Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!cs.utexas.edu!bulko
From: bulko@cs.utexas.edu (Bill Bulko)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: blaming teachers
Message-ID: <3098@cs.utexas.edu>
Date: 4 Aug 88 14:04:27 GMT
References: <12230@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <12260@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <233@quintus.UUCP> <1412@devsys.oakhill.UUCP> <235@quintus.UUCP>
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In article <235@quintus.UUCP> ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes:
>In article <1412@devsys.oakhill.UUCP> steve@oakhill.UUCP (steve) writes:
>>By the way there is still a flaw in your statisics.
>>The 11-1 advantage disappears when divided over 20 (conservative) children
>>to 1-2  (with 30 children at 6-1 it goes to  1-5!!).
>
>Wrong.  Or can children only listen one at a time in this country?
>I was concerned with the ratio
>    (time the child is exposed to informative speech in home)
>    ---------------------------------------------------------
>    (time the child is exposed to informative speech in school)
>under the impression that this might be a (_very_ crude) measure of the
>importance of the two environments for acquiring formal knowledge.

I'm more in agreement with Steve.  If being "exposed to informative
speech" is all that it takes for children to learn, then we could sit
them down in front of PBS and they'd all be geniuses by the time they
reach high school.  :-)

     Seriously, though:  sometimes I think students of ANY age can
only listen one at a time!  Unless the student-to-teacher ratio is
relatively small, students tend to drift off mentally, look out the
window, talk or pass notes, doodle, do crossword puzzles, or what have
you.  If the students could motivate themselves to pay attention and
work hard in school (by learning the value of education AT HOME), the
teacher's job would be much easier, as it would be focused on passing
along information.  As it is, teachers have to spend a great deal of
their time entertaining and motivating the students.

     Furthermore, somewhere along the line, someone decided that
teachers are also expected to be actors, comedians, psychologists,
paramedics, social workers, and babysitters.  With all this work
experience, I'm amazed that having "teacher" on your resume doesn't
seem to mean much in our society anymore.

     Parents MUST take more responsibility for the education of their
children.  There is no other way.  They have to stop trying to put
the blame on corrupt school systems, poor teachers, worthless grading
systems, or the economics involved in flunking students.  This does
NOT mean that these problems do not exist:  what I'm saying is that
I think these problems really become less significant when students
go to school to LEARN.

					Bill

_______________________________________________________________________________
	     Artificial Intelligence:  the art of making computers
		      that behave like the ones in movies
Bill Bulko						The University of Texas
bulko@cs.utexas.edu				Department of Computer Sciences
_______________________________________________________________________________