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Re: Caving in: "Too strict" teacher fired





On Tue, 10 Dec 1996, Leigh Palmer wrote:

I have taught under some pretty adverse conditions, but
could never justify failing/dropping 80% of my students.

Scott Rippetoe rippetoe@tenet.edu
Academy of Science and Technology voice (713) 292-2615
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Sounds like it's probably a tough inner city school, eh?
I think you have no imagination. I've heard stories that
would make me believe in 80% irredeemable classes - in
physics!

Leigh


I, and my colleagues, have had classes (required intro non-calc physics
for health-ed types) where more than 80% *deserved* to fail, on the basis
of (1) laziness, (2) couldn't read and understand the textbook, (3) didn't
bother to read the textbook, (4) didn't even buy the textbook, (5)
aggressive indifference to any intellectual effort, (6) prior hostility to
any course they thought irrelevant to their narrow career goals, (7)
spotty class attendance, (8) failure to even try the homework, and (9) a
conviction, based on successful experience in other courses, that one
could get a good grade (A or B) without any personal effort.

And of course, their expectations are confirmed, for no one here has the
courage and willingness to risk their (a) personal career, (b) the
enrollment figures, (c) the future of the department, (d) the wrath of the
deans and vice presidents, (e) the negative student evaluation results,
(f) the hassles of threats from parents who say "My darling, smart,
son/daughter got good grades in *all* other courses, so something must be
wrong with this course/instructor." So the grades get inflated, and no one
has the guts to give students what they deserve.

There are of course some among us who say it isn't simply courage that is
lacking. They argue that these students came to us woefully unprepared by
high school (then why did we admit them?) and shouldn't be penalized by
us, since it wasn't their fault. Their prior education never taught them
how to study, the importance of hard work, the difference between serious
academic involvement and merely being a passive spectator, or even the
basic skills of reading and math. Many come from single-parent families,
grew up in a deprived environment, have drug problems, have to work (to
buy cars, stereos, and clothes). So, these folk say, give them a break.
Take them where they are, pass them through, collect your pay, be thankful
for your fringe benefits, and take your professional satisfaction in your
research, writing, hobbies, or whatever. Don't lose sleep over the fact
that most students aren't learning anything but trivia, information they
can't use or even synthesize, and equations they can't use reliably and
don't understand anyway.

And there are others who counsel that we should try alternative teaching
strategies (as if we hadn't thought of that already, and already tried and
discarded them). Trouble is, the strategy that works for some students,
fails for others. Most of the currently fashionable ones only accomplish a
limited portion of what we feel is important, and no one has come up with
a successful strategy for 'teaching' *all* the broad spectrum of students
we must deal with, unless the content is watered down so that anyone can
grasp it without much personal effort.

Of course there are always a few students who do learn (being
self-motivated) and do actually benefit from our courses. They make it all
worth while. And were things really any better in the past? Haven't we
been educating (*really* educating) about the same small fraction of the
entire population as we always have been? The main difference is that
today a much larger fraction of population attends colleges and
universities than ever before. So we are deceiving a lot more people,
letting them think they are being educated (and we know they are paying a
price for that illusion) but in fact, for most of them it is no more than
a cosmetic make-over.

What's a little depressing is how many *teachers* seem to buy into this
illusion, fooling themselves into thinking they are successful when they
finally get students to solve 13 - x = -2 successfully most of the time,
and can recite the slogan 'action equals reaction'. They convince
themselves of the rightness of what they do with slogans and pep-talk
filled with the currently fashionable jargon of the ed-biz (bolstered by
"studies which have shown that...") and the conviction that it's not
important whether kids master anything difficult, or really *understand*
anything, for it's more important that schools are socializing them,
boosting their self-esteem and 'educating students for life'.

I also agonize about the disservice done to those students of 20 or more
years ago, who *did* do hard work in school, sweating blood in order to
earn grades which todays' students 'earn' without serious effort. We are
now graduating some students (and putting them on the Deans' list) who
have academic accomplishment comparable to some of those of the past who
left school or flunked out for academic deficiencies. I think about those
past students with a sense of sadness and some bitterness at how unfair
life can be, even to those who have dedication, ability, and talent.
That's another aspect of 'concern' for students which doesn't get
mentioned here much.

Part of the problem is that many teachers and school administrators aren't
solidly and broadly educated themselves, and have no conception of what
serious hard academic work, attention to detail and mastery of a subject
means. The folks on this list are probably not in that group, as indicated
by the perceptive and literate contributions we've been seeing here
lately. But you all know such people in your schools. Even here we
sometimes see postings from teachers, which ought to make an English
teacher cringe--making one wonder about the quality of that person's own
education. The physics teacher who complains that students can't do math,
while displaying in his/her own writing a disregard for the rules and
customs of the English language (as if they weren't important) is matched
by the English teacher who can't do algebra and conveys to students the
impression that *that's* not important. Sometimes we pay only lip-service
to the notion that we might be role-models to students.

-- Donald

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dr. Donald E. Simanek Office: 717-893-2079
Prof. of Physics Internet: dsimanek@eagle.lhup.edu
Lock Haven University, Lock Haven, PA. 17745 CIS: 73147,2166
Home page: http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek FAX: 717-893-2047
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++