The Academics Thread

[Bazza]

What about a teacher of nearly 30 years, an author of many books on schooling (one on the history of compulsory schooling), and said teacher was named New York City Teacher of the Year in 1989, 1990, and 1991, and New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991.

 

Because he said those things.  

[Cancer]

He's seen a lot of C-minus students.

[Bazza]

Yep. Lots and lots. 

 

The school system creates them: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling - 25th Anniversary Edition by John Taylor Gatto

 

“After over 100 years of mandatory schooling in the U.S., literacy rates have dropped, families are fragmented, learning "disabilities" are skyrocketing, and children and youth are increasingly disaffected. Thirty years of teaching in the public school system led John Taylor Gatto to the sad conclusion that compulsory governmental schooling is to blame, accomplishing little but to teach young people to follow orders like cogs in an industrial machine. 

 

He became a fierce advocate of families and young people taking back education and learning, arguing that "genius is as common as dirt," but that conventional schooling is driving out the natural curiosity and problem-solving skills we're born with, replacing it with rule-following, fragmented time, and disillusionment.”

[Starlord]

And here I thought it said John Gotti.

[Old Man]

That book dates from last century.  Has he written anything since?  Teaching has changed quite a bit in the last two decades.

[Bazza]

29 minutes ago, Old Man said:

That book dates from last century.  Has he written anything since?  Teaching has changed quite a bit in the last two decades.

 

The Underground History of American Education: A Schoolteacher’s Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling 

 

pub date 2003. 

[Old Man]

Man that's even before NCLB.  Not that NCLB was an improvement, but it goes to show how dated the book is.

[Bazza]

Well, it is a history of about 100 yrs of public compulsory schooling. Author finds that public compulsory school was set up by the 1% as an appendage of industry. Ergo, purpose of school is not education (cf Pieper) but training for a job. 

 

Has the structure changed since then? The purpose of this schooling system is to become a cog in the economic machine. 

[Badger]

5 hours ago, Old Man said:

Man that's even before NCLB.  Not that NCLB was an improvement, but it goes to show how dated the book is.

 

NCLB, was definitely not an improvement.  No Child left behind means every child left behind.  Reluctance to give up on problem students, usually means the loss of several you actually stood a chance to save.

 

Edit: And what I have seen of Common Core, can be described as "Edukation for Dumies"  (spelling intentional)

 

 

[Cancer]

Not quite halfway through the first remote final exam period.  Two of the five who said they would try it did not show up; only three are doing it now.  (The no-shows are opting back out of taking it, that's all.)

[Cancer]

Completed, and Zoom session recorded.  They need to work on their compression; the MP4 file is 1.24 GB and very, very little was said in the interval.

[Cancer]

Of the five declared: one no-show.  One bailed at the end and opted back out.  Three exams received.  We'll see how they do.

[Cancer]

I need to talk to folks over the Philosophy Department and ask how they deal with students who cheat in their Ethics courses.

[L. Marcus]

By electricity. 

[Cancer]

Impossible.  They'd start arguing about the epistemology of Maxwell's Equations and (because none of them has vector calculus) declare all of it void.  No, at best they'll do something long traditional in dealing with philosophers: hemlock poisoning.

[Pariah]

Hmmmm, hemlock....

[Bazza]

Death to democracy. 

[Bazza]

On 3/21/2020 at 2:44 AM, Cancer said:

I need to talk to folks over the Philosophy Department and ask how they deal with students who cheat in their Ethics courses.

 

That depends on which ethics one is using. I can think of ways in which it is moral to cheat on your ethics exam. 

[L. Marcus]

Kant would be disappointed in you.

[Bazza]

Kant is one of the reasons I can make that argument. 

 

Plus a more interesting twist would be to suggest it is immoral for a lecturer to fail you for cheating an ethics exam. Kant is a reason i can make that case too. 

[Starlord]

So because of Kant, you can.

[Badger]

34 minutes ago, Starlord said:

So because of Kant, you can.

 

Why do you want me to have to smack your baby Yoda avatar.

 

Though, I do ponder what mob boss Yoda would be like  "Sleep with the fishes, you will"

[Bazza]

8 hours ago, Starlord said:

So because of Kant, you can.

 

Yes. Mill too. Both are subjective/relative. 

[Pariah]

[Pariah]

I also saw one the other day that said, "A whole generation of helicopter parents are about to come to the frightening realization that the teacher is not the problem."