|
|
JISHOU, HUNAN — This message to a professor has been circulating on the Internet lately. I have no idea of its provenance — maybe it’s a hoax — but the sentiments contained in it we teachers have all heard before, in some fashion.
The short version is: “Professor, I am a genius. The brilliance of my work is so self-evident that I deserve an A.”
[NOTE: The mechanical errors are supposedly the student's.]
The Greatest Snowflake Student Email Ever Sent
I am going to try my hardest to write you this email in response to the recent grade received on my paper, without reflecting the anger that I feel as a result. I would like to first express my respect for you and every other teacher that has placed their energy into educating me and my peers, as we all know that teachers are often the unappreciated foundation of our future. However, I must express a slight amount of disrespect, as I do not agree with your perception of my paper one bit. I recently read an article about Bill Gates and the steps he took as he dropped out of Harvard. What I found so interesting was that he had the confidence to leave his schooling behind for the other students that really needed it, as he realized that he had more important things to accomplish in life than to argue with teachers about grades on papers, as we all now know what thoughts he had storming in his mind.
Possibly related posts:
Cross-posted from The Daily Kos.
JISHOU, HUNAN, CHINA — Today while I was watching a girl with the English name Jackie teach some vocabulary this morning, I could tell she would be a successful person in the future. The thought just popped into my head unbidden, so I hope it’s a good sign. I don’t know Jackie all that well. She’s a freshman. Since I see my students only two hours a week, that means I have had only about 24 hours of contact time with Jackie and most of her classmates. Furthermore, since I teach her class composition and not spoken English, we rarely even talk to each other in class.
Still, I can get a general idea of Jackie’s character and personality. She works hard, but is not especially gifted at English. She smiles a lot, is friendly, and pays attention in class. I reckon she cares a lot about people. Today, she came to class prepared with three vocabulary words to teach class (a weekly assignment for everyone): dusk, eminent and scenic. And she taught the lesson exactly as I had requested, which not many of her peers have been able to do so far.
Further, she was poised and confident, despite her shaky pronunciation and lack of sufficient eye contact (she avoided looking at my side of the room!). Not a perfect presentation, but acceptable under the circumstances.
Possibly related posts:
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY — The crackerjack Texas Board of Education has dropped a popular children’s book author from the third grade curriculum because board members confused him with an author of a book on Marxism.
The late Bill Martin Jr. wrote Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, one of the most endearing children’s books of all time. Bill Martin, a philosophy professor at DePaul University in Chicago, wrote Ethical Marxism, which oddly has never been popular with schoolchildren.
So, which bright lights on the Texas BoE confused the two authors? For those of us living outside the Lone Star State, their names, Pat Hardy and Terri Leo, are not so important, I suppose. But I will note that they are both Republicans and both dead set on purging the Texas school curriculum of anything that isn’t 100% True Blue Amurrican. Rather than, say, check their facts, these two concluded that (1) Marxism is un-American, (2) political analysts frequently moonlight as children’s book authors (or vice versa) and (3) such authors would undoubtedly conceal their Marxist propaganda in children’s books as part of the worldwide commie conspiracy to overthrow This Great Nation™ through the hearts and minds of its children.
Thanks to the keen minds of Hardy and Leo, Texas schoolkids are now safe from the pernicious influence of Brown Bear, who is probably one of those commie Russky bears anyway.
Permanent link to this post (232 words, 1 image, estimated 56 secs reading time) Possibly related posts:
JISHOU, HUNAN — Ah, but the wheels of justice turn slowly …
‘Way back in June 2006, high school valedictorian Brittany McComb, after agreeing to school officials’ changes to her Christianity-laced graduation speech, proceeded to use her original text anyway. School officials’ “rapid response team” quickly cut off McComb’s microphone, to avoid anyone getting the idea a public school was preaching Christianity.
Mayhem ensued. Well, mostly legal challenges.
McComb, who is now a student in Biola University in California, acquired the legal backing of the Rutherford Institute, which filed a complaint in federal district court alleging Clark County, Nev., school officials had trampled her rights of free speech and equal protection under the law. The court found in favor of the school officials.
McComb took her case to the federal appeals court, which found no reason to overturn the previous ruling.
Then she took it to the Supreme Court, where it died a quiet death. (Technically, the SCOTUS denied a petition for a writ of certiorari, meaning the Justices were not going to tell the lower courts to hear the case all over again.)
So, what’s it all mean? McComb’s attorneys claimed that Foothill High School, by attempting to cut off her valedictory in midstream, abridged her rights of free speech and equal protection. The courts (all three, basically) said, “Not.”
This is a preview of Brittany McComb’s legal battle ends at Supreme Court . Read the full post (496 words, 1 image, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)Possibly related posts:
JISHOU, HUNAN — Recently, I wrote a reaction to the Christian rightwing hijacking of the Texas Board of Education, and the anti-public education views of one of its members. A visitor named Joey swung by this week, and left this comment:
That a functioning democracy requires, first, a well-educated, literate public and, second, a public that shares the same knowledge about the history and political philosophy of the nation is the basic thinking of any statist, when public schools are to serve as the chief means to achieve this homogeneity of thinking.
It’s no wonder there are parents and organization already determined to abolish public schools by opting out from compulsory education.
It’s an effective way to fight tyranny, particularly the tyranny of the majority.
You will note that Joey has nothing directly to say about the Texas BOE, but definitely agrees that public education is a Bad Thing.
I don’t, though I am a critic of public education. My reply was this:
This is a preview of From the peanut gallery: abolish compulsory education . Read the full post (3251 words, 1 image, estimated 13:00 mins reading time)Possibly related posts:
JISHOU, HUNAN — So, it goes like this. A high school football coach loaded 20 of his players on a school bus, and took them to his church, where several of them were baptized while the school superintendent watched.
There were just two little problems with this trip. One, not all the kid’s parents signed off on this trip. Two, the kids go to a public school, so the coach and his superintendent more than likely violated federal law (like the Constitution).
Except they don’t see it that way, because the trip was “voluntary.”
Predictably, the high school is smack dab in the Bible Belt, in western Kentucky.
Here’s a little cultural background about western Kentucky, which Coach Scott Mooney and Superintendent Janet Meeks should have already known. Back in Kentucky’s early years, there were two main religious groups, the Baptists and the Catholics. When I lived in western Kentucky, my friends told me about the stories they heard about the “other” people, how Baptists almost drowned their young or Catholics go drunk during services.
Suffice it say, the two groups did not exactly trust each other, for a long time.
So, for Mooney and Meeks to so blithely whisk away 20 teenagers to their Southern Baptist church for a revival, a free steak dinner, and coincidentally to have some of them baptized either indicates the two are stupid or playing some dominionist games.
Possibly related posts:
 JISHOU, HUNAN — As expected (by rational people), President Barack Obama will talk at noon today to students about overcoming hardships, staying on track, going to school, doing their work, and making a difference for their communities and their nation.
He even says, “God bless you and God bless America.”
I’ve read the text released ahead of time by the White House. I can’t find any socialist, Marxist, or any other kind of pernicious indoctrination. It’s not bombastic. It’s not demagoguery. In fact, he says exactly what he said he would say.
So why were people upset again?
Permanent link to this post (99 words, 2 images, estimated 24 secs reading time) Possibly related posts:
|
Recent Comments