[ale] Am I the only one that is laughing out load at this question?

[Thompson Freeman]

On 03/12/2008 10:04:50 AM, Jim Lynch wrote:
> Mike Harrison wrote:
> > On Wed, 12 Mar 2008, Greg Freemyer wrote:
> >
> >
> > They are, but I was dealing with a science teacher that
> barely kept one
> > chapter ahead in the book.. almost 30 years ago. I also
> was ranting then
> > about Neutrinos and other stuff. It's really only so
> memorable to me
> > because it's when I really grok'd that most teachers
> merely occupied
> > space and time. I had some good teachers, but they were
> few.
> >
> 
> I was taught in 4th grade that the phases of the moon were
> caused by the
> shadow of the earth falling on the moon's face.  When I
> suggested she
> look up the definition of an eclipse, she promptly sent me
> to the office
> and I spent the day on a ladder in the hallway outside of
> the classroom
> wearing a dunce cap.  Needless to say from that point on,
> my view of
> education was a bit jaundiced.  Everyone wondered why I
> hated school so
> much but when I'd try to tell them, they didn't seem to
> care or didn't
> believe me.

Ouch. And remember that the people who didn't care/believe  
now run the system (both as teachers and administrators).

I've got a sister-in-law, recently retired from elementary  
education who might conceivably enjoy analyzing this group  
to scaring the parents in this group with war stories.

I've got an acquaintance who taught in a rough school years  
ago. The students didn't much bother her - the staff did  
(this in a school which had their homicides make the  
national news about 1991).

FWIW, and knowing that little has changed in the past 150  
years (perhaps longer) in the general school environment,  
it is amazing to realize how pathetic schooling is, until  
compared to the situation of no schooling.