tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post3320695384294283305..comments2023-09-29T05:32:04.308-07:00Comments on StrangePegs: How the System Failed My Son: Part Six -- Get with the SystemAndrew Leonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13964775673414653644noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-49181710180871982172016-07-05T18:54:17.100-07:002016-07-05T18:54:17.100-07:00Briane: With the Internet, now, everything needs t...Briane: With the Internet, now, everything needs to change. Information is constantly at our fingertips. The underlying reason for memorizing facts has been eroded. We should be teaching thinking skills and discernment and processes, not fact stuffing. At any rate, despite the way we supposedly prize individuality culturally, we spend almost all of our time trying to force everyone to be the same.Andrew Leonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13964775673414653644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-53819916038775429152016-07-04T19:01:48.312-07:002016-07-04T19:01:48.312-07:00Seems like it's getting better? Reading this m...Seems like it's getting better? Reading this makes me mad on your and your son's behalf. He IS a good writer. <br /><br />While it's helpful for people to learn to work in a system that many people use (such as writing as you go rather than working it all out in your head) it's also not good to simply corral people into doing everything the same way. Schools need to be able to help people decide when to channel things and when to let them work their own way.<br /><br />What you say about essays, though, applies equally to how we test knowledge in almost every area in school. I once told a law clerk that if they really wanted to prep students for a law career, all exams would be 15-minute oral exams, or 30-day take home tests. That's how lawyers operate: we appear in court and argue with a judge for a bit, having to answer questions off the top of our heads, or we get a month to write a brief.<br /><br />Schools should look at how people operate in the real world. Looking up a fact to answer a question is fine; using notes to work out math problems, likewise fine. Nobody anywhere wants something important to be done BY MEMORY. I want my doctor double checking my medicine's dosage before writing out the prescription. And you're right that nobody ever has to just sit down and write an essay, or ANYTHING, for 45 minutes, to exist in society.<br /><br />Sheesh. Now I'm all worked up.Brianehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01616494058636881575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-72089555621178619602016-07-04T15:09:16.425-07:002016-07-04T15:09:16.425-07:00Jeanne: I like the five-paragraph essay format, es...Jeanne: I like the five-paragraph essay format, especially for kids and teens. It's clearly defined and gives a good framework to learn from.<br /><br />As far as high schools go, my son's was better than most. At least around here and in this time. We're not in that district, so the guidelines for being in the program are something you sign up for if you want to be in it. I can't really complain about that as such.<br /><br />As for the teacher... Well, I can only speak from my experience with her. I don't know how she was in class. All I know is that my son, despite everything, thought she was fine as a teacher, and she may have been for kids who fell in line. Andrew Leonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13964775673414653644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-73958682171780992382016-07-04T15:00:33.464-07:002016-07-04T15:00:33.464-07:00ABftS: My English classes tended to focus on liter...ABftS: My English classes tended to focus on literature, but that may have been because I was in various types of advanced classes from about 5th grade on. We had to write about the things we read, but it was almost never in-class essays. I don't even remember any overnight assignments.<br /><br />We did almost no fiction writing, though, in the regular English classes. Poetry, sometimes. There was one creative writing class offered in my high school, which I took, but that was about it. College was the same. Fiction writing is, basically, a thing that isn't taught.Andrew Leonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13964775673414653644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-19445117498698593672016-07-04T13:14:12.791-07:002016-07-04T13:14:12.791-07:00I've had to take essay tests before, in the fo...I've had to take essay tests before, in the form of the dreaded five paragraph essay. It seems so easy now but ugh, did I hate it at the time. And it really was pointless because while I had to do them in college (another issue entirely), do I have to write surprise essays in forty five minutes now?<br /><br />Honestly, that teacher is awful. The whole school seems awful, what with him not being able to drop drama class without leaving. And people are just constantly making kids do more and more work and if they ever don't because it's pointless, they get railed on for not doing what they're told. There is no way for them to escape.J E Oneilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09780097298061829471noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-89894907033181077402016-07-04T10:56:04.840-07:002016-07-04T10:56:04.840-07:00Wow, timed essays... that's really a thing? I ...Wow, timed essays... that's really a thing? I was never a fan of my English classes, because they focused way more on essays than on fiction writing, but we never got anything like timed essays. It was more like take it home, take your time, write something worth reading, and it's due tomorrow.<br /><br />Besides, I know there are deadlines in the work places, but even while working in one of those most stressful, chaotic offices you could imagine, we never had situations where the boss said something like, "Alright guys, we have 30 minutes to write up a 2 page proposal that hinges on this $5 million contract. No pressure. Annnnnnd... GO!"A Beer for the Showerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17029139745335325356noreply@blogger.com