Decline? Yep. Even Newsweek puts us at No. 11.
I was impressed that we did that well.
Friedman asks: how come we’ve spent so much money on improving education and it has improved so little? He then refers to a piece by Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson:
“The larger cause of failure is almost unmentionable: shrunken student motivation,” wrote Samuelson. “Students, after all, have to do the work. If they aren’t motivated, even capable teachers may fail. Motivation comes from many sources: curiosity and ambition; parental expectations; the desire to get into a ‘good’ college; inspiring or intimidating teachers; peer pressure. The unstated assumption of much school ‘reform’ is that if students aren’t motivated, it’s mainly the fault of schools and teachers.” Wrong, he said. “Motivation is weak because more students (of all races and economic classes, let it be added) don’t like school, don’t work hard and don’t do well. In a 2008 survey of public high school teachers, 21 percent judged student absenteeism a serious problem; 29 percent cited ‘student apathy.’ ”I'm contemplating giving my students a "pop quiz" tomorrow. Each of my classes is rapidly approaching their first exam, so you'd think these kids would be on top of the material, wouldn't you?
There is a lot to Samuelson’s point — and it is a microcosm of a larger problem we have not faced honestly as we have dug out of this recession: We had a values breakdown — a national epidemic of get-rich-quickism and something-for-nothingism. Wall Street may have been dealing the dope, but our lawmakers encouraged it. And far too many of us were happy to buy the dot-com and subprime crack for quick prosperity highs.. . .
… Our big problems are unfolding incrementally — the decline in U.S. education, competitiveness and infrastructure, as well as oil addiction and climate change. Our generation’s leaders never dare utter the word “sacrifice.” All solutions must be painless. Which drug would you like? A stimulus from Democrats or a tax cut from Republicans?..... . .
[David] Rothkopf and I agreed that we would get excited about U.S. politics when our national debate is between Democrats and Republicans who start by acknowledging that we can’t cut deficits without both tax increases and spending cuts — and then debate which ones and when — who acknowledge that we can’t compete unless we demand more of our students — and then debate longer school days versus school years — who acknowledge that bad parents who don’t read to their kids and do indulge them with video games are as responsible for poor test scores as bad teachers — and debate what to do about that….
No. I already know that most students will do terribly (I've been at this teaching thing for a while). Most of them will not have done the reading at all.
I'll pressure them to do the work. That'll work for a while, but then it won't. In the end, lots of these students will get Ds and Fs in the course.
Some will come to me and say, "How come I got this grade? I attended almost every class!"
Meanwhile, everything in these kids' lives will be telling them, "Yes, you can take four or five courses while employed and maintaining an active social life! You can have it all!"
But it ain't true. It just ain't.
When do we start getting real?
9 comments:
I think it is interesting a pop quiz is your solution. I was thinking that predictability is a good way to kill a subject off (rather: I'm going to skip your class if I know what you're going to do already and if I have access to the material all by my lonesome).
Attendence definitely isn't everything either. Last day of my epistemology class, this girl with perfect attendence walks in and says, in front of the whole class, "The final is today?"
I laughed. I was bitter. Professor knocked me down 10% of my grade because I missed a week of class due to an illness (cat scratch disease!). She gets to reschedule of course, because she never missed a class!
BS
Aced the tests
Really? They take attendance at UCI these days? Never did in my day.
I get the feeling sometimes that the younger generations are inveterate gamblers, and poor ones mostly. They think: "I betcha you don't really have to attend class to understand this material." Or even: "He doesn't really mean it when he says that you've gotta turn in your blah blah blah assignments to pass the course!"
And so they lay their bets, vaguely satisfied and undisturbed. --That's the really odd part. They're undisturbed. In my day, one might do this but one would experience endless anxiety.
Sometimes these students "win" their little wager. Very often (in my experience) they lose. And they sometimes lose big.
And they are shocked, shocked! (They're not just lousy gamblers; they have no idea how to lose!) And I am shocked, shocked! that they are shocked.
And then I think about the future and I just don't know what it means.
I'm bettin' it isn't good.
Honestly, I felt I was justified on getting my 20% back based on the fact that he is the only professor I've ever had that takes attendance. It went against my odds!
Course, he claims to have told the class that he takes his attendance very seriously, and that if we know we are going to be skipping class (illness or not) we are to let him know ahead of time.
I was late that day though.
I feel like such an asshole.
It'll hurt my GPA some, and then some grad school committee will look it over and reject me based on my B or something. All will be right with the world because of this.
The young probably think the world isn't nearly as shitty as it is. We're bad thinkers because the general picture of the world, in our mind, is a positive one. The way we feel after fucking up does not fit in to this picture. It does not make sense, it was a fluke, it will never happen again. Then it does. And then again. Eventually, we will learn. But then we will not be called young!
BS
bitter for a bit
As we decline, the question is, will we become Rome or England?
Ottoman Turks.
England.
"Just act like everything's still OK."
The Brits are better at putting on a good front and soldiering on--than we are.
OK, so Turks.
And there I was on Monday morning, all prepared for my pop quiz... for nought. What a disappointment. Perhaps a question to the class every now and then to engage (or, in some cases literally awaken) their brains would help with the slack-jawed looks you doubtless have staring back at you. Just a suggestion.
8:23, announcing that one will give a pop quiz is an odd business, since, of course, it can no longer "pop" for those who hear the announcement. Naturally, I was aware of this and took the opportunity to allow any students reading to prepare for the quiz. Mission accomplished!
I didn't know the Turks were in the furniture business.
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