[AGL] X-box? Soap box

[Harry Edwards]

oops, interesting slip. I meant to say "in this country."        td

On Nov 23, 2005, at 4:49 PM, Harry Edwards wrote:

> spoken like one who has never taught before. Teaching is the most 
> honorable and the most thankless profession there is in this  company. 
>  It is also one of the most difficult. I know there were times when I 
> was bored silly in the classrooms of excellent teachers. Not the 
> teachers' faults. We need fundamental change in this society.          
>   twisty
>
> On Nov 23, 2005, at 4:39 PM, Frances Morey wrote:
>
>> "...lot of students bored silly by classroom instruction...," Jon 
>> wrote.
>>  
>> That is such a sad posture for someone whose career has been spent 
>> teaching. If the students are bored it's because their teacher has 
>> neglected to create a schedule of learning that challenges 
>> their individual young minds. If learning isn't fun, the teacher has 
>> been reduced to an attendance taking roboton. Someone once noted that 
>> if a young person has one admirable teacher out of eight, their 
>> attitudes towards learning may be salvaged.
>>  
>> There is a presumption of kids being bored, and a 
>> presumptuousness, because the kids have trained themselves to act 
>> like they know-it-all and have nothing left to learn.
>> They are only in the classroom to ogle the opposite sex (or the same 
>> sex) and see how little effort they can put-in to pass from one grade 
>> to the next, like little spoiled (negle cted?) kid-brats. They are 
>> there because the law says that they must be, and the teachers are 
>> there to take home a paycheck, being reduced to prison guards.
>>  
>> Video games are a great babysitter. With enough time devoted 
>> to playing them they often become an obsession, eating up scads of 
>> precious time to the detriment of all other aspects of the 
>> adolescence's development. Such people will become parents who wish 
>> as little involvement with children as possible, such people probably 
>> learned it from their own parents who might have treated them as 
>> though they were a nuisance and a burden. Lots of prof's kids 
>> suffered from this.
>>  
>> Nothing personal, Jon. This is just my educational philosophy. It is 
>> the teacher's job to make it exciting, so the students don't turn out 
>> to be intelligent design creationists, for Christ's sakes, or 
>> automaton know-nothings who w ouldn't question authority if it bit 
>> them on the butt.
>>  
>> Happy Thanksgiving, y'all,
>> Frances
>>  
>>
>>
>> Wayne Johnson <cadaobh at shentel.net> wrote:
>>> Naturally, Jon manages to miss the point even while he makes his 
>>> point.
>>>
>>> Of course, "education" is boring, no "Spam, Blat" No bigggg boobs, 
>>> nothing
>>> to Kill" Can't expect American kids to keep on their determined
>>> Entertainment first, Education last approach to life if they are 
>>> required
>>> "think" instead of "react". Action now, rhetoric...critical
>>> thinking...language usage...later...if at all. Learn everything 
>>> about the
>>> world by seeing it on a 6x6 box as determined by Japanese 
>>> programmers. So
>>> much easier than "listening". Who needs dialectic or literacy or 
>>> theory of
>>> numbers or phenomenology when one can spend ho urs fantasizing 
>>> murder and
>>> rape? Why bother with dissection when one can simulate NASCAR? Why 
>>> bother
>>> with learning "complicated" things like physics, chemistry or
>>> ....gasp...biology, when one can just play with a "black box" or 
>>> believe in
>>> one?
>>>
>>> "Ooooh, Mommy. That mean old scientist makes my brain hurt!"
>>> "Don't worry, Muffy, we will be safely back in Kansas tomorrow."
>>>
>>> But then such subtleties bypass some people who must constantly tell
>>> themselves (and others) that "they" are the "most hip" while others 
>>> cocoon
>>> themselves in what some might call "elitist literary snobbery". 
>>> Interesting
>>> concatentation. Gee, if only the two could be mixed.
>>>
>>> "Fight the Texas War of Revolution! On the Mexican Side! At home! 
>>> With
>>> Game Person X"
>>> "Thrill to the atrocities of the Rape of Nanking!" Who? Nan King? Oh,
>>> cool, dude."
>>> "Learn how Real Christians fight Apostasy, play "Inquisition!"
>>> "Play the New Tunnel Rat!"
>>> "Win points on Enol a Gay over the Medici."
>>> "Vanquish the Green Knight with Madonna!"
>>> "Pokemon vs Shakespeare".
>>>
>>> the mind boggles....or "bobbles" for some.
>>>
>>> wgJ
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Jon Ford"
>>> To:
>>> Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2005 11:51 AM
>>> Subject: Re: [AGL] X-box?
>>>
>>>
>>> >
>>> > Mike, your quip is right on the money! Unlike Harry Potter films 
>>> and
>>> > high school classes, the new media are interactive, leaving a lot 
>>> of
>>> > students bored silly by classroom instruction. A book on video 
>>> games
>>> > people should read, which gives us some insights into learning and 
>>> gaming
>>> > is James Gee's
>>> > "What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy" 
>>> (Palgrave
>>> > MacMillan).
>>> >
>>> > >
>>> > Talk about decorticating the brain.>
>>> >
>>> > Mike
>>> >
>>> > ----- Original Message ----  - From: "Wayne Johnson"
>>> > To: "survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s"
>>> >
>>> > Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 11:33 AM
>>> > Subject: Re: [AGL] X-box?
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Honor and I talked with a local teacher whilst standing in line 
>>> the other
>>> > night for Harry Potter. Part of this (sad) conversation was the
>>> > revelation that his (high school level) kids....can not take 
>>> notes, can
>>> > not follow an "oral" argument and can only take notes if they are
>>> > "bulletized" a la Power Point. He assigns this horrid situation to 
>>> a
>>> > (young) lifetime of ......game playing.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>>
>>
>
>