Seen in Print

[Rufus T. Firefly]

WOW! Geography has sure changed since I was a kid.

Of course you realize that geography has been replaced
with social studies and global awareness.
And besides what difference does it make?
It's on the other side of the world anyway.
Isn't it?

Well, that's the kind of silliness that was being taught to my kids before I yanked them off to private school. Sadly, the teachers were clueless - sort of defines the where and how much trouble this country has chosen to embroil itself in for the past 15+ years and will be in quite possibly forever.

[rogruth]

A cause of this problem in some states is from the state level.
Advice is/was sought from university professors and not from
teachers that are actually involved with the students that are affected.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

A cause of this problem in some states is from the state level.
Advice is/was sought from university professors and not from
teachers that are actually involved with the students that are affected.

Huh? The teachers that got their degrees from those same professors......which given my graduating class that got teaching certificates in PA - they only did so since they needed jobs and were not going to graduate with anything to show for their 4 years there other than a C- grade point. I look back and wonder how many of those dregs ever stayed on as teachers.

[Mitch]

Judging by our state's dismal test standards grades, I'd say at least 90% of them went on to be "educators".

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Judging by our state's dismal test standards grades, I'd say at least 90% of them went on to be "educators".

Hmmmmm....so they don't teach to the tests in PA like they do in VA then,

Not all from my class stayed in PA - some went to NJ.......

I turned down Med school and went to grad school....twice....after I had too many interactions with residents at the hospital where I worked feeling that I never, ever wanted to become like they were...

[rogruth]

A cause of this problem in some states is from the state level.
Advice is/was sought from university professors and not from
teachers that are actually involved with the students that are affected.

Huh? The teachers that got their degrees from those same professors......which given my graduating class that got teaching certificates in PA - they only did so since they needed jobs and were not going to graduate with anything to show for their 4 years there other than a C- grade point. I look back and wonder how many of those dregs ever stayed on as teachers.

I'm probably thinking in the almost dark ages of education,the 1950s, 60s and early 70s.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

A cause of this problem in some states is from the state level.
Advice is/was sought from university professors and not from
teachers that are actually involved with the students that are affected.

Huh? The teachers that got their degrees from those same professors......which given my graduating class that got teaching certificates in PA - they only did so since they needed jobs and were not going to graduate with anything to show for their 4 years there other than a C- grade point. I look back and wonder how many of those dregs ever stayed on as teachers.

I'm probably thinking in the almost dark ages of education,the 1950s, 60s and early 70s.

Now those were different times......and I had the benefit of some very good teachers, several of whcih set my feet forward on the path to where I've been and am in my career.

[robert.]

WOW! Geography has sure changed since I was a kid.

Of course you realize that geography has been replaced
with social studies and global awareness.
And besides what difference does it make?
It's on the other side of the world anyway.
Isn't it?

Well, that's the kind of silliness that was being taught to my kids before I yanked them off to private school. Sadly, the teachers were clueless - sort of defines the where and how much trouble this country has chosen to embroil itself in for the past 15+ years and will be in quite possibly forever.

This year the Quakertown school district almost had a horrible graduation rate.I don't remember the details but it would have been below the states standards. Their solution to this problem came to vote during an emergency school board meeting. yup you guessed it lower the requirements to pass. A score of 63% will get you a diploma

[Rufus T. Firefly]

A score of 63% will get you a diploma

D-

That always got you a diploma.......... Except in Lake Wobegon where all of the children are above average,

[rogruth]

I taught in 8 schools in 3 states and a 63 was always an F.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I taught in 8 schools in 3 states and a 63 was always an F.

Hmmmmmm........60-69 was always a D when I was in high school........

But in college that shifted to 93-100 being an A, 85(?)-93 was a B and so forth. In some of my Chem courses in college the average was in the 30's, and we had unannounced exams, not quizzes, but unannounced full hour exams. that will put a bit of starch in a students shorts! A lot of aspiring pre-med students were stopped right there.

[webenda]

In my college physics classes 10% of the students had to fail, even if they got 90% of the test answers correct. Fortunately my classes had enough 50% on the tests students the rest of us did not have to worry about acing the tests. The professor kept complaining, "Students are getting dumber and dumber every year!"

[rogruth]

I did not hear about grading on a curve until I went to college.
In high school it was the average of your grades. Add them up
and divide by the number of grades and that was the average
and your grade. [I'm sure everyone knows this.] If it was below
70 it failure. We did not have letter grades. That was another
thing first experienced in college.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

In my college physics classes 10% of the students had to fail, even if they got 90% of the test answers correct. Fortunately my classes had enough 50% on the tests students the rest of us did not have to worry about acing the tests. The professor kept complaining, "Students are getting dumber and dumber every year!"

My wife got a Chem Eng degree -- every year her graduating class with that degree was cut 50%.....

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I did not hear about grading on a curve until I went to college.
In high school it was the average of your grades. Add them up
and divide by the number of grades and that was the average
and your grade. [I'm sure everyone knows this.] If it was below
70 it failure. We did not have letter grades. That was another
thing first experienced in college.

We did have 1 professor that offered to call the average a C and then +/- a standard deviation would define upwards a B and downwards a D; 2 SD's off average would then be an A or an F. There was some enthusiasm for that until someone started looking at what that really meant -- that if everybody got a 95 then everybody also got a C for a grade........ and for many students that was their first introduction to the magic of statistics in action!