I blame politics.
Thanks, RPG Knight. Yep, from your description, form vs. function is exactly the thing I was thinking of, though I’ve never known it as that. It’s horrible betrayal of the idea of education as a gathering of knowledge and progress of the individual that I find explicitly evident in things like SATs (standardized tests in general, really) and the college admission process, which seem to completely corrupt the things used in the evaluation of each. For example, how many high school students do charity work because it looks good on an application, not because they either understand or care about the meaning of the work or the impact it has. I personally believe that teachers’ positions EXIST to serve the needs of the students, and they fail in their duty any time they act counter to the students’ interest.
So what are a student’s interest? I used to think the answer was “learning”, but from what I’ve seen of high schools it’s “getting into a college” and once in college it’s “building a good resume.” However shallow and hypocritical that appears when compared to the goals set out by many institution’s mission statements, it seems that all you have to do in our education society is appear to be good at something, and actual competence be damned.
runs off to beat the living stuffing out of his straw man
Yeah, too bad if you payed any attention to the quote at all you’d know I was talking about Weight, not class size. Most hockey players weigh around 200, not HS Students.
I’ve honestly tried to not pay attention to my teacher, and so far it’s failed miserably because I’m in constant fear he’ll say something important for once (which happens every once in a while). So, until I master that art, I’m afraid I’ll have to settle with paying attention all the time. At least I never fail that way.
I’m upset by having to constantly follow curriculum because of two reasons, 1. I live in Canada, Ontario, whose schoolboards have a reputation for deciding to purposely slow down curriculum, and 2. I’m a Gifted student, meaning I learn faster and my teacher is supposed to acknowledge this.
As for my teacher having too many students, he doesn’t. He actually has only a few classes, and he knows my entire class well enough.
I can’t stand a teacher who has a bad sense of humour because of two reasons as well. First, I take very little serious. Even things that are supposed to be taken serious, I can see a somewhat humourous side to it (although most of my humourous comments about serious things are hardly true). Second, everyone I know who is smart understands my jokes and finds them funny, and everyone else rarely does. Ergo, having a good sense of humour is a sign of intelligence, and my teacher…
Of course, I didn’t HATE my teacher, even if I disliked him, until the Incident. We had to do some writing assignment advertising a food product. Naturally, I made mine humourous and obviously not serious. I showed it to my family, friends, and even another teacher as a marked presentation; all of them loved it. Unfortunately, my brilliant teacher realized that I was completely serious. My assignment depicted suicide and murder as a good thing (and it was entirely a joke; no seriousness whatsoever. I do not advocate suicide or murder), and my teacher thought I was insisting that people suicide, so I got a 0 on the assignment. For several weeks, I cycled between my teacher, the guidance counsellour and a SOCIAL WORKER, explaining, no, I was not serious, no, I do not want people to kill themselves or others, no, I am not a suicidal maniac. Eventually, the matter mas barely settled, and I hated him ever since. I’m sure he hates me too, though, because he’s always complaining about how I disrupt the class and that makes it difficult to control the class. So we’re even.
Nearly all schools (if not all) have at least one teacher who you may dislike. Nothing is perfect. If the students can’t be controlled, it’s their fault for not controlling THEMSELVES.
I’ve had my fair share of bad teachers. I used to go to a local public school in CT, and the teachers there were abysmal. I go to a private school now and here the teachers REALLY know their stuff, even if a few of them have teaching methods that need improving.
I have only had one teacher recently, who has got on my nerves. And that was because with some of the topics he would just waffle on, and no one would get it. And when he would ask if we all understand, no one would say anything because we all knew he would just start waffling and not properly explain it. Luckily I managed to drop that subject before it was too late.
All my other teachers are fine, they have great attitudes towards the subjects and the students. It’s really refreshing.
However some of my mates hate all their teachers (even ones I have too), because they are just not interested in the subject. So they don’t pay attention, and end up complaining about not understanding anythnig. So really it’s their fault.
My English 2 professor is mental. The guy flunks people because they misspelled one word on an essay (and yes, I misspelled something there). He demands that people follow a strict form in their assignments, but is so vague that it’s impossible to tell what he wants. And when you go to his office to talk about the assignment, he’s always gone. That guy’s going to fuck up my entire college experience, I tell ya.