Something I stumbled over today:
If you are student in the Hempstead Public Schools, you may need some help in learning literacy. The Long Island, N.Y. district released a summer reading list that is replete with more than 30 errors. Some of the more egregious mistakes include:
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is listed as “The Great Gypsy.”
Authors Emily Bronte and Charlotte Bronte, who wrote Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre respectively, are listed with the last name Bonte.
Animal Farm author George Orwell is named George Ornell.
The Chosen author Chaim Potok has the last name Dotok.
Alice Sebold’s novel The Lovely Bones is listed as “The Lovely Bone.” (Fido, where are you?)
Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story have their author as listed as Norris Houghton (the publisher).
A member of the New York State Department of Education’s Board of Regents said, “Hempstead has not had a stable administration for a long time and the kids are suffering.”
Huh? What with all the turnover caused by the NEA’s relentlessly destabilizing policy of merit-based promotions?
I agree we have a new generation.
And people say dogs are dumb.
I had a dog who was a Scottish Deerhound mix. He looked exactly like your dog, only smaller. His name was Kafka. He died a few years ago, and that was I think the last time I cried. I told myself I wouldn’t get another dog, but I found an eleven pound Chihuahua Terrier mix who looked like miniature version of him. She’s here with me now. I wish there were a way for me to upload photos of my beasts right now so you could see the resemblance.
I know I’m ignoring the meat of your post, but I’m doing that deliberately. It’s just too fucking depressing to think about American education. I’m also tired of talking about race, so tired of it, so I’ll leave it alone.
So text me the pictures of your new baby. Six oh nine. Four oh five. One one one nine. I’ll post your baby when you tell me her name.
Oh, man. I have a Flintstone phone and I don’t really know how to text. I do have some pics on my computer though. The dog came pre-named so don’t blame me for the white trash handle she was saddled with: Tiffany. Her sister’s name was even worse: Tiara. I’m dead set against giving dogs human names.
So send pics by email. You know me already. Sigma, remember? Z R N, remember. At comcast.net. I sympathize with fatigue. I lived near Cincy once.
The missus reminds me. There’s Tiffany and then there’s Tiffany. Work it out.
Whew. That’s one hell of a list. I feel the worst for the students who actually want to learn. How can they, with a system like this?
But here’s a question: when does the education system as it stands now fall apart and when does guided, individual, digital learning take over? It’s close to possible now, and it only rewards the students willing to work for it. Public schools are turning into holding pens for adolescents wasting their time, and those that make it to college are whiling away four years of their parents’ money. But private schools (like mine) are up the creek, too. We charge more than $50,000 per year for full-pay students, if you can believe it. That number just keeps going up, and it’s not sustainable. So schools like ours will fail.
I remember our debate last summer, and you didn’t think much of the digital/internet education possibilities, correct? Can we talk about that?
What about so-called Digital Aristotle, one-to-one tutoring (albeit through a program) for every student? I don’t think it will be right for all, or even most, students, but I think we’re on the cusp of it working. I’ve used DuoLingo to re-learn German and Codecademy to teach myself two new languages. I would have thrived on these as a younger man, and if it was all part of the education system, I would have wasted far less time, even with a private school education. Perhaps only for the most motivated students, but I think there is future value there. What do you think?
I can’t remember being opposed to digital learning. I think I’ve advocated for much cheaper higher education via the Internet. I probably have been skeptical of digital learning by kids who think it’s multitasking to glance at a textbook while texting, listening to iPod music, and having sex at the same time.
Not opposed, just not finding an answer in it that warrants much hope. Much like 19th century students with slate or 20th century students with lined paper, the digital age of education belongs to the minority of students who actually give a fuck. The ones I’m trying to find every year.
Your point about multitasking, and, er, student sex hits close to home. Sometimes I think my school is just advancing the college ‘holding bin’ an additional four years. Four expensive years. And there are boarding middle schools…
Kids in college are required by many universities to have laptops in class, which they then abuse by playing Flash Macromedia games or checking their facebook posts. I will say a Rosetta Stone-like interface, full immersion with sound and images and writing, works very well for learning a language. Not sure how well it would work for everything else.
How does an English major stay current with the latest thinking in theoretical physics? I’ll do a post on that. Promise.