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Hey - Calling all students - !!
federica
Seeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! To anyone with kids of any age, here's some advice.
Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School, to the students, about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School, to the students, about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
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Comments
In the schools, we teach children that they don't matter, that only their achievements matter, and if they aren't good at what we consider valueable, then they're useless. Of course no one tells them any of that, and most teachers probably aren't even aware of it, but it's heartbreaking to watch 6-7-8 year olds learn to stop being alive and only focus on the future, learn that they need to be in school and have a teacher in order to learn anything, that they're insignificant and are only good for anything if they happen to be gifted in what "we" consider important or useful.
Sure, there may be one or two theme days a year where there is a focus on social issues, but that's one or two days out of what, 250?
The only time there's ever anything that could be considered "feelgood" on a regular basis, is when there's a student with problems, and there's no one else who can or is willing to help. Schools have to deal with a lot of issues that really aren't really what teachers are trained to deal with (though these days, teachers aren't even really taught to teach, they're taught to do research and write papers...) because no one else does. That's probably where the idea that schools are too touchy-feely comes from.
The fact that school is mandatory (at least where I live, and in a lot of other countries as well) is a major issue that keeps them from being effective. The fact that they have to deal with a lot of things that have nothing to do with education is also an issue. But perhaps even more serious is that we haven't really defined what we expect from the school system or maybe rather, we define around what we don't want to talk about - one of the *main* purposes of school today is to "store" kids of school age during the day because we don't know what else to do with them.
If kids grow up with a feeling of entitlement, it's not fair to blame the kids, they are that way for a reason.
Sorry for the rant, I just really hate the education system after seeing too much of how it works when I was in teachers ed. I admire all the teachers who, for the most part, really do the best they can and then some, but the school system is horrible.
But you *should* be nice to nerds.
Life is not fair. You don't always get second chances. When you have to compete for a job - they don't hand out sympathy employment when you don't make the grade.
Not that this is how life has to be - but if you're going to compete in the business arena - it can be dog-eat-dog and you deal with a lot of ... ... driven, ruthless people.
I remember when I had to start working at 16 - for real - to pay bills and the rent...
I went out partying one time with some guys I "used" to go to school with and listening to their petty whinings about how "this was unfair" and "that was unfair" drove me nuts because they were still living at home with their parents footing their bill, paying for their food and the roof over their heads and all they could do was complain about how stupid or unfair they were - or how mean a teacher was because the teacher told them to "shut up" during class.
While I was working two jobs washing dishes and pumping gas/washing cars to try to make ends meet.
If kids do grow up with a feeling of entitlement - it's true that we can't blame the kids. Because we've told them their whole lives that not doing your best, quitting whenever you want to, blaming someone else for their inadequacies - was fine!
You teach kids that the world isn't always fair, people die, work can be hard, working for someone can be even harder, when you make money - you have to pay bills, etc. - then they grow up realizing that they have to be responsible just like everyone else.
-bf
Of course there are teachers that 'abuse' their power. However, especially in the primary grades, teachers could be reprimanded if they say or do something that hurts a child's feelings. As students get older, this may change..
It's not that children are taught that they are not important...but the 'higher ups' at the State level (in the USA) who probably haven't taught in a classroom in MANY YEARS, are writting standards that not all students can achieve. So much pressure is put on a classroom teacher to have each and every student pass the Achievement tests EVEN IF they have a learning disability! Schools are also getting students that are neglected (hungry, unclean) mentally and emotionally abused...these kids can't even begin to concentrate when they've been up all night b/c mom and dad don't feed them, send them to bed, or are arguing till the wee hours...BUT, these kids need to pass the tests too. If they don't, the teachers get blamed for not teaching...
As far as teachers not being prepared for teaching but for writing papers...I am not sure what you mean, Aquula...In college yes...as does every other degree.... if we are going to teach writing and research, we ought to be able to do it ourselves....
Sorry if I seem tiffed...but education is a passionate topic for me....
There are so many issues going on in this realm, it's getting more difficult to teach what we need to teach....