I weep and I fear...

[SuperB]

I usually blame parents. Parents who can't be arsed to be involved in their children's schoolwork are usually more to blame than teachers. If a kid isn't getting his homework done it's not like a teacher can go to the home and do the parents job for them.

An example is our little school. It's public but it's a two room schoolhouse. That teacher has more students this year than she's ever had and she has her hands full enough without having to deal with uninvolved parents. We have a couple of kids who were "home schooled" for a couple of years who came back to the school a full grade level behind. That ridiculous star testing that we're forced to deal with will be affected by it and she's understandably stressed about it.
I've watched parents at this school blow off school work to the point where a science project for all grade levels was announced in a letter home that had to be signed and they still weren't prepared.

So yeah, I blame parents for sticking their heads in the sand, expecting the schools to do all the work, and then throwing fits when their kid is/should be held back.

[smileyeagle1021]

Several places,

3) by not firmly settling on whether to spell ponetcially of phonemically.

Besides, we now have spell checkers.

ok, apparently i didn't pay much attention in school... just what does that sentence 3 mean anyway?

oh and standards have dropped during my life time... I learned a lot of stuff in 4th grade... then I learned it again my sophmore year of high school because it was now considered sophmore level stuff rather than 4th grade level... I had to reread a book my freshman year that I had read in 6th grade because it was now considered a freshman level rather than 6th grade level... standards are dropping and people are surprised when people meet the lower standards and nothing more.

[Nakajo]

My mother is a brilliant and smart lady, but she has a horrible time spelling. I always hear her yelling from the next room, "Nakajo, how do you spell this word?" Sometimes it's more difficult for some people. However, her inability is nowhere near the SC. My mom at least gets all but the occasional.

[BlaqueKatt]

another part of it is the "precious snowflake" syndrome-my mom volunteered in my third grade class to grade papers.

She was grading SPELLING TESTS, my teacher instructed her to not mark anything wrong because a red check mark would make the students "feel bad". She asked how they were supposed to improve-the teacher responded "improvement isn't important, their participation is.

[Becks]

if a student wants to learn, they'll find a way

Very true.

Lots of people do that.

[Andara Bledin]

3) by not firmly settling on whether to spell ponetcially of phonemically.

ok, apparently i didn't pay much attention in school... just what does that sentence 3 mean anyway?

Phonetics is the spelling of words by the way they sound.

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound.

English is a melange of rules and words taken from various languages and cultures, and as such, is a mess. And that is the biggest reason that English is very difficult to learn as a second language. Heck, it's fairly difficult as a first.

^-.-^

[crazylegs]

To be fair its not limited to the states.

I had a pharmacist ask me the definition of 'superfluous'.

A pharmacist.

Someone who legally deals in drugs.

[Seshat]

3) by not firmly settling on whether to spell ponetcially of phonemically.

Phonetic spelling (based on the sound) has a serious problem: whose accent would we use?

Otherwise known as 'You say tomayto and I say tomahto, you say potayto and I say potahto...' after the showtune with that line.

[karl hungus]

... for the future of humanity.



Where did we go so terribly wrong?

Allowing the stupid to breed unchecked is a start.
I say wipe everyone out and let the bugs take over.

[Lioness Blackfire]

There are a lot of factors:

<snip>

We should be weeping.

You hit it right on the head.

<snip> and a lot of it was the students fault, because if a student wants to learn, they'll find a way <snip>

Not necessarily true. I know I wanted to learn, but I only managed to pick up certain things through total library immersion. My language skills are in general quite good, and I'm bursting with science facts and comprehension, but I still can't multiply. (That having been said, I even have a difficult time counting Monopoly money, so it may, may be an undiagnosed disorder...)

A lot of kids, I'm more than willing to bet, don't have mothers who frequent the local library like mine did (and still does). Luckily, kids today don't have to worry about that one quite as much, thanks to the good old internet. Still, though, they have to be able to read. (But that's a longer story and a serious threadjack.)


Anywho, to wrap it up, I'd say that what's mainly gone wrong is helicopter parents. Mostly the ones who don't pass any of the knowledge or know-how on to their kids, but really all of them, in a general sense.

[Andara Bledin]

To be fair its not limited to the states.

I had a pharmacist ask me the definition of 'superfluous'.

Well, to be fair, superfluous is not a particularly common word. Most people would just say "excess" or "too much" or "irrelevant" as applicable.

She asked how they were supposed to improve-the teacher responded "improvement isn't important, their participation is.

*dies*

*thud*

^-.-^

[crazylegs]

Well, to be fair, superfluous is not a particularly common word. Most people would just say "excess" or "too much" or "irrelevant" as applicable.

True, but I would have expected someone who had sat through at least four years of hard chemistry to hear it at least once from a professor somewhere...

[Emrld]

classrooms are too large (to high student to teacher ratio)
Spell Check Spell Check Spell Check
lawsuit happy parents
Parents not realizing it is a verb/ not just a biological occurence
Spell check Spell Check Spell Check
No Child Left Behind
Standarized Tests that focus only on one or two subjects with
spelling never one of the subjects
Spell Check Spell Check Spell Check
Politicaians trying to be re-elected
Not enough money to pay teachers
Teacher burn out
Spell Check Spell Check Spell Check
Lowered levels of expectation

Personally I read a lot . . .I can have some amazing conversations . . but please don't ask me to spell . . .that isn't my strong suit.