cmotherofpirl Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 [url="http://cosmos-liturgy-sex.com/2009/02/03/have-we-entered-the-labronze-age/"]http://cosmos-liturgy-sex.com/2009/02/03/h...e-labronze-age/[/url] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatherineM Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 The part about students not buying the required texts was something I had learned about only recently. A older black columnist from the St. Pete Times took an early retirement/sabbatical to go and teach at one of the historic black colleges in the South. He said it was something he had promised himself to do as a way of paying back for the education he received. He quit after a year and returned to the paper. He was just shocked at the way the students acted, and among many issues, the thing about not buying the texts really messed with him. All the students in his journalism classes qualified for free textbooks, but just never bothered to go over and get them from the book store. He even put some at the library thinking they might read them there or check them out. None did. This is a really respected journalist, who would have given any of these kids any help he could, and he gave up. He takes a lot of heat from his columns that echo some of the stuff that Bill Cosby talks about. I thought it was maybe just a poor Southern mentality that books don't get you anywhere, but I guess it is going on across the board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arpy Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 I'm so far into the Labronze age, I can't even formulate a coherent response to that article. No, I probably could, but it would be really syncophantic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lil Red Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 +J.M.J.+ wow, this is sad. i hesitate to place [b]all[/b] blame on the schools though - many times it is the parents who hesitate to get directly involved in their child's education. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmotherofpirl Posted February 17, 2009 Author Share Posted February 17, 2009 [quote name='Lil Red' post='1783774' date='Feb 17 2009, 07:07 PM']+J.M.J.+ wow, this is sad. i hesitate to place [b]all[/b] blame on the schools though - many times it is the parents who hesitate to get directly involved in their child's education.[/quote] And its the parent who buys them their first cellphone, ipod, computer etc AND lets them watch watch ever c.rap comes down the pike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatherineM Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 When I got my youngest foster son, he was 7 years old, and had just gotten out of 1st grade. He couldn't read, at all. He said that his step mother told him reading was for chumps, and wouldn't let him look at his books at home. That was a mess to clean up. I could read when I started school. My parents read to me every day. I just don't understand this stuff. If you want the best for your kids, it's not the latest Air Jordans or Ipod, it's teaching them to love to learn and improve themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkwright Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 Well to be fair there have been dumb people in every generation and there always will be. Its just now we have this sense that everyone has to go to college, everyone needs to be on the honor role, ect. Maybe our standards have lowered a bit due to this. I got through college without ever opening a book. I opened the math book to do some homework now and then. I made it through a policy sci and a statistics class without ever opening the book and only showing up for the exams (made A's in both of them...) Here at law school its an entirely different story. A few days ago, I skipped class because I hadn't read the material yet - I'm terrified to go into class without being prepared before hand. The socratic method could work wonders in undergrad rather than some teacher sitting up there lecturing off a power point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatherineM Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 [quote name='rkwright' post='1784180' date='Feb 17 2009, 10:22 PM']Here at law school its an entirely different story. A few days ago, I skipped class because I hadn't read the material yet - I'm terrified to go into class without being prepared before hand. The socratic method could work wonders in undergrad rather than some teacher sitting up there lecturing off a power point.[/quote] My first day of Property Law (first class every, so I was clueless) the prof jumped on me about Sierra Club v. Morton. He knew from my file I was a forester. Since I didn't know anything about the case, I bluffed and started talking about what I did know. I explained that the Forest Service is required by the Renewable Resources Act to manage forest land for Recreation along with the Resources, Range, Wood and Wildlife. Everyone behind me began to furiously flip through their books looking for the Act I was quoting from. The professor cracked a wicked smile, let them do it for several minutes while I continued blabbing, and finally told them to calm down that I was a ringer. He let me sit down, and some one else then briefed the actual case. He caught me after class and told me that he had let me off easy because he loves scaring his class at the beginning. I never went unprepared again, and he and I became friends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lil Red Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 [quote name='CatherineM' post='1783900' date='Feb 17 2009, 05:41 PM']He said that his step mother told him reading was for chumps,[/quote] +J.M.J.+ that is so sad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmotherofpirl Posted February 22, 2009 Author Share Posted February 22, 2009 [quote name='rkwright' post='1784180' date='Feb 18 2009, 12:22 AM']Well to be fair there have been dumb people in every generation and there always will be. Its just now we have this sense that everyone has to go to college, everyone needs to be on the honor role, ect. Maybe our standards have lowered a bit due to this. I got through college without ever opening a book. I opened the math book to do some homework now and then. I made it through a policy sci and a statistics class without ever opening the book and only showing up for the exams (made A's in both of them...) Here at law school its an entirely different story. A few days ago, I skipped class because I hadn't read the material yet - I'm terrified to go into class without being prepared before hand. The socratic method could work wonders in undergrad rather than some teacher sitting up there lecturing off a power point.[/quote] Lowered a bit??? Do people do any actual work in these classes? Handouts or something? My son did maths and econ in undergrad, and his books have been quite well-used. Grad school hasn't been any different. Its been be prepared or get eaten alive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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