The Unteachables: A Generation that Cannot Learn

[Buford]

Here is our problem.

"Meetings about bad grades are uncomfortable not merely because it is unpleasant to wound feelings unaccustomed to the sting. Too often, such meetings are exercises in futility. I have spent hours explaining an essay’s grammatical, stylistic, and logical weaknesses in the wearying certainty that the student was unable, both intellectually and emotionally, to comprehend what I was saying or to act on my advice.

It is rare for such students to be genuinely desirous and capable of learning how to improve. Most of them simply hope that I will come around. Their belief that nothing requires improvement except the grade is one of the biggest obstacles that teachers face in the modern university. And that is perhaps the real tragedy of our education system: not only that so many students enter university lacking the basic skills and knowledge to succeed in their courses — terrible in itself — but also that they often arrive essentially unteachable, lacking the personal qualities necessary to respond to criticism."

Here is the full article: PJ Media » The Unteachables: A Generation that Cannot Learn

 

[Staidhup]

Here is our problem.

"Meetings about bad grades are uncomfortable not merely because it is unpleasant to wound feelings unaccustomed to the sting. Too often, such meetings are exercises in futility. I have spent hours explaining an essay’s grammatical, stylistic, and logical weaknesses in the wearying certainty that the student was unable, both intellectually and emotionally, to comprehend what I was saying or to act on my advice.

It is rare for such students to be genuinely desirous and capable of learning how to improve. Most of them simply hope that I will come around. Their belief that nothing requires improvement except the grade is one of the biggest obstacles that teachers face in the modern university. And that is perhaps the real tragedy of our education system: not only that so many students enter university lacking the basic skills and knowledge to succeed in their courses — terrible in itself — but also that they often arrive essentially unteachable, lacking the personal qualities necessary to respond to criticism."

Here is the full article: PJ Media » The Unteachables: A Generation that Cannot Learn

Ah, Johnny can't read, comprehend, and write, speaks volumes as to the failings of our current educational system and quality of unionized teachers. The result of looking the other way and advancing without merit to obtain set goals. Well, stated, great article!

 

[Oddball]

Here's our problem:

Through crap like social promotion, outcome-based edumacation, keeping disruptive kids in classes, propagandization, and via various and sundry other political social engineering experiments like forced busing, gubmint schools have pretty much beat the love of learning out of America's kids.

Time to separate education and state.

 

[Katzndogz]

The unteachable student has been told all her life that she is excellent: gifted, creative, insightful, thoughtful, able to succeed at whatever she tries, full of potential and innate ability. Pedagogical wisdom since at least the time of John Dewey — and in some form all the way back to William Wordsworth’s divinely anointed child “trailing clouds of glory” — has stressed the development of self-esteem and a sense of achievement

It is axiomatic that someone who already knows everything is capable of learning nothing. The same view that they are already perfect that carried them through school is carried on into the workplace. They start off deficient, with an imagining they are qualified. A workplace supervisor has no more luck training the untrainable than the teacher has in teaching the unteachable. I recall correcting the spelling of a secretary when she typed oppurtunity instead of opportunity. Rather than make the change, she gave me an argument so I showed her the dictionary with the correct spelling. Rather than admit that she was wrong and correct the error, she inisisted that the dictionary was wrong and whoever wrote it was stupid.

The end result of these graduates of a futile educational system is that employers are not likely to hire not only ignorant but argumentative Amercans who demand accommodation of deficiency and recognition of deficient work product as superior work product. The unteachable become the untrainable who in turn become the unemployable.

 

[Buford]

Education needs to be removed from the Feds and unions to save our children from failure.

 

[regent]

Five states do not allow teacher unions. These five states also have the lowest test scores in the nation, 50th, 49th, 48th, 47th and 44th.

 

[Ariux]

Here's our problem:

Through crap like social promotion, outcome-based edumacation, keeping disruptive kids in classes, propagandization, and via various and sundry other political social engineering experiments like forced busing, gubmint schools have pretty much beat the love of learning out of America's kids.

Time to separate education and state.

Excellent post!

But, the very reason Liberals, tyrants, oppose separation of church and state is because everything wrong with government education is what they want. Another illustration of the uselessness of the Republican Party is that they don't promote privatizing education.

 

[Buford]

Unions protect dangerous idiots like this one.

Teacher Warns Student About Speaking Badly About Obama | North Rowan High School | Rowan-Salisbury School System | North Carolina | TheBlaze.com

 

[beagle9]

Here's our problem:

Through crap like social promotion, outcome-based edumacation, keeping disruptive kids in classes, propagandization, and via various and sundry other political social engineering experiments like forced busing, gubmint schools have pretty much beat the love of learning out of America's kids.

Time to separate education and state.

You sure said a mouth full this time... Bravo !!! It is so true, and very well summed up quite nicely I might add, as is written in your short wording.

Got behind a bus the other day, and it had traffic backed up like you wouldn't believe, because it was stopping every 100 to 200 feet, and in some of the most dangerous places on the roadways (curves and such), just to let off a few kids here, and a few kids there, then when you would try to pass, the bus would drag race you to the next stop and win, because these buses will flat out get it these days.

I remember when buses would only run tops 45 miles an hour, and the kids were only on the bus all the way down to the last kid for about an hour, where as now they are on the bus for two hours before getting to their destination in which is very unreasonable (IMHO). When I was young there were designated bus stops, and they would have one or two parents present at them for security (stay at home moms or grandparents), and at these stops there would be sometimes 12 to 15 kids present, where as the bus would only have to stop 4 or maybe five times before reaching it's destination via (school) and/or (schools).

This is the most prime example that is in our face now, upon what government can turn into if allowed to go to far, where as they have gotten these kids & their parents so dependent on government, that it creates chaos in the streets at an alarming rate, but is hidden from site in a non-transparent way.

If I were in charge, I would redraw the districts to accomodate the parents and their kids better (no more hours of riding on a bus, just for a child to get home), and all for the sake of an overall agenda or political correctness gone mad, in which has been taken to the extremes, and there would be no more stopping at every other house on the street either, just to personally let off one or two kids at their front door every 100 to 200 feet as it has been witnessed that many buses are now doing for them.

They (the kids) would be let off at the newly designated home community bus stops, where their moms or dads would be waiting there for them (having some skin in the game or responsibility over their own children). Hec if they began doing this, it would actually create jobs and save money all at the same time, by placing a floating security officer on duty in sectors, and also appointing parent (background checked) volunteers at these (4) possible locations/stops, as to be then designated on a route for one bus, just to make sure that the kids are safely picked up from these locations, and are not bullied at these locations while waiting on the bus. Imagine the tax payer savings in fuel and wear and tear on these units, along with the safety returning to the system of highways, when these buses are no longer stopping in places that endanger the kids and the drivers lives anylonger. I can take you all to a few places right now, where buses stop down and around a curve, backing traffic up 10 to maybe 15 cars back, where next a loaded tractor trailer comes around the curve doing the 60 mile an hour speed limit, when all of a sudden he or she has no where to go, but over to the on coming side or into the woods via jumping the ditch in order to miss the bus that is stopped. You wouldnot believe the blackmarks on the highway at this location. We have complained to the DOT about it, but it never hits home, and the trucks just keep on coming, and then avoiding until what finally ? (I hate to think what will happen soon). This is another problem where government has gotten so strong, that it can't even be corrected due to it's arrogance and ignorance involved in these situations anymore.

Heads would roll if I were in charge, until normalcy returned to this nation once again, and a true representitive government with morals and integridy were to be born again.

How long folks, how long until we wake back up from this nightmare going on in America ?

 

[regent]

In the past schools presented their programs to students and those that could and wanted to learn did. The dropout rate for some schools, however, was pretty high, but the few that graduated usually had a fair education. Then in the Fifties came the cry, "keep em in school and off the streets." So schools now embarked on a new mission of keeping kids off the street. But to do so standards had to be changed, social promotion, expanded sport programs, alternative schools, smaller classes, more social events and other inducements were enlarged or added as part of the package.
If schools went back to their old standards, their old requirements, their old let the erring student go, we might have diplomas that carried a little more weight, but what of that large percentage of students that would drop?

 

[starcraftzzz]

Here is our problem.

"Meetings about bad grades are uncomfortable not merely because it is unpleasant to wound feelings unaccustomed to the sting. Too often, such meetings are exercises in futility. I have spent hours explaining an essay’s grammatical, stylistic, and logical weaknesses in the wearying certainty that the student was unable, both intellectually and emotionally, to comprehend what I was saying or to act on my advice.

It is rare for such students to be genuinely desirous and capable of learning how to improve. Most of them simply hope that I will come around. Their belief that nothing requires improvement except the grade is one of the biggest obstacles that teachers face in the modern university. And that is perhaps the real tragedy of our education system: not only that so many students enter university lacking the basic skills and knowledge to succeed in their courses — terrible in itself — but also that they often arrive essentially unteachable, lacking the personal qualities necessary to respond to criticism."

I agree part of the problem with education is that it teaches kids early on that learning isn’t the goal getting a good grade is. And this isn’t just my opinion several studies have found that grades result in kids less likely to partake in subjects. Furthermore when the kids are told that they will not be given grade but instead just feedback remember the topics more and performed better. ( I will post all these sources/infor in my next post)

Another major problem is that we do not teach kids basic logic; there should be early only logic classes.

 

[starcraftzzz]

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/motivation.html
^Children who are rewarded for drawing end up drawing less than children who were not rewarded.
^Teenagers whom are offered rewards for winning word games ended up enjoying those word games less.
^When students were asked to create stories/paintings those who were contracted for rewards created the least creative stories/paintings.
^In College students were asked to view their writing through extrinsic and intrinsic views. Those who were asked to view through extrinsic lenses ended up having lower quality work.
^Tutors at school when offered free movie tickets for tutoring ended up with tutors who had worse educational outcomes then those tutored by someone who did not get free movie tickets.

Five Reasons to Stop Saying "Good Job!"
^Praising people for doing something correctly or negatively praising them for doing something incorrectly is less effective than having a conversation with them about why the said task was correct or not.
^Continue praise makes people addicted to praise; relaying on praise to determine good or bad instead of thinking for themselves
^Students who were more heavily praised by teachers had lower self-confidence, and were less likely to persist with difficult tasks or to express their ideas.
^Praising people for doing a task result in them doing that task less and enjoying it less than if no praise was ever receive.
^Praise adds the pressure to keep doing praise worthy work; which interferes with doing the task.

From Degrading to De-Grading
^Grades make it so that students are less interested in learning
^Grades make students choose easier tasks; and cut corners on assignments.
^Students who were not given grades but instead were given and knew they would be given only qualitative feedback performed better than students who received grades.
^Students who were told they’d be graded on the knowledge of a reading assignment were less likely to understand the pertinent information than those who were told they’d receive no grade.
^Also students who were graded knew less about the topic a week later than those who weren't graded.
^Also grading takes a lot of time to do; meaning teachers have less time to teach and help students.
^Also grades encourage cheating; when good grades are the ultimate goal instead of education there is only incentive to get good grades through any means possible, instead of actually attaining an education. Students who are led to focus more on grades cheat more than those who don't even if they view cheating as wrong.

 

[starcraftzzz]

Here is our problem.

"Meetings about bad grades are uncomfortable not merely because it is unpleasant to wound feelings unaccustomed to the sting. Too often, such meetings are exercises in futility. I have spent hours explaining an essay’s grammatical, stylistic, and logical weaknesses in the wearying certainty that the student was unable, both intellectually and emotionally, to comprehend what I was saying or to act on my advice.

It is rare for such students to be genuinely desirous and capable of learning how to improve. Most of them simply hope that I will come around. Their belief that nothing requires improvement except the grade is one of the biggest obstacles that teachers face in the modern university. And that is perhaps the real tragedy of our education system: not only that so many students enter university lacking the basic skills and knowledge to succeed in their courses — terrible in itself — but also that they often arrive essentially unteachable, lacking the personal qualities necessary to respond to criticism."

Here is the full article: PJ Media » The Unteachables: A Generation that Cannot Learn

Ah, Johnny can't read, comprehend, and write, speaks volumes as to the failings of our current educational system and quality of unionized teachers. The result of looking the other way and advancing without merit to obtain set goals. Well, stated, great article!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/b...-steven-brill-book-review.html?_r=2&ref=books
^The nation’s worst performing schools are in states and places were unions are weakest.
Alright so the evidence shows that unions are not the problem but are more likely to be part of the solution

 

[CrusaderFrank]

All you have to know is that like Julia, the government will care for you

 

[Ariux]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/b...-steven-brill-book-review.html?_r=2&ref=books
^The nation’s worst performing schools are in states and places were unions are weakest.
Alright so the evidence shows that unions are not the problem but are more likely to be part of the solution

Hey shithead, your Liberal source says, "Many of the nation’s worst-performing schools are concentrated in Southern and Western right-to-work states, where public sector unions are weakest." It says "many" not "all" that you imply. It could be equally true that "many" of the nations worst schools are in forced-union states (e.g. Michigan is a forced-union state, but look at the history of Detroit schools).

You source doesn't provide any details to support its assertion. To the degree that it may be true, I'm sure it's a demographics issue, not a weak-union-issue. "Southern and western" states are full of Hispanics. Eastern and northern states are full of whites.

Hey shithead, by what mechanism do you think unions help improve schools? By preventing the worst teachers from being fired?

The OP does't even mention unions. The most destructive mechanism of the unions is fighting for all the crap the OP mentions, which is often forced on all public schools (including charters) across the nation (via laws and courts).

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Five states do not allow teacher unions. These five states also have the lowest test scores in the nation, 50th, 49th, 48th, 47th and 44th.

Um, which 5 states might those be?

 

[regent]

South Carolina 50th.
North Carolina 49th.
Georgia 48th.
Texas 47th.
Virginia 44th.

 

[Big Black Dog]

We need to make a decision. Do we send our kids to school only to play sports or do we send them there to learn?

 

[Katzndogz]

Ummm

THE AMERICAN COWBOY CHRONICLES: So Where Does California Rank In Education - And Why?

According to a 2009 report by the California Faculty Association, California ranks 49th out of 50 states. Another ranking puts California at 47th place.


It wasn't too long ago that California ranked 14th in education nationally. From what I researched, back in the 1950's and 60's California's educational system was rated in the top 10 nationwide.

 

[High_Gravity]

We need to make a decision. Do we send our kids to school only to play sports or do we send them there to learn?

Alot of people just send their kids to school for daycare.