From ehrhardt@xtra.co.nz Sun Sep 19 03:32:26 1999 Received: from mxu3.u.washington.edu (mxu3.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW99.08) with ESMTP id DAA53720 for ; Sun, 19 Sep 1999 03:32:26 -0700 Received: from mta2-rme.xtra.co.nz (mta2-rme.xtra.co.nz [203.96.92.3]) by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW99.08) with ESMTP id DAA32398 for ; Sun, 19 Sep 1999 03:32:25 -0700 Received: from hpcustomer ([210.55.86.82]) by mta2-rme.xtra.co.nz (InterMail v4.01.01.00 201-229-111) with SMTP id <19990919103602.PQAB685.mta2-rme@hpcustomer> for ; Sun, 19 Sep 1999 22:36:02 +1200 Message-ID: <014701bf0288$53869540$525637d2@hpcustomer> Reply-To: "Ehrhardt" From: "Ehrhardt" To: References: <3.0.1.32.19990918192148.00759c98@idirect.com> Subject: Re: English teaching Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1999 21:16:06 +1200 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 ----- Original Message ----- From: David Meadows To: Sent: Sunday, September 19, 1999 11:21 AM Subject: Re: English teaching > Two cents from a genuine teacher: > > Over the past year, as many folks are aware, I slogged my way through > teacher's college to get a B.Ed. and got it with not as much effort as one > might suspect. During that time I had lengthy practice teaching blocks at > the high school and what would be termed elementary school level. I am > currently teaching at what would be termed a middle school grade half > (grade seven) half a day and another half at a different school. > > Here's my spin on all of this (through Canadian, or rather, the eyes of an > Albertan toiling in Southern Ontario): > > It is rather clear that to put blame on high school teachers or even middle > school teachers is probably misplaced. From what I can figure, the biggest > problem in regards to teaching English is quite simple: the school day is > not long enough. At the high school level, students might get 75 minutes a > day for one semester; at the lower levels, we're talking one 40 minute > period and even doing that doesn't allow one to get in the official > 'ministry expectations', so some of us are forced to count writing in a > religious journal as part of language arts. Further complicating matters > are the trend towards 'rotary' subjects at the middle school level -- > ostensibly so that those well trained in a particular subject (e.g. > history) can teach it repeatedly to different classes and/or to prepare > students for high school -- what it ends up doing is taking away further > 'language in context' training opportunities. Now add onto the attempt to > fit, say, math, language (which includes writing, spelling, reading, trips > to the library, and some pretty basic grammar/punctuation), religion and > French into the morning every day and further complicate it by having to > prepare students for hepatitis shots (one period gone), assemblies with the > principal to discuss matters of grave concern (anothe period), various > other 'official school business' things, etc. etc. and you begin to see > that the time simply isn't there to adequately teach the children. I won't > even get into class sizes, or the presence of gifted and/or LD and/or ESL > students in the same class, all of whom require attention. > > But even without the above conditions, I think it is safe to say that > students today do not get the same amount of time in language arts as I did > (and I'm a relatively young pup), and still less than my father's > generation did. There are more subjects crowding the curriculum and more > 'social activities' which are held during the school day ... what is > obviously needed is a lengthening of the school day (say, to 5.00 p.m.) and > perhaps an increase in the trend towards year round schooling. The big > problem, however, is that you tenured professorial types are really in no > position to be suggesting this; comparatively speaking, the current > workload of your average school teacher dwarfs your typical university > workload ... if you try to change the system from without, you will simply > get the backs up of quite a few folks who probably agree with you in > principle. > > So what's the solution? Why not adapt the University of Calgary's > University College model. When I went there (I don't know if this still > prevails), one's first year was in 'university college', in which you were > encouraged to take courses from various disciplines to find what you wanted > to do. Why not make acceptance in a lower degree program subject to > successful completion of a 'university college' year's worth of courses > which would include, e.g., an intensive year long course in language > mechanics and whatever else is deemed as prerequisite university skills .... > yes, you can charge students for this; if they don't want to do it, they > don't get to go to university. > > dm > > ]|[ David Meadows ]|[ http://web.idirect.com/~atrium ]|[ Rogue Classicist ]|[ > .