She states multiple times that the children within the education system are being cheated every day because they are not being forced to read more difficult books. “Such benefits are denied to the young reader exposed only to books with banal, simple-minded moral equations as well as to the student encouraged to come up with reductive, wrong-headed readings of mulitlayered texts” (Prose 97). The reader can blatantly see that Prose thinks negatively of the high school curriculum that today's students face. It seems clear that Prose does not want to hide her personal view or feelings, so she starts her essay out in a way that we do not have to read between the lines to get a sense of how she feels about what she is writing. She uses more emotional language when she says, "The intense loyalty adults harbor for books first encountered in youth is one probable reason for the otherwise baffling longevity of vintage mediocre novels, books that teachers may themselves have read in adolescence"(Prose
The ideal was to establish a set of basic academic standards that all students should achieve, hold the schools accountable for meeting these standards for all students, ←and→ then give educators the choice of how to meet the standards. The way NCLB is currently being administered must be fixed, otherwise we will have both new ←and→ seasoned talented teachers leaving the profession in droves. Although reading ←and→ math tests would remain in the administration's proposal, schools could also include student performance in other subjects as part of overall measurements of progress. Critics say that the current education law has narrowed the curriculum for students:→ Many teachers zero in on math ←and→ reading at the expense of other subjects to help students prepare for the required tests. (Douglas) Students need a well-rounded education," the blueprint declares, and it cites disciplines including history, civics, foreign languages, and the arts.
There are many points made that can clearly push the overall answer one way, or another, its just about balancing out the positives and negatives. Cullington explains that texting can potentially hurt formal writing, but is proven to have no positive or negative affects in the long run. There are many concerns about text speak and formal writing. Cullington talks about how teachers see a decline in writing and are having problems in class because of text speak. “A Minnesota teacher of seventh and ninth grades says that she has to spend extra time in class editing papers and must 'explicitly' remind her students that is is not acceptable to use text slang and abbreviations in writing” (Cullington 89).
Another ethical issue occurred when the principal allowed the counselor to transport a student home to pick up homework assignments. Typically students are not allotted this privilege and must accept the consequences of not bringing work to school. I considered the possibilities of her explanation to other students who found themselves in the same situation. The principal and I discussed the issue and she explained some special circumstances with this particular child. The situation still made me question the fairness and equitable treatment of all
A final point Alonso speaks is “Most damaging of all, perhaps, is the fact that professors are human beings and therefore they will sometimes grade examinations unfairly” (198). Alonso wants her audience to sympathize with teachers. She wants everyone to know that teachers can also go through daily life events that can cause them to be unfair when it comes to grading. Joy Alonso does not use as much pathos in this article as she could to get her point across, but there is still a sense of reaching and a reader can truly feel that she cares about the
Grading in Special Education by Susan M. Brookhart looks at a different grading strategy. She thinks students in special education need to be graded based upon their goals in their Individual Education Plan's (IEP). Brookhart expresses that grading students in special education at a lower level then everyone else is unfair to both students in special education and to those not in special education. This is an interesting article/book for parents to read because it gives them some ideas of questions to bring up to their child's case mangers on different ways to grade their children in special
Instead of learning some actual useful information, teachers fret over the test rather than about how much that student is actually absorbing into their head. It has become a practice to ‘teach the test’ in today’s teaching world. Tests like SAT, ACT and AP have you pay quite a bit and don’t even show you what you did wrong, blocking out the possibility of even trying to learn from your mistakes. It is believed to be a clever tactic used to gain more profit, students keep coming back to prove they are worth more with those silly numbers. They stress day and night over these overrated tests, like previously stated channeling out the imagination, curiosity and good will.
I need to set goals in each one of my classes and stay focused and put my school work first. The accomplishments I have made in the past relate to the information I have learned about myself in the self-assessments. In the past when it came to school work I had a tendency to become unorganized. However I learned to organize my work and learn strategies to study and eventually I found a way that seemed to fit me the most. When it come to my personality, in the past I always have put others before myself.
I just do not understand why the main focus of our education has to be all about test. I feel as if my classmates and I were like lab rats, being used for discovery and research, just so the school can gain recognition and reap the rewards for producing good test scores. Many districts use strict curricula’s that publishing companies produce to “promise” outstanding grades if you buy their products and complete them all. When you try to force that on the teachers, it is frustrating to them because they have the freedom of teaching taken away from them and are given a set of rules to produce better test results. Because many teachers and other educators are being forced to move away from teaching in their own preferred style, they must follow a set pace so that their instruction to the students is to what the district mandates instead of responding to the students need.
Chelsea Malone Dr. Watkins Daniel Bruno's Entitlement Education essay is quite true. There's a difference between passing your class while actually understanding, and passing without truly understanding. You see it all the time. I often find myself jealous of those who can study right before a test and pass, and yet I can't. How do they do it?