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Dumb question, I realize, but a few issues have been bugging me lately.
1. Dumbing Down
Increasingly, I'm seeing high schools dumb down curriculum. The students have not gotten dumber -- not by a long shot -- but they're being far less well-educated, and much of the pressure for dumbing down is coming from parents and administrators. The ideology I'm seeing much more runs like, "Well, we have to keep the students and parents happy. They're happy when they get good grades. Therefore, give them good grades."
2. Blame
Now, obviously this becomes a problem as soon as the students run into a teacher who basically *doesn't* buy into this ideology -- you know, a chemistry teacher who actually wants students to know Avogadro's number, an English teacher who expects seniors to be able to write essays *before* entering his class, a math teacher who doesn't believe in calculators...you know.
When un- or under-educated students run into a teacher like this, their first reaction is not to blame their previous teachers for failing to prepare them, not to blame their previous teachers for giving out an easy A that allowed them a completely false sense of security about their actual abilities and course mastery, nor even the administration that allowed this to happen.
No. We all know whom those students blame: their current teacher. Even if s/he is teaching appropriate material at an appropriate level, "appropriate" may be too challenging if students aren't prepared.
3. Continuing the Cycle
Okay, so this teacher has basically two choices: s/he can fail a large chunk of her or his students, or s/he can pass them by inflating grades or dumbing down the material or both. The vicious cycle continues.
My questions?
* When will people insist that their children receive an education, not just a grade?
*When will people get tired of paying for their children to take remedial classes in college?
* When will people realize that if the kid's getting As but his or her SATs suggest that they are innumerate and illiterate, the SATs are not necessarily wrong?
* When will administrators start calling in teachers for giving out too many As OR too many Fs -- not just the latter?
* When will parents start holding the school accountable if their children got As, Bs, or Cs, but did not actually learn?
All good questions. But as long as schools and parents are beholden to higher powers (state rankings, college admissions, etc.), you probably won't see much in the way of change in the cya mentality that exists in many places.
Many constituencies make up school communities - it's hard to get everyone on the same page, especially in a culture and society that loves rankings.
* When will people insist that their children receive an education, not just a grade?
*When will people get tired of paying for their children to take remedial classes in college?
* When will people realize that if the kid's getting As but his or her SATs suggest that they are innumerate and illiterate, the SATs are not necessarily wrong?
* When will administrators start calling in teachers for giving out too many As OR too many Fs -- not just the latter?
* When will parents start holding the school accountable if their children got As, Bs, or Cs, but did not actually learn?
I think that there are parents who do just that. But after awhile-- a very short while sometimes-- one gets tired of banging one's head against the proverbial brick wall. And after so long of sacrificing one's own child(ren) to the greater good, private or homeschool beckons.
I am a teacher who is the victim of "dumbing down". One year, I had 40% of my students failing and was told by my principal to "do something to fix it". It's not how good you are, it's how well you play the game unfortunately.
I think if 40% of my students were failing, I would want to fix what I was doing without needing the principal to tell me so. And I don't mean just raising their grades - I mean adapting my teaching to better meet the students' needs.
Agree with the OP almost in the entirety except for the calculator bit. Calculators belong in high school level math. Where they do not belong, ever is elem ed, IMO.
I had a teacher in college level stats who made us do ANOVAs by hand. Teach us how to do it once to understand how it works but to make us do them by hand is literally ridiculous. I see the same thing at my school. We go teach stats in both science and math classes each year in my school and some one of the "old school" math teachers refuses to learn how to do correlation/regression on a calculator let alone on a computer. Granted this teacher hates technology in general but at some point you have to adapt.
I think if 40% of my students were failing, I would want to fix what I was doing without needing the principal to tell me so. And I don't mean just raising their grades - I mean adapting my teaching to better meet the students' needs.
The problem is often that the students are refusing to do the work. How would you *adapt* your teaching to that.
I am a teacher who is the victim of "dumbing down". One year, I had 40% of my students failing and was told by my principal to "do something to fix it". It's not how good you are, it's how well you play the game unfortunately.
That is what I'm going through this year. I teach a college prep subject that is not required for graduation. This year, the district has decided that every student is to complete the college prep curriculum unless the parent signs him out. So now, effectively the class is required, as most of the parents only show up if there is a disciplinary problem.
Now my classes are overloaded with students who are overage and who have not yet passed the state exit exams. Some of them have failed the English exam three times already, despite the school double-dosing them in English and pulling them out from electives for tutoring. It is only my opinion, but students are not well-served when they are put into classes for which they have an inadequate background, no interest, and no intention of going to college. Some of them will say that they want to go to college, but they are currently reading at a middle-school level. They could learn if they had the desire and intention and put in the necessary work to make up for their deficiencies, but as nana said, they often refuse to do the work.
The result is that the truly college-bound students are having to deal with the retarding effect that these other students are creating, a kind of educational friction, that keeps the entire class from moving forward at the appropriate rate. The AP teachers report a similar problem, in that students are being placed in AP against their wishes, because the school wants to point at the increased number of students enrolled and tested. No student has ever earned a qualifying score since we began our AP program.
I have given my principal a heads-up about the grades this year. I framed it with the comment that these students are experiencing true rigor, and these grades are the result. Hopefully, most of the students will catch on before the end of the year. If not, then it may take them two years to get through a one-year course. I've never had anyone fail twice.
I believe that high school should be hard, but divided into a modern version of the traditional tracks. Why should a kid who loves to tear down cars have to sit through college-prep chemistry and physics rather than classes that teach those subjects through their vocational applications? There are kids with passions who should be able to get on track to begin their careers as teens rather than being constrained in a traditional high school. The side benefit of this would be that the academically inclined students would be less distracted by those who are clearly in classes that have no value for them.
I think if 40% of my students were failing, I would want to fix what I was doing without needing the principal to tell me so. And I don't mean just raising their grades - I mean adapting my teaching to better meet the students' needs.
It's not always that simple, Maf. Obviously, the teacher's methods should be the first things she looks at, of course -- and of course a good teacher does exactly that. However, there comes a point at which a reasonable person has to ask the following:
* When does it become the student's responsibility to learn what the teacher has, in good faith, attempted to teach?
* When does it become the student's responsibility to turn in work?
* When does it become the student's responsibility to study? To seek extra help?
* When does it become the student's responsibility to attend class, make up for all missing classes, and retrieve information missed during an absence?
The fact of the matter is that teaching is a two-way street.
The fact of the matter is that teaching is a two-way street.
It is, but what if students are stuck in classes they don't need? Like a poster already said, why force the kid who wants to be a mechanic into taking chemistry or physics?
I struggle severly with science and math, why do I need algebra 2 and chemistry when I obviously don't need to learn them or want to learn them?
Students shouldn't have to be forced to sit in classes they don't want or need just like teachers shouldn't be forced to teach students who don't need to be there or who don't want to be there.
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