I could not agree more. While I don't think elementary school or even high school should be QUITE as stringent as university or the working world, there has to be a point at which laziness, obstinacy and procrastination meet their natural result.
Also, your blog doesn't update in my blogroll, so sorry I keep missing when you post. Zero for me!
Wish I had caught up with this earlier, but I am on the same page with you 100%. When I was studying for my interview/exam I discovered the policy of not penalizing students for passing work in late. I was flabbergasted! Frustrated! Annoyed! Of course, teachers still act like the due date is the due date, but they aren't REALLY allowed to enforce it. Ridiculous! Thanks for the rant!
I should point out that I think teachers in general do a terrific job. I'm not blaming them or schools for what is happening. I think it's a combination of societal pressure and bad policies that may have started as excellent intentions (boost self esteem of students, boost grad rates, etc), but somewhere along the line became entrenched in bureaucracy. The pendulum can only swing so far...
What an interesting topic. I do agree with everything you say, and yet we have three university summer students working with us now, and they are incredibly dedicated, hard-working and pleasant people who would have gone through the school system with the easier standards that you describe.
Three is a small sample size so I'm not drawing conclusions, but I do wonder if either the system does still work, or if there is just going to be a bigger range of student performance, with the top performers always being self-motivated. What does the other end of the scale look like now I wonder?
5 comments:
I could not agree more. While I don't think elementary school or even high school should be QUITE as stringent as university or the working world, there has to be a point at which laziness, obstinacy and procrastination meet their natural result.
Also, your blog doesn't update in my blogroll, so sorry I keep missing when you post. Zero for me!
My blog doesn't update in ANYONE's blogroll. Doesn't like me and I am too techno-inept/couldn't be arsed lazy to look into why...
Wish I had caught up with this earlier, but I am on the same page with you 100%. When I was studying for my interview/exam I discovered the policy of not penalizing students for passing work in late. I was flabbergasted! Frustrated! Annoyed! Of course, teachers still act like the due date is the due date, but they aren't REALLY allowed to enforce it. Ridiculous! Thanks for the rant!
I should point out that I think teachers in general do a terrific job. I'm not blaming them or schools for what is happening. I think it's a combination of societal pressure and bad policies that may have started as excellent intentions (boost self esteem of students, boost grad rates, etc), but somewhere along the line became entrenched in bureaucracy. The pendulum can only swing so far...
What an interesting topic. I do agree with everything you say, and yet we have three university summer students working with us now, and they are incredibly dedicated, hard-working and pleasant people who would have gone through the school system with the easier standards that you describe.
Three is a small sample size so I'm not drawing conclusions, but I do wonder if either the system does still work, or if there is just going to be a bigger range of student performance, with the top performers always being self-motivated. What does the other end of the scale look like now I wonder?
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