[geeks] Education

[wa2egp at att.net]

> Evidently, because I said the homework I had to do was busywork.
> 
> I didn't say all of it was, and even suggested that removing most of it
> would allow the student to come up with their own.
> 

I really doubt that would happen.  Most students would not do any homework
whether they came up with it on their own or not.

> > That's part of the "feel-good" education.  Does the student REALLY
> > know what they need or are we working with the 20-20 vision that
> > hind sight provides?  I wish I knew exactly what each student needs so
> > I could tailor their education toward that.
> 
> No, it isn't feel good, it's called learning properly.

In your opinion.

> Also, I didn't say anything about knowing what I needed.

You implied it.  Many times. "....what I need..."
 
> But even a student knows when they have mastered a particular excersize,
> and repeating it doesn't help.
> 
> For some people, maybe it does, but not everyone learns best by rote
> memorization and repetition.
 
Too much homework that is given is rote (depending on grade level) and
I know what you mean.  I never give an assignment of "memorize the symbols
the of first twelve elements" as an example.  Those can be learned as you
go from use.  I don't know what you mean by mastering a particular exercise
because that could be interpreted two ways; memorize particular problems
(which seems to be what most of my students want to do) or learn a particular
process like solve problems with, let's say,  v = vi + at.  (Then the 
homework problems would have different unknowns so the equation is used in 
various ways.)  And we go over it the next day.  I don't think that's 
useless.
  
> You have a wierd notion of busywork.

Yes I do.

> It's busywork if it serves no useful purpose.

Wouldn't that be homework that is given and not reviewed so a 
student could correct their mistakes/mis-learning?
 
> Wether or not the teacher looks at it has nothing to do with that.

At least it could count as something, even as an effort grade.

> > I don't call that busywork.
> > I don't call that feel-good education.  I call that building self
> > esteem.
> 
> It is busywork if the student is gaining nothing from it.
> 
> You were just complaining about "feel good" education, most of which
> came out of a misplaced desire to build self esteem.

Actually the problem is the horse-before-the-cart illogic in the educational
system.  Some one saw students with good grades having good self esteem so
it's only 'logical' that if you give the students good self esteem they will 
get good grades.  So they gave classes where students were "pumped
up" about how wonderful they are (without having to accomplish anthing).  
Now we are getting students that feel so good about themselves, they don't 
"have" to learn or do any work.  "I'm here, therefore I deserve an A"  
Yeah..sure.  That is what call a "feel good" education.  

I'd rather have a student feel good about themselves because they're able 
to solve a problem or handle some kind of challenge whether they're interested
in my subject or not.  I see this when I go over homework that I assign.
If you think that's worthless...fine.

Bob