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I would agree that is incumbent upon parents to set the standards and guidelnes for their children.
While schools are academic centers of learning, if the parental emphasis is not on academics and reading, than there is only so much schools and teachers can accomplish.
If parents allow their kids to watch tv seven hours a day, play video games endlessly, and roam all over the place without parameters how can kids be expected to develop their reading and learning skills.
Show an interest in your kids----talk to their teachers----ask them about their homework and what they are learning----and have them read to you for little while every day. Parents set the tone for social and intellectual development for their kids. While you have expectations that schools will be critical as learning centers, they cant be an end all.
I'm old by internet standards (60). Ancient in fact. I predate such things as the diagnosis of dyslexia. Anyway, I was a lousy reader and a lousy student. My mother had me go through some reading improvement course. I was put in front of the TV on Saturday mornings for a program designed to help kids improve their reading speed and comprehension. None of these things did any good. I came within an eyelash of flunking a couple of different grades in elementary school. I flunked a couple of classes in high school which I was forced to make up in summer school.
I won't say I have fourished in the decades after graduating from high school, but I have seemingly become more intellectual. I believe that at least in my case basic reading was necessary but my inability to read at rapid speed with high comprehension has not been a life-destroying shortcoming. I think to a large degree TV has been my savior. Yes, television. There's NOVA on PBS. NOVA is knowledge. Both Antique Road Show and American Masters are history classes. And a movie like West Side Story is a lesson in the tragedy of social discrimination in a fictional story. Such life lessons are in books, but they can be found other places too.
A few years ago the wife really stonewalled the notion of getting cable. We could still get two digital channels over the air and that was all she needed. She figured, Why pay for TV when most of the programming is crap? Well I told her that unlike her, reading for me is very difficult. TV and to a lesser degree movies are what I have always used for education and enlightenment. We had cable by the end of the week. Apparently it's hard to argue with a tidbit of wisdom, even if it didn't come from a book.
Do you listen to the radio and books on tape as well? There are also some wonderful lectures on-line on YouTube you can listen to.
I'm old by internet standards (60). Ancient in fact. I predate such things as the diagnosis of dyslexia. Anyway, I was a lousy reader and a lousy student. My mother had me go through some reading improvement course. I was put in front of the TV on Saturday mornings for a program designed to help kids improve their reading speed and comprehension. None of these things did any good. I came within an eyelash of flunking a couple of different grades in elementary school. I flunked a couple of classes in high school which I was forced to make up in summer school.
I won't say I have fourished in the decades after graduating from high school, but I have seemingly become more intellectual. I believe that at least in my case basic reading was necessary but my inability to read at rapid speed with high comprehension has not been a life-destroying shortcoming. I think to a large degree TV has been my savior. Yes, television. There's NOVA on PBS. NOVA is knowledge. Both Antique Road Show and American Masters are history classes. And a movie like West Side Story is a lesson in the tragedy of social discrimination in a fictional story. Such life lessons are in books, but they can be found other places too.
A few years ago the wife really stonewalled the notion of getting cable. We could still get two digital channels over the air and that was all she needed. She figured, Why pay for TV when most of the programming is crap? Well I told her that unlike her, reading for me is very difficult. TV and to a lesser degree movies are what I have always used for education and enlightenment. We had cable by the end of the week. Apparently it's hard to argue with a tidbit of wisdom, even if it didn't come from a book.
Do you listen to the radio and books on tape as well? There are great lectures and documentaries you can watch and or listen to and learn a lot from on-line as well.
I can relate. One thing about engineering school...they don't give you passing grades just so yo feel good about yourself. Our entire ME class took the same exams for Thermodynamics. The class that had the english as a first language professor finished better than 20 points above the other two.
Ah, yeah, we all know how do that..
Just give them a "practice" exam a couple of days before the actuall exam with exact problems that will appear on the exam. 99% of pass garanteed.
Aside: I learnt how to read English words while I was abroad, at 5th grade, I was 10. There was NO native English speakers there to teach me.
American children just do not want to do the job, all they do is find someone to blame for their laziness. And the parents do not want to take responsibility either.
Ah, yeah, we all know how do that..
Just give them a "practice" exam a couple of days before the actuall exam with exact problems that will appear on the exam. 99% of pass garanteed.
Aside: I learnt how to read English words while I was abroad, at 5th grade, I was 10. There was NO native English speakers there to teach me.
American children just do not want to do the job, all they do is find someone to blame for their laziness. And the parents do not want to take responsibility either.
Um, no. And the "job" was to learn engineering (already tough enough)....not Chinglish. What is wrong with requiring that teachers/professors be able to communicate effectively? Why punish kids with less capable teachers?
I went to public school and can read just fine. Maybe students are just getting dumber.....
I am wondering if the parents are reading to their children and encouraging them to read on their own. A teacher can only do so much. If a student cannot read you cannot just blame the teacher. The teacher sees them what, 30 hours a week and the parents sees them much more that that.
Um, no. And the "job" was to learn engineering (already tough enough)....not Chinglish. What is wrong with requiring that teachers/professors be able to communicate effectively? Why punish kids with less capable teachers?
Nothing wrong. There are just not enough americans who know Engineering and other "tough" fields as well as the "chinglish" people. The reason? Americans are still catching up on reading, ref: Original post.
Then she apparently passed multiple bio science classes in college, along with the required chemistry courses, and she passed the teacher certification exam that shows she can teach life sciences.
As an education major she may not have taken Bio major biology and chemistry. She could have taken the one semester/one quarter college chem and college bio which is very different from general chemistry and general biology (full year sequences, same topics, just MORE in depth for a bio/chem major). I advised Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology/Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology for over 8 years.
Last edited by jillz; 09-16-2011 at 05:09 PM..
Reason: needed to clear up my post to make sense
I had enough trouble trying to figure out what my teacher's from India were saying in engineering school in college. I could only imagine a child trying to learn the language and proper grammer from a teacher who speaks broken english. Not to mention the state was following federal law to begin with but that isn't good enough because according to the DOJ it violates another federal law.
Should I assume that the spelling, grammar and punctuation errors in your post are a sign that you went to public school? I love the unintentional irony of a nativist that can't properly use even one language complaining about the shortcomings of others.
I love those that can't debate the topic of the post trying to twist and spin away. I never claimed I could read. I guess you don't find it ironic the DOJ is after the district for following the law? Nah I'm guessing you didn't even read the link just jumped in head first with the rest of the deflectors. Try again.
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