where they've had to deal with ideas---with concepts. Abstract thinking baffles them. They cannot point to Scotland on a map. They have no historical sense. They have never taken classes in philosophy or art. They have not been encouraged to learn another language. When I give them an essay to read and begin a discussion with "So what did you think?" they are mystified. If I ask something like, "So what was the author's name?" or "Where did the character take a train to?" they can answer (by looking at the text). They have been taught that learning is a matter of giving a "correct answer" and not a matter of reasoning through a topic, or speculating or thinking on their own. That one can use their own head to produce ideas boggles them. They've never been asked to read aloud in a class and they can barely do it. They've been allowed to think of themselves as "too shy" to participate in class, theyve only been exposed to a model of learning in which individuals may occupy the same space, but are not understood to be collectively engaged in any endeavor. They sincerely do not understand when I explain that the behavior or lack of participation of individual students has effects on the class as a whole.

That's just problems with how they've been produced before I get them. Colleges and Universities have their own problems caused by administrations more concerned with bottom lines and retention of "clients" and undermining teacher's unions and trying to take away health insurance and create bigger teacher loads. There was a brilliant summary of these issues published in the NEA journal Thought and Action over a year ago: "From Art to Alienated Labor: The Degradation of Academic Work," by Jeff Lustig. I think its available online, if I remember correctly, I don't have a link handy, but perhaps you could find it by Googling.

Wow! Thanks for your reply, Blixa. I've long thought that our schools prepare children and young adults for professions -- and that's it. You know I don't consider myself a great thinker -- yet, I see so many that just have no inquisitiveness.... there's no desire to ask questions. There's not the yearning to KNOW.

I know many, many, many people that don't read and I don't understand it. There's sooo much to learn!

I'm a terrible writer, I struggle with it, yet I spent most of my high school years in school suspension and lost out on much of the same instruction my classmates received. When I first entered college I was able to take honor courses because of my ACT score and I was so proud and excited. Had NO preparation for college whatsoever. My first essay was returned and only this was written at the top, "Should you be in honor courses? Redo it." I was frantic! I went to tutors, struggled, and worked my ass off. Of course I'd always been an avid reader and yet I'd not understood simple grammar and made mistakes that were elementary. I was so hungry for that education that I did ANYTHING I had to do to be there every single day. That included driving for an hour each way, taking night classes, even when I was a single mother going through my first divorce -- I wanted an education! I wanted to know. Some sat beside my and yawned their way through classes, napped, etc... and I couldn't fathom why they weren't excited at what opportunities they were given to ingest KNOWLEDGE!

I am certain you're a great teacher! I've learned so much from you by the simple things you've shared with me at various times. Shifting my focus to things I wasn't aware of before or just challenging what I thought I knew. Really, just being an example of what I could strive to know in terms of art and literature.


I found it! :)

http://www2.nea.org/he/heta06/images/2006pg143.pdf

[_Bond...James Bond]

I am certain you're a great teacher! I've learned so much from you by the simple things you've shared with me at various times. Shifting my focus to things I wasn't aware of before or just challenging what I thought I knew. Really, just being an example of what I could strive to know in terms of art and literature.

Quoted for truth. ;P

[_Blixa]

Thanks Mon and Bond. I'm glad you found the link...I just looked it up myself to come back and post. Its depressing but an accurate assessment, I think.

[_Mercury]

Actually, I have. I'm currently on a bit of a nutrition bend, trying to become a great deal healthier in my eating habits. I've been watching a BBC show called "You Are What You Eat" in which a nutritionist bullies people into becoming healthy by analyzing their poo and displaying a "Beastly Feast" of all the crap they consume in a week.

I'm fascinated more by the sheer horror of the Beastly Feasts than I am the poo. I think.

I hope that excrement isn't what garners your main fascination. I'm down with some kinky stuff, but a feller has to draw the line somewhere.

DO NOT CLICK THIS LINK:
(Moderator Note) Link has been deleted. The "Two Girl One Cup" link is available on another thread in the Telestial Forum.---Liz

If you do, use this on your eyes:

[_Moniker]

Oh! Please edit that! Ooooooooo, please. Do a BIG WARNING of some sort!

I, fortunately, looked at the url address and did NOT click... but some unsuspecting poster may!

*lil gag just knowing what that link contains*