[AGL] X-box? Soap box

[Harry Edwards]

apologies, Frances. I didn't know you'd taught. Sadly today, learning 
often takes second place to maintaining a student's "self-esteem."      
    td

On Nov 23, 2005, at 5:11 PM, Frances Morey wrote:

> I taught for seven years, Harry. How many years did you teach? I 
> raised two healthy and well adjusted sons. How many sons have you 
> raised. My classrooms were always busy and hard at work learning. I 
> tolerated no bad behavior and I could spot it and nip it in the bud 
> when there was any acting out or tormenting one another.
> I'm not disagreeing with you about the need fundamental change, yes, 
> we do need that and the young people need it, too.
> Frances
>
> Harry Edwards <laughingwolf at ev1.net> wrote:
>> 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 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 phy sics, 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."
>> >>> "Le arn 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
>> >>> & gt; 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.
>> >>> >
>> >>> >
>> >>> >
>> >>>
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>>
>