One of the Students that I have known Reacts
I always respected the points of view of students.
They are as diverse as they are unique.
This is an example.
I wish more of the young react and write and commit and act.
You should...All of you should...
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To measure anything is to label it...When anything is marked it is reduced to a finite measurable entity that our fragile and limited mind can comprehend.
But this does not mean that we should not measure. This does not mean that teachers should not mark...Just it means that it is a faulty system and we have to use it with much caution.
Teachers should acknowledge the faulty system and be more understanding and open to the student point of view. They should be open to the idea of "make ups" and provide the opportunity to the students to learn more and use the marking system as another tool to motivate students to learn more...It will be more work...definitely. But, it will be a better assessment and the marking system will be more conducive to learning...and not, as it is now, executing students for wrongdoing...and in the process fragmenting knowledge...and reducing it to meaningless crumbs.
This student, my student, has many valid points...read the notes below and you will see...you will be intrigued too.
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I like his idea that math is not for playing with numbers, but rather leaning how to reason our way out of anything logically.
My student is smart...and I am sure that he will do much to make me, and you, proud...
All the power to you...young people...Take the initiative and soar to the sky and beyond...leave the earthlings down here to wallow in ignorance...
Enjoy the day, since it is heralding a better tomorrow, a brighter future...
H.K.
An my student writes...
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An my student writes...
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Since my first day in Canada, I was very disappointed in the education system. There are 3 main reasons for this: the marking system, the teachers, and the curriculum.
Where I come from, the marking system was based on the amount of effort, hard work, dedication, and time was put in, more than the amount of “stuff” that we could memorize and regurgitate on a specific assignment in a specific course on a specific day. Also, marks were based on a GPA system (A-90%+ -> 4.00, B-80%+ -> 3.00, etc.), so a students learning and chances of getting into a “good” university and have a “successful” future, were not affected by two or three points in a percent average. I do not think a person with a 96% knows any more than a person with a 99% or vice-versa.
And, until I moved to Canada, I never judged, and was never given the chance to judge, any teacher in his/her teaching, since all of them were amazing in their own ways and were very, very passionate about whatever they were teaching. Not to mention, they were more than well qualified. But, when I moved to Canada and was wondering why more students were disengaged, I noticed that most of the teachers were disengaged too. They do not understand the art of learning and do not understand the process of teaching well. Are they not trained well? Are they not paid well? Do they not like what they are doing? Why are they doing what they suck at doing, then?
Oh, I think I know, they get money...
Here are some examples to illustrate my point.
1) I had one teacher who said that blood was blue in veins, which it is not; it is always RED (light when oxygenated and dark when deoxygenated). The blue color of the veins comes from the way light is refracted around the subcutaneous fat, but nothing to do with the color of blood inside. That is like saying: “If we have a green bottle with milk inside, we can assume that the milk is also green because that is what we see from the outside” (ILLOGICAL)!!! The teacher even said that, when blood is removed from veins, it is red because “it reacts with the oxygen in the air, but it is blue when it is inside...” FACEPALM! Please watch this short video: http://www.youtube.com/
Giving students false information and making them ignorant of the world around them is not a very good way of “teaching” them.
2) I had another teacher who has never taught me anything in a class. I have learned nothing from the teacher in that class, or about the course topic that he was supposed to teach. Not only was the teacher ignorant, uninterested in teaching, but his disengagement spread to the students and even the ones who wanted to learn gave up and stopped their brain from absorbing anything afterwards.
These are just two examples of my short experience here in Canada. Things like these happen on a daily basis. Also, reading one of the recent blog posts: http://mrkevork.
On the other hand, of course, there are also teachers who care about their students on an all-rounded level. I hope more teachers will care about the students and make the school an academic haven.
I hope teachers who care are more abundant in the future. These kind of teachers value learning over marks, understanding over numbers (in the case of math), love over hatred, and logical reasoning over stupidity. That is the kind of future that I would want the Earth to hold so that when I have kids, they will live in a loving and logical world, instead of the hating, jealous, ignorant, and absurd world like today’s.
When it comes to math, so many students do not like math. I on the other hand, love it. Math is arguably the most beautiful knowledge known to humans. All students have something that they like doing. If that field and mathematics are combined together, it will become an even more beautiful field, and everyone will love it. But most teachers, look at math as math, not as something that can be applied beautifully to other fields. Knowing math will make us think better, faster, and smarter, and will allow us to make sense and understand the world around us. But why do people not like it? Is it the teachers? Is it our mindset? Is it the influence of the society and the “COOLNESS of BEING STUPIDDD???” When anyone says that they don’t like math, I feel like punching them nice and hard. Of course, sadly, I will never be able to do that… But, I hope to at least inspire everyone in the future to dwell in the fascinating world of math and learning in general. After all, liking what you do will make you more successful and happy.
Another thing that I had trouble understanding was that what I had learned in the place that I come from was much more “harder” than what they teach here, but I still got lower marks here. Do teachers get penalized if their students achieve high marks or get more pay if they try to fail students with lower marks? Do teachers feel happy when a student’s future is in their hands and they do not do anything to benefit them? Do teachers get promoted for not caring about what they are teaching to their students?
I don’t know if this happens just here, or all over Canada, but this is something that needs to be CHANGED (quickly), so we don’t go in the wrong direction after making this much progress. It is our future and we must do something about it, instead of waiting for someone else to do it for us!
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