Teacher education

mdawg45
September 4, 2007 at 9:05 pm

I had a high school guidance counselor that told me that I should NEVER go to college since I wasn’t that “smart.” He told me to go work in a factory like my parents.

I went to a community college and received my AA in History. Photocopied the diploma and mailed it to him. Transferred to a four year university as a junior. Graduated with a BA in History. Photocopied that diploma and mailed it to him. Are you seeing a pattern here? Decided to get a MAT in History and graduated with a 3.9! Not only did I photocopy the diploma but also the transcript and mailed both to this counselor!

I agree with everything you posted. I share this story with my students because there will be times when someone tells them that they can’t do it or they stop believing in themselves. I don’t think it matters if you are 15 or 56, you still have those same fears. I “faked it until I made it” through some of my gen ed courses.

I commend the 56 year old for going back to school – you go Girl (or Boy)! You can do it!

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1 Comment.
Kizz
August 28, 2007 at 9:46 pm

Do you have to confront him? I mean, the progress report is done. He can make his own choices from here. It’s already clear you aren’t going to promote him just to save yourself.

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saintseester
August 25, 2007 at 7:58 pm

You know what would be really funny? Put all these “non” paragraphs together into one very, very bad speech.

And, Dr.Pezz, after you read The Road, head on over to the dark and stormy book club blog to tell us what you think of it – in coherent sentences, though.

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14 Comments.
sphyrnatude
August 25, 2007 at 7:16 am

I wish I could be surprised, but I can’t….

One year (teaching Bio 100), the only real written work inthe class (there were 3,000 students inthe class, so not much chance for correcting), was a “lab report” that more or less asked the kids to copy the lab directions into a paper, fill in a few blanks, do some math, and apply the results. Ignoring the actual science, most of the kids were horrible writers, but I had one kid that handed in 2 typed pages of phrases, with no punctuation, capitalization, paragraphs, or logical progression.

When I returned the papers, his didn’t have a grade, just a note asking him to come see me. I never saw him again, so I really don’t know what the story was.

I was teaching at a fairly well known state university, when it was supposedly fairly difficult to get accepted….

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4 Comments.
Dana
August 21, 2007 at 9:37 pm

Well… I mean, it’s a lovely banner, but…

…I mean, everyone KNOWS that reading comes FIRST!

*grinduckhide*

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6 Comments.
mrschili
August 20, 2007 at 8:46 pm

Dr. Prezz, don’t you just LOVE how badly that backfires on people?

My question is this – how many in the college community (besides geeky little me) actually caught the error…? The thing that scares me is my answer is “probably no one…”

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