As mentioned, one of the recent draws on my time has been the fact I've returned to school - in hopefully my final progress towards my degree. Mostly doing it for post-police job opportunities, wherein many of my job offers have already said that a degree of some sort is required. All of my classes are online, with students from a variety of backgrounds and locations.
Which can be.... challenging. In the first place, quite honestly some of these people are not prepared for work at what I'd expect at a college level to say the very least. Leaving aside some generally poor writing and spelling skills, and a lack of ability to think critically or to express oneself - when a teacher has to say numerous times that "Internet speech, text lingo and other abbreviations are not appropriate for college work, and Wikipedia is not a source." it shows the general level many of these people are performing at. Add in the fact that a good chunk have very obviously had their educational backgrounds shortchanged along the way, and my wife is becoming very used to seeing me facepalm or rant at the computer while I am doing coursework at night.
But - I tell myself it's for a good cause, and it can only help me recognize the areas I can improve. Really, it's got to be true.
5 comments:
Try being the instructor. Students like you make my day.
I believe the students are being shortchanged by Leave No Child Behind. I don't think the whole purpose was to pass everyone through, but to encourage teachers to WORK with every student to ensure their success. But there's just no budget for that in the public schools, so everyone passes. It's like all children "winning" trophies even if their sports team finished dead last in the league.
Truth be told, I'd much rather have a GED student in my classroom than a high school grad, because they haven't dumbed down the GED test (yet).
I noticed back in the late '80s that no one (then) under 30 yrs old seemed to be able to spell or write a coherent sentence. It's gotten much worse since then.
I can only hope I'm not the proverbial dinosaur smelling change, and roaring my defiance at the wind.
They have been short changed only in an absolute sense. Comparatively, they are right with their peers attending conventional univiserities.
It's like the old carlin joke. "think about how stupid the average person is. Now realize that half of them are STUPIDER THAN THAT!!!"
I would make a drinking game of it...facepalm=drink, incoherent rant=chug. But the truth is, I just can't drink like that anymore.
Yep, I see that in the training I'm involved with too, it's NOT a good sign!!!
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