Re: [Phys-l] Should teachers blog???

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

To a certain extent BC has it right.  The problem comes in when teachers
have to solve social problems as well as teach students.  Then the pressure
is all on the teachers, and the student responsibility is left behind.

I wouldn't go so far as to make school noncompulsory, but I would have more
options than the usual college prep sequence.  Not everyone needs or can
even use algebra for example.  Competence in using reasoning with math
problems is far more valuable than memorizing algebra.

Actually the stupid students are often much smarter than the teachers think.
They optimize their effort to get the maximum satisfaction.  This doesn't
line up with what the teachers want.  They know that their parents are not
using the things that are being taught, so they question why they should
know those things.

Beichner pointed out that the current generation is quite different.  They
have instant access to all the information they could need or want, so why
should they have to memorize gobs of stuff.  What they really need is the
ability to filter the information properly, and skill in using it.  But
schools are still operating on the old fashioned book/lecture/memorize
paradigm.

The teachers in general are being squeezed from both ends, with little
outlet for their frustration.  If they got more respect, and involvement in
real planning of lessons in collaboration with other teachers, the
complaints might be much less.  The administration should see this as a
signal that something is wrong in the system, rather than as just a single
teacher's aberration.  Japaneze teachers and European teachers are by
contrast much more respected, and the Japaneze teachers work together to
optimize the learning.  The US by contrast is still operating on the old top
down assembly line educational theory.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

> > This is not my issue, so no need to "criticize" the
> > students. If teachers criticize more than the enjoy their work, then
> they
> > need to do something else. I can't imagine doing anything but my passion
> > -- teaching.
>
>
>
> On 2011, Feb 17, , at 20:15, William Robertson wrote:
>
> > Having now read through all the posts in that thread, I'm amazed at
> > the number of teachers defending their "right" to complain about kids
> > in a public forum. You're right. If they are that angry about what's
> > going on in their classroom, they need to find a different profession.
> >
> > Bill
>
>
> I thought "we" were trained not to be nursemaids and wardens.**  These
> complaints would disappear the moment schools were not compulsory.
>
>
>
> **  Education is a wise and liberal form of police by which property and
> life and peace of society are secured.  (D. Webster)
>
> bc;  no thanks.
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