Re: re Michael Kane's note on GI

[Drnanjo]

Hello -

What I was trying to convey is NOT that, a year or two before it dawns on the
students and the teachers that the SAT is looming large, a concerted effort
is made to thoroughly rehearse test taking skills that are relevant to taking
the test. (This is like panicking when one realizes that an major assignment
is due in one day and has not been though about at all.)

Rather what I was suggesting is that much, much earlier in our children's
education, every school could make a better effort at teaching them to be
active thinkers and reasoners.  These things would if taught properly have
more staying power than the large volume of facts that we try to cram into
students' heads instead and also be more useful in the long run.

But unfortunately our schools/teachers, and therefore our students, take a
rather passive role in all this.  When I have to repeatedly explain to
college students that writing a research paper is an appropriate assignment
for a lower division course, I have to start wondering what is happening to
our conception of education.  It seems to me that anything requiring planning
and forethought takes a backseat to memorization and regurgitation.  These
students are kind of like the rats in the learned helplessness experiments.  
They view their role as standing around and waiting for the shocks (a series
of scantron-based tests) and don't perceive themselves as needing to take
charge of their own learning at all.

OK, well that's enough ranting for this AM.  Hope you all have a grand
weekend.

Nancy Melucci
East Los Angeles College