At 12:36 PM 11/11/98 PST, you wrote:
>Word processing is best. I really don't recommend giving computers to
>schools because the teachers are often incompetent, and the computers
>will often sit doing nothing. A better solution is to give them to
Not incompetent. Untrained. You try getting 30 kids to sit quietly, let
alone teach them to read, and see how well you do. Try managing a class so
that the kids don't go wild when one of the kids pukes or wets his pants,
and so that a kid with a speech impediment or burn scars isn't made fun of.
Try teaching kids that violence is not a solution and selling drugs is not
a viable career path, when they routinely see people killed and their whole
family lives in a one room apartment.
I've tried it, I've seen it done, and believe you me, anything you can do
with a computer is a *piece of cake* compared to teaching.
Teachers are not incompetent. They may be untrained in the use of older
computers, but they are not incompetent. Why not take some time and teach
them how to use them? Dig up some software that will run on them that they
can use in the classroom. Volunteer to help set up their classrooms or
type up lesson plans, so they have the *time* to learn how to work an
antiquated computer. Show up at 7am and leave at 6pm like they do and see
how much energy you have for playing with computers.
For the last 8 or 9 years, I have been dating a woman who is probably the
best educator in the bay area, if not the state. I have seen the hoops
teachers have to go through, the work they do, and the abuse they take so
that they can help the kids that are entrusted to them. I have seen
parents who beat their kids, who write, in big red letters on the kid's
homework, that they are not the kid's teacher and that the work is too hard
for their kid, who don't bother showing up to care for their kids, let
alone get them to school.
Teachers are not incompetent. They may be overworked, underpaid, looked
down upon, subject to ridiculous expectations, forced to conform to a rigid
system when dealing with individual children with separate and distinct
needs, but they are not incompetent.
Max, I hate to put it this way, but you're a kid. You don't know what
you're talking about. Generally, it's not a problem, but in this case,
you've said something that is not only blatently untrue, but very hurtful
as well.
Perhaps you have had problems with your teachers -- How much of that was
your fault? Perhaps the teachers haven't been able to focus solely on what
you want to learn -- you're not the only kid in the class, and the other
kids have just as much right to be there as you do. Perhaps you think the
teachers haven't done enough for you -- but have you stopped to see how
much they really do? (Including the hours they put in at school and
elsewhere, and how much of their personal money they spend on you?)
Sorry for the EduRant, but too often, teachers are blamed for the problems
we as a society create, and it pisses me off.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger_at_sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California
http://www.sinasohn.com/
Received on Wed Nov 11 1998 - 17:47:53 GMT