All Three Are The Same, But Different - Page 7

duck · 05-10-2008, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jodou1

Thanks Duck!

What do you teach?

You are most welcome.

I teach high school English. Grades 11 and 12.

Jodou1 · 05-10-2008, 06:05 PM

Oh great, here I am thinking myself a decent writer and I have an english teacher as an audience!

duck · 05-10-2008, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jodou1

Oh great, here I am thinking myself a decent writer and I have an english teacher as an audience!

I say this on every forum I belong to:

I am not the grammar police!!! If you are writing in such a way that only a phone text junkie could read it, then you don't need me to yell you or criticize you. :P

Jodou1 · 05-10-2008, 06:14 PM

It's pretty incredible that you have openly gay students in your class, I can't imagine having been out in highschool. Some brave students you have for sure.

PsiCop · 05-10-2008, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buzz2

Yes Deb. By force "IF NECESSARY". The founding fathers saw the possibility of force. That's one of the reasons for the right to bare arms. I don't believe it to be radical for wanting our govt. to be the way it was originally intended.

Actually what they "intended" was for the Constitution to be re-worked as necessary ... hence the amendment process (actually, two different "proposal" processes followed by one "ratification" process). Although I agree the FFs wanted to permit change, they wanted it to be orderly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by buzz2

Sure, I don't WANT it to come to force. I said "if necessary". I want our country back. Not the one where the U.N. dictates how they think it should be run. If we allow that, we lose our sovereignty. We just become another European Union. I don't want that.

I'm not sure the EU is altogether a bad thing. Besides, in many ways that's PRECISELY what we now have; the US is a "federation" consisting of 50 states. One could easily suggest that, perhaps, creation of the EU was inspired by the US federal model.

Quote:

Originally Posted by buzz2

But, I would willingly fight to preserve what our nation was intended to be.

Hmm. First of all, many minds have worked on the problem of what the FFs "intended" the US to be, and they disagree. I hardly think any one of us is in a position to know with any certainty what their "intention" was (especially since they did not, themselves, agree completely!)

Second, the idea that the FF's intentions -- whatever they may have been -- are so eternally virtuous that they MUST be kept perpetually, is questionable at best. The original Constitution they crafted had some features that, sorry to say, are not all that great: Only landowning males could vote, and it permitted slavery. Since their time we've granted universal suffrage and abolished slavery. We literally CANNOT go back to the FF's "intentions" without rolling back these two very important changes, at the very least.

Are you really sure you'd want to do that? If not, then talk of what the FFs "intended" is largely moot.

duck · 05-10-2008, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jodou1

It's pretty incredible that you have openly gay students in your class, I can't imagine having been out in highschool. Some brave students you have for sure.

Courage comes in a lot of different forms. One must respect that. Individual courage and honesty is something I prize highly from my students.

**debdodd** · 05-10-2008, 09:09 PM

Duck, I figured you for a civics or history teacher but no way did I think an English teacher!!! In our state (at least Alex's school) they teach English (the grammar portion) only until their freshman year and then it all literature from then on ....

next year it's AP multicultural literature, another AP English Class, AP Greek, AP Latin ... let's see uh ... oh yeah statistics and some kind of calculus class .... senior year of high school .... I bet he doesn't get to go out and play with the other kids very much next year!!!

He want s a tattoo and I told him if he stated on high honors then he could get one (hell he's only getting a little ankh ... but why tell him it wouldn't bother me when I can work it so he pulls another year of 3.8??? no dumb Mom here!)

OOOPPPPPSSSS! So sorry but you guys know I love my kid off the charts and brag far to much about him ... my bad ....totally off topic but it better than reading buzz gay bashing!

Buzz, BTW, I've had Alex at Gay and Transgendered parades since he was about 8 years old and it hasn't turned him into a flaming drag queen he's totally hetero .... (caught him kissing a couple of them and they call all the time) .... so guess what ?????? Gay isn't contagious, you nor your children or even grand kids will catch "it" ..... so if one of your grand kids or kids came "out" what would you do? disown them? take them for reprogramming? I'll bet money that you have gay folks in your family tree .... statistics would show you that but of course knowing how outspoken homophobic you are I'm sure that they stay as far back in the closet as possible around you!

Better watch out Buzz ... God's gonna get you 'cause only he is allowed to judge! So I guess I'll see you in hell .... I'll be sure and keep your spot warm ... cause if there is a hell my punishement will be to sit in hell next to a card carrying bigot like you! said with much love buzz, much love ...... eh?

duck · 05-10-2008, 09:34 PM

Tell you the truth, Deb, I'm going to teach less literature next year to my seniors, with almost no novels and concentrate on thematic and topical issues instead. This is the course that the universities here are wanting more and more of. They want to see more writing skills and less knowledge of literature.

Funny, huh?

**debdodd** · 05-10-2008, 10:50 PM

Good idea .... I think it should be mandatory for high school kids to take creative writing courses! I've recently read some of the essays kids do for their college applications they are* p-i-t-i-f-u-l! .... they sound like "see spot run, spot runs fast" As you know the SAT's have a section for essay writing and I hear that they are horrible ... especially the boys .... girls are a little better but barely ..... With all of Alex's great grades he still has trouble putting thought to paper ... he can do an improvised, on the spot topic of conversation but ask him to sit and write one out and he's chewing the eraser off the pencil trying to think of something ....Why is that? I'm asking seriously .... why is it that if you ask a teenager a question or state something that they disagree with, they can go on for ever about how you are wrong and how they are right on almost any subject but trying to get them to write spontaneously freestyle and they fold or write like 6 year olds?I am glad the colleges are requesting that kids write more. I don't think it's a matter of punctuation, etc as it is just getting them to write actual complex, meaningful sentences.

duck · 05-10-2008, 11:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by debdodd

Good idea .... I think it should be mandatory for high school kids to take creative writing courses! I've recently read some of the essays kids do for their college applications they are* p-i-t-i-f-u-l! .... they sound like "see spot run, spot runs fast" As you know the SAT's have a section for essay writing and I hear that they are horrible ... especially the boys .... girls are a little better but barely ..... With all of Alex's great grades he still has trouble putting thought to paper ... he can do an improvised, on the spot topic of conversation but ask him to sit and write one out and he's chewing the eraser off the pencil trying to think of something ....Why is that? I'm asking seriously .... why is it that if you ask a teenager a question or state something that they disagree with, they can go on for ever about how you are wrong and how they are right on almost any subject but trying to get them to write spontaneously freestyle and they fold or write like 6 year olds?I am glad the colleges are requesting that kids write more. I don't think it's a matter of punctuation, etc as it is just getting them to write actual complex, meaningful sentences.

That is because we are not teaching and reinforcing the importance of the structure and importance of organizational strategies for the different modes of writing: Expository, Persuasive, Descriptive, Narrative, and Reflective. Too many schools are using a curriculum that tells a kid to "write an essay" without teaching them what type of essay is needed for the question or how to organize it.

Creative writing? I hate to say this, but that is a total waste of my time with the students I'm getting in the twelfth grade that can't even write a proper introductory paragraph because they don't carry proper knowledge of this basic skill through the grades!! Case in point: We were having a meeting with our local middle school language arts teachers, and we from the high school were bemoaning the horrible paragraph structure and organizational skills our students were bringing with them. One of the worst teachers in our district jumped up and cried, "I don't know what you people think you want! We have our eighth graders writing 10 page research papers, and you don't think they can write!!! What is it you want us to teach?" I sat there, looked over at a colleague who I greatly respect. He looked at me, I looked at him and we both said in unison: "Teach sentences, paragraphs, and modes of writing!"

She stormed out of the meeting in tears. My colleague and I were called on the carpet by the middle school principal, who just happened to be facilitating the meeting. Thankfully, our principal backed us up.

Everybody wants to teach the home run paper any more and not teach fundamental basics! Guess what I have to teach the seniors I get? :P Then, don't even get me started on the dang No Child Left Behind tests (one of the idiot in chief's stupider laws) and what that does to middle and high school instruction!

Ok, end of rant.

Night, all!