Part of the problem with education….
Posted By matt on June 20, 2008
At breakfast yesterday, I was sitting next to a group of young teachers. The exact specifics of their roles are uncertain. However, what really angered me was the fact that they were making fun of their students.
That, in and of itself is not unusual.. there are always the odd kids which give people pause.. but not here..
They were making fun of the smart ones.
Specifically, the students had to do some kind of math/science report.
One kid did nebulae. Another did linear algebra (apparently, he found it in a book and it fired his interest..). The teachers thought that the kids should have done something more normal, like the solar system, and that these kids had lost the rest of the students.
They they proceeded to ridicule the children's computer acumen, and how over their heads they were with regards to powerpoint, email, word processing, etc. The kids ask for help and they can't help them. These kids were maybe 25, and that would be guessing on the old side.
They also made fun of the discussions the children were having about alternative fuel sources and how to solve peak oil, because the kids started “talking about complex hydrocarbon chains which can be synthesized out of other feedstock, and then they just lost me because I didn't see what this had to do with gas”.
The overall impression with which I was left was that these were more of the same teachers who didn't really want to teach and thought it would be easy, or couldn't hack it in their first major, so they left whatever it was and decided to teach instead. As such, they are outmatched by their pupils right from the get go.
Further, I bet that while I was hacking on computers and learning how all these bits go together, they were off engaged in more useful pursuits, like hanging out at the mall.
Luckily, not all teachers are so bad. Some actually want their kids to learn, reward interest and excellence and do not feel threatened when the student knows more than the teacher.
Anyway, to work.
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