On Fri, 21 Feb 2003, James D.Dougan wrote:
> Louis,
>
> Having thought about this a little more, I need to add something....
>
> This reminds me of one of those "Geography Surveys" we see
> occasionally, You know, the "85 percent of highschool students couldn't
> find Africa on a map..." type of thing. When I see those, I just have to
> shake my head - how can that possibly be.....even though I know from
> experience that the reports are true...
Well, students don't come out from the womb knowing where Africa is
located. So, shake your head at their education, but you shouldn't place
the onus on them.
>
> Most of the bloopers we see here on TIPs are NOT of this sort - they are
> typically humorous malapropisms - funny, but not really indicative of
> tremendous educational failures....
As the Talmud says, we don't see things as they are; we see things as we
are.
>
> My blooper was no malapropism - it was a failure to put a few facts
> together and see a simple and obvious conclusion i.e., the golden age of
> Greece started 500 or so years before Christ, Protestantism is a Christian
> religion, hence the protestant reformation could not have influenced the
> golden age of Greece. I guess I am just amazed that the students didn't
> see this, the same way I am amazed that students can't find Africa on a map.
In a similar vein, you may know the difference between Greece's Golden Age
and the Renaissance and the Reformation, but that may not be necessarily
so with students if they haven't been taught them in their HS classes.
>
> Perhaps you think I am being too hard on the students - that they shouldn't
> have been expected to figure this out - but these are students at a highly
> selective private college - I really do expect they should know more.
>
> What is worse, I know exactly how they made the mistake. I lectured that
> the golden age of Greece was much like the Renaissance - influenced in part
> by the decline of traditional religions much in the way the renaissance was
> influenced by the decline in power of the Catholic church brought on by the
> reformation. Obviously, they got confused - but the fact they were unable
> to see the obvious falsehood of what they wrote still amazes me....
Ah, so often when we lecture, we fall into the author's "oh, you know what
I mean" trap. Many is the time I and my Susan nearly got divorced when
she edited my stuff. She would ask, "What does this mean?" And, when I
explained, she'd say, "That's not what you said." I would retort, "Yes,
I did...." That night we would have a "mattress chasm." Next day, after
a bit of humbling, I go back and re-write it.
Make it a good day.
--Louis--
Louis Schmier www.therandomthoughts.com
Department of History www.halcyon.com/arborhts/louis.html
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, GA 31698 /~\ /\ /\
229-333-5947 /^\ / \ / /~\ \ /~\__/\
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