D. Angus Vail wrote:
Hi, Sarah and other dear teachers.
I don't know how many of you know this about me, but I'm sure I've
mentioned it before; I am dislexic and I have ADD. I take Ritalin
about every two hours during the work day. Also, my mother was a
learning specialist. I end up referring, on average 2 or 3 students
per semester for testing and many of them are juniors and seniors.
When I notice red flags--given my background, I'm pretty good at
detecting them where others
I have talked to faculty at all levels and they all claim that students
are not well prepared. There are terms such as HOT, random abstract
thinking and critical thinking. In most cases I expect that those who
use these terms do not fully understand what is missing. I think that
one element is curiosity. however, since most of our education is based
on students learning to adopt. There is little interest in testing
theory. and some of us a proud of not testing theory. Most exams do
not allow students to show that they have learned, only what they have
adopted.
So in the bigger picture we are cheating the students as much as they
are. For example, many schools require students to come back and pay
for a 5th year to take courses that should have been available to them
during the freshman and sophamore years. What about text book prices
and class size? I had a professor in my undergraduate school who used
the N word on a grgular basis.
Del
