Quote:
Originally Posted by dpastern
My advice to teachers is to:
1) remove DVDs/Videos when it comes to English subjects. Make the kids actually read and comprehend the literature
2) remove calculators. Make them use slide rules, make them think and use their brains for maths.
3) Ban mobile phones from school premises. Sorry, but there's no need for a kid to have such a device. For all those that would disagree with me - if they're so critical, how the hell did I, and many others of my generation and older, survive without one? mmm? Care to answer that one?
4) Ban the Internet @ school. Let them research using books. Actual books. Too many kids are copying/pasting whole paragraphs from the Internet and becoming adept at being parrots. They do not comprehend what they are studying, they simply parrot phrases. This is again, a major problem with the modern degree imho, and probably half the reason why most modern teachers are failures imho.
Dave
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Dave, I agree with some of your sentiments but here are the arguments that would be presented against your line of thought.
1) English students must study all forms of communication if they are to be prepared for the modern world. That incudes texts, poetry, classics, media, film etc. To remove any one of these would be hindering their understanding of the world they live in. Visual forms of communication are by far the most common and persuasive so why would you remove them? Bit like taking the plus sign out of maths.
2) Calculators have given many kids the opportunity to do maths that they could never have done otherwise. The level of maths taught at a high school level is much higher then when you and I went to school. For example the calculus teacher at my school recently set his class an investigation in which they had to use partial differentails to solve the problem and the kids managed quite well. I have a number of these kids in my chem class and they can count very well. When I mark their tests the calculations section no matter how much I tie them into knots are always perfect. As an aside maths courses in WA have both calculator and non-calculator components and the kids can only use one for part of their exam. I personally hate number crunching, it is not a great skill, it is mundane and boring. Better they learn application as theoretical maths is only good as a tool for science
(sorry Rob).
3) Mobile phones should be crushed at the gate before entry. They are a huge problem. Unfortunately most parents think they are essential and it's a battle we cannot win.
4) Kids who cut and paste straight off the internet are easy to catch out. Teachers are well aware of the writing ability and level of expression of their students and the ones that try it are genrally very lazy (the biggest problem in education in my book). All one has to do is google the search phrase and the first hit is usually the item the student has used. We also make them reference all sources which we check. At my school plagiarism and collusion are serious matters and the kids will only try it once. They get an instant zero for the assessment and have to research another question which must be submitted in full. They will recieve no credit for this one either and they genrally have to complete the makeup assignment in after school detention. Considering the resources available in most school libraries it would be criminal to remove the net as a research tool. It's part of the modern world and kids need to know how to get the most from it including sorting the @#$% from the clay.
Mark