In 1938, a Mormon apostle spoke at a training for teachers of religion classes in the church, and asked if their job was merely to instruct students in good behavior. He said: The teaching of a system of ethics to the students is not a sufficient reason for running our seminaries and institutes. The great [...]
Archive for the ‘Education’ Category
Public Schools Teaching Ethics?
Posted in Education on February 7, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Just Another Excuse to Talk About Aardvarks
Posted in Education, Humor on January 25, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Sometimes, school work will include questions where the correct answer is “none.” For example, “Identify any subordinate clauses in this sentence: The movie was too long.” Today, I started telling my classes that workbook assignments that ask them to write “none” as the answer to a question are boring. Instead, I asked them to start [...]
The Value of Term Papers
Posted in Education, Language and Literature, tagged Mark Bauerlein, teaching, writing, writing process on January 25, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The brilliant professor Mark Bauerlein scores yet another direct hit in a recent post about the value of those old-fashioned writing assignments: In my classes I include both types of assignments, short, one-page writings and longer 7-page papers (I rarely go over 10 pages these days, but I try to make the class have 25-30 [...]
Me Quoted On Writing
Posted in Education, tagged effective teaching, teaching, technology, writing on January 3, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
A couple of months ago, a student at my school came in and asked my opinions about student writing. I thought she was just writing for the school newspaper, but a couple of weeks ago her story ran in the local paper, the Las Vegas Review Journal. It’s quite good. She got some good material [...]
Remedial Higher Education in California
Posted in Education, tagged California State University, college, educational standards, remedial classes on December 22, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The California State University system has succumbed to the overwhelming needs of underprepared students: Wracked with frustration over the state’s legions of unprepared high school graduates, the California State University system next summer will force freshmen with remedial needs to brush up on math or English before arriving on campus. But many professors at the [...]
Fall Finals Freshmen Follies
Posted in Education, tagged English 98, remedial classes, teaching, UNLV on December 20, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I had some spectacular deja vu two weeks ago as my college classes were studying for finals. I took them down to the building’s huge main lobby, where I hung butcher paper on the walls, with titles I wrote in the center, based on the major units of the semester. I broke them into teams, [...]
Two Great New Articles About Education Standards
Posted in Education, tagged City Journal, educational standards, lowered expectations, personal responsibility, Wall Street Journal on December 13, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
An article just posted in the new City Journal exposes the problem of lowered expectations in No Child Left Behind’s obsession with “proficiency.” I worry that students now graduate high school thinking that that word denotes some amazing accomplishment, not realizing that it only indicates bare minimum competence. The law of unintended consequences at work, [...]
Defending UNLV’s New Freshman Orientation
Posted in Education, tagged college, educational standards, Las Vegas, Las Vegas Review-Journal, mill, UNLV on November 21, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Today, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that UNLV will begin a new class next year, a required freshman orientation course. The class looks like a seminar designed to acclimate students to college life and work, focusing on the purposes of higher education and the skills required to succeed there. A local talk radio host ripped [...]
Voluntary Martyr Teachers
Posted in Education, tagged effective teaching, productivity, teaching, work on November 8, 2011 | 4 Comments »
In my first few years of teaching, I tried to be one those Hero Teachers–the guy who stays at work ten hours a day, who goes in sometimes on Saturdays, who takes tons of work home and grades while he tries to unwind at night. During that third or fourth year, a scary thought hit [...]
Scrutiny in Teaching Writing
Posted in Education, Language and Literature, tagged English, National Review, teaching, writing, writing process on November 5, 2011 | 3 Comments »
A post at National Review, and some great follow up comments from readers, offers some great ideas about teaching writing: The only way to address writing is to give line-by-line feedback. We cannot assume that students know what good writing looks like. Every time students pass a written assignment at any level with subpar writing, such [...]
Yes, You Pay My Salary. No, You Are Not My Boss.
Posted in Education, tagged parents, schools, teachers on September 20, 2011 | 2 Comments »
I cringe when I hear people say of teachers, “My taxes pay their salary–they need to be more cooperative and responsive to my needs!” What this really means is, “Give me what I want.” What’s so wrong with that? It’s wrong because schools are not customer satisfaction factories. Our job is to educate future generations, even [...]
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