My English Teacher

[Wrighty]

Yes, Judith you're right. The moving from Junior to Senior schools in UK for 11 year olds is a big step - but also for their parents.

What are their main clues in this important life choice? Here it is league tables of exam results - say no more!! It might help if they had league tables of satisfied pupils leaving at 16, various categories of judgement of schools from the end users' perspective - but that would be controversial in the extreme.

Looks like your Teachers Unions in the US have got it sewn up. I'm not too sure about over here - but I do know that interference from central government with the system is excessive. They say don't mix politics and sport - I wish they'd keep politics out of many other subjects as well!

At the end of the day a child's education (or preparation for life) is the parents' responsibility at every level. If you give some of that away blindly to a system, an establishment, a teacher without knowledge then its virtually the same as allowing your kids out day or night without knowing where they are, or what they're doing. Irresponsible.

My daughter is 27 and still an avid and speedy reader. She could read long before she went to school and (even at 5) her teacher, who was "old fashioned" used to sit her next to someone who was still learning to read so she could help them in class. By the time my son went to the same infants school 2 years later he was not anything like as advanced as his sister. His first teacher was a different, younger, more up-to-date person whose view on reading was "we don't like children coming to school already being able to read because its our job to teach them". So this was the modern way......."hand over to me (us, the new and better way) the responsibility for teaching your child how to read".

For humility read arrogance,

[Chris Grieb]

As an unmarried childless person I have the greatest of sympathy for parents. The crap you have to put up with. Good schools and teachers are hard to find. Years ago Kathleen Richman after a year in the government schools took her children out and home schooled. She wrote an article about the experience which I have lost but I will try and find Jeff and Kori; Keep in mind that your fellow students are victims too.

Edited February 15, 2007 by Chris Grieb

[Rich Engle]

Ah, English teachers...

I was blessed with some great ones, when and where it counted, starting in grade school. At least they got me to enjoy novels, reading them aloud. I remember in either 4th or 5th grade having one read E.B. White's "Charlotte's Web" every day after lunch (I had his niece Marion White sitting in class with me). Lot of stuff like that; to get the story, the flow, the excitement of writing, what would happen next...?

It really didn't get ugly until college. I tested out of my first 3 years of college English, and you'd think that would've been something, but it just accelerated the torture. Ever sit in a 400 level English class and spend the first two weeks listening to $%#^ Rod McKuen spoken word records, replete with schmarmy music? So the trick is getting through, without totally selling your soul. Be results-oriented. I think that's where I learned how to write satire, or at least emulate; I'd quickly figure out their favorite writer(s), and put a touch of that in there. It never worked out reading their stuff, because it was always rotten. You know, the old saw-- if you can't do, teach, if you can't teach, teach phys-ed. Lot of bitterness out of that, and guess what? THEY ARE YOUR EDITOR. I ended up enjoying this because it gave me an opportunity to fuck with them. I would apprehend what they wanted, take it right to the edge of their view of "perfection," and then drop the torpedo. It was worth a "B" over an "A+." But you have to be careful...

There were only a few times where I got handed real popular novel-dreck to read. At the time, there was a lot of that available, and for the life of me I can't remember which ones because I think I have blocked them out.

I wrote my senior high honors English paper on "Crime & Punishment" because a: it was big, b: it had some meat to it, but mostly c: it was such misery. A+, yay!!!

You just gotta roll with it, dude. Most of them have some small thing to offer, even if you have to plow through the poopy to get it. Occasionally, you come upon the great ones. Either way, torture is involved.

rde

misery loves company, don't fergit...

Edited February 15, 2007 by Rich Engle

[Danneskjold]

Last year my English teacher was really good. She saw me reading Atlas Shrugged and pointed me towards The Fountainhead. She was really nice and I really enjoyed the class.

[Chris Grieb]

Jeff; Your last English teacher sounds like a great argument for cloning.

[BAMF]

Jeff; Your last English teacher sounds like a great argument for cloning.

Or boning, perhaps? *had to do it* :angel:

[Chris Grieb]

Kori; Haven't you been watching, teachers are being locked up for making whoopee with students.

[BAMF]

Chris,

They must not be doing it right. I say we fire the teachers who aren't competent enough to hide their sexual relations with students. Damn shame.

[Danneskjold]

That female teacher having sex with the kid is what I would call a victimless crime. For christ's sake, most guys will never get a girl that looks like her. The kid should be thankful.

The great thing about my old English teacher pointing me towards The Fountainhead is that she herself didn't like the ideology,but pointed me down that path regardless. As for the boning think Kori, the teacher was short and more on the chubby side. Plus she named her kid Atticus (after the guy from TKAM) so I think she might be a wantonly cruel to those she loves. Just kidding of course, but still...

Edited February 16, 2007 by Jeff Kremer

[BAMF]

Well, Jeff, some young ladies dig old men.

[Danneskjold]

Relevance?

[Judith]

I was fortunate in going to a huge, well-funded public high school -- about 602 in my graduating class, and more in the class considering the dropout rate was high back then, three grades -- one big school for the entire city. We got to pick electives for English and history/social studies every semester, and there were a number of choices available: mythology and philosophy are the only two I remember for English, and sociology and economics are the only two I remember from history/social studies. A good way to hand pick one's teachers AND one's interests. Gym class worked the same way -- every six weeks we got to pick a rotation from things like swimming, square dancing, basketball, archery, recreational games (ping pong and quoits), golf, calisthenics, etc.

Judith

Edited February 16, 2007 by Judith

[BAMF]

Relevance?

Of course, my dear.

I was fortunate in going to a huge, well-funded public high school -- about 602 in my graduating class, and more in the class considering the dropout rate was high back then, three grades -- one big school for the entire city. We got to pick electives for English and history/social studies every semester, and there were a number of choices available: mythology and philosophy are the only two I remember for English, and sociology and economics are the only two I remember from history/social studies. A good way to hand pick one's teachers AND one's interests. Gym class worked the same way -- every six weeks we got to pick a rotation from things like swimming, square dancing, basketball, archery, recreational games (ping pong and quoits), golf, calisthenics, etc.

Judith

I wish my school would offer philosophy. We have 3 major high schools in our district, and we have one book that lists all the classes offered. Next to each class description is something that lets you know what school the class is offered at. None of the good ones are offered at my school.

P.S. Square dancing is the devil. I moved to a new school in 7th grade. I thought I had gotten out of having to do square dancing, but sho 'nuff, square dancing was the unit my new school was on.

P.S.S. Ping pong is tha bomb!

Edited February 16, 2007 by Kori

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Well, Jeff, some young ladies dig old men.

Relevance?

Er... In Objectivism, the reverse seems to be the case...

Michael

[Chris Grieb]

Jeff; I think To Kill a Mockingbird is a great novel. I think it's sad that Harper Lee never wrote another book. Atticus Finch is a great hero. He not as great as Galt or Roark but I think you could build on someone who admired him.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

When OL started, I wrote about To Kill a Mockingbird.

Of mockingbirds and blue jays and shooting and singing

I just reread it and, to set modesty aside, I am pretty damn pleased with what I wrote.

Michael

[BAMF]

Well, Jeff, some young ladies dig old men.

Relevance?

Er... In Objectivism, the reverse seems to be the case...

Michael

Well, I'm breakin' tha mold.

I rather enjoyed To Kill A Mockingbird as well. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I still have the school's copy of it (oops...I genuinely swear it was an accident). Will most definitely check out what you wrote.

[Charles R. Anderson]

To Kill a Mockingbird is a very good novel. I read it decades ago and once again when one of my daughters read it in school.

The Montgomery County schools are run with the teachers (particularly as union members) as the first priority. I presented a clear case of Katie's best interest to a principal with a request that she be allowed to transfer to another history class on the same topic at the same time and with fewer students and the principal would not allow it for fear that the old teacher's feelings would be hurt. She gave so much busy-work homework in the Honors World History course that Katie did not have time for her other three Honors classes in math, physics, and English. I made no accusations against the teacher. I simply argued that Katie needed a balanced education and that these other fields were also important to her. The Principal never gave an inch of ground. There was absolutely no way she would risk hurting the feelings of the history teacher!

Some of the teachers are total crackpots and nearly all are socialists, the sky-is-falling environmentalists, and child designers who only want to exclude the parents from the lives of their children and leave all instruction to the teachers. The teachers generally view parents as all being rednecks who are corrupting their children with old-fashioned ideas. The teachers are crusaders to see to it that the children learn the holy word, that of equality, diversity, victimhood, racial consciousness, cultural equality, provided it is not Anglo-Saxon or Western European culture, anti-business, class warfare, anti-human environmentalism, and hatred of the oppressing white male and the military.

But, other than these minor problems, they offer a fairly wide range of courses, including AP courses. I guess that accounts for the reputation as a good school system.

[Judith]

When OL started, I wrote about To Kill a Mockingbird.

Of mockingbirds and blue jays and shooting and singing

I just reread it and, to set modesty aside, I am pretty damn pleased with what I wrote.

Michael

Beautifully written, Michael.

I haven't read that book for at least 20 years. I have to dig up my old copy and read it again.

What you said in the essay is true. We have to take pains to protect our own purity of spirit; it doesn't just happen.

Part of it is the "spiritual food" we consume. There are certain films I won't watch and certain books I won't read because, having seen/read them, I can't unknow what I know. There are books and films that I very much wish I had never read or seen. Examples include the second Hannibal Lecter film (morally disgusting with no redeeming values) and a murder mystery book that ended with a dog being vivisected (simply upsetting, with visual images I'll never forget).

And part of it is the actions we take and the words we speak. If we go around being unkind to people, there's a record of it on our souls. If we go around in the privacy of our cars screaming and cussing at other drivers over trivial things, there's a record of it on our souls. True -- there's no god. There's just us. But there IS us. What could be more important? Rand said that we're beings of self-made souls. We create those souls in every seemingly insignificant moment of every day. Who and what do we want to be?

We -- and the people we live with -- get to enjoy the resulting bird that sings.

Judith

[Rich Engle]

TKAM was my 9th grade English class novel project. What a perfect book to use for teaching elements, analysis, characterization...and, it's a great read. About 3/4 way through, we saw the movie, but we had to option of bailing out if it was ahead of where we were in reading.

I had some majorly kickass English teachers. Brit-lit I and II, Shakespeare, World Lit... journalism.

The only real trauma I had was a project in 10th grade upper English involving The Scarlet Letter. I don't care what anyone says, that book is a piece of shit.

[Chris Grieb]

Rich; About The Scarlet Letter; Tell us what you really think!

[Judith]

I read The Scarlet Letter exactly two years ago today. Someone mentioned it -- negatively, as I recall -- and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

I can't remember what the book was about.

Judith

[Danneskjold]

I didn't particularly enjoy TKAM, the plot was just sooooo slooooooowwwwwww. In that respect I would say that Rich's assessment is very accurate. He didn't mention plot as one of its strong points. I like motion, TKAM just didn't have it, it was all so sidetracked. Valuable lessons to be sure, just not my favorite peice of literature.

My favorite thing we read Freshman year was Cyrano D'Bergerac. I told my English teacher back then that Ayn Rand probably would have liked the play, I was pleased to find out when skimming an Ayn Rand Answers book in Borders that I was right.

[Chris Grieb]

Jeff; Ayn Rand considered Cyrano the greatest play ever written. Rostand died during the Spanish Flu after World War I. Ayn Rand said this one of the greatest loses of that period.

[Danneskjold]

The character of Cyrano was truly amazing.