nendil | I fear for the future of education.

Disclaimer: No personal hard feelings in the below post, except towards those responsible for the current state of "education" as shown.

An acquaintance has been asking me to help edit her college essay. Her writing is not... the best, for a 12th grader. Sad, but not anything I haven't seen before, especially online.

However, what's far more horrifying is where she's getting it from--or rather, NOT getting it from.

Her: hi
Me: Hi.
Her: my teacher corrected my essay and she didnt' say very much about grammer
Her: but my friends are correcting and they said a lot
Her: who should i trust?
Me: Um, grammar is important...
Her: yeah

She had a lot of grammar mistakes. Not just anal technical issues that can be overlooked in the face of other storytelling issues, either. If they're not corrected, her essay WILL be shot down in flames.

Me: What did your teacher say about the essay, then, if not grammar?
Her: she put in some words
Me: Like, single words? That's it?
Her: but for example when diff. people talk, i put into a new paragraph
Her: and she told me no too.
Her: i'm confused

She has quite a bit of dialogue in her essay, and they run into each other sometimes, which I pointed out. Since when did it become NOT the solid rule to put a new speaker into a new paragraph?

Me: To be blunt: Your teacher is not helpful at all.
Me: Wait, that's not blunt. Blunt: Your teacher doesn't know what she's talking about.
Her: ouch
Her: ouch! major ouch

Actually, to truly state my feelings bluntly would involve swear words, and it doesn't seem like she would've liked handling that. XP

Me: So she just told you to add some words?
Her: to rework the climax and make the font bold or with
Her: stars
Me: This IS the English teacher, right? ;D
Her: and gramattically i can do the 1st person to 3rd person jump
Her: AP LIT. teacher
Me: Oh my god.

The beginning and end of her essay are set off with scenes from "the present", while the main body is a flashback. I suggested she mark the offset with italics instead of bold text. Also, there are abrupt switches between first and third person narrative with no indication that the two perspectives are related. Maybe it's doable in certain literature, but in a college essay the reader needs to know he's reading about YOU.

She's applying to my school, among her choices. If she gets accepted (or better yet, if she gets into the school I was rejected from), I will laugh SO hard.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That is very ... well sad, for lack of stronger words. I don't think I'm supposed to cuss on this thing ... but if I could I would use them to my best advantage. This person sounds like...well no offense but she sounds like a total ditz. And if that isn't bad enough, the teacher sounds like she/he shouldn't be teaching, if ANYTHING. Bad choice of profession. That would make me ... quite frustrated ... but it's a good thing you could laugh about that. Have to go make life happy. You continue correcting some ... unintelligent ... girl's essays and try not to get frustrated. And btw ... I love your artwork. ;) Ciao.

Yeah, the girl is a bit... er... clueless at times... but I've seen worse in this day and age. It's the teachers who are much, much more to blame.

Thanks for your comments. =) But... who are you?

Well, I must say... that teacher... just makes me shake my head and wonder. How on Earth did she get a teaching degree?!

Unfortunately, I know a lot of teachers like that. I come from a rural community, and to tell the truth... the English department in our school sucks. My seventh grade year, we had a woman who was in her eighties and hadn't changed her teaching style in thirty years, nor corrected papers properly. Needless to say, no one learned ANYTHING in that class. (Ironic, because I started WRITING in the middle of that year. -sweat- I think it's because she made us write compositions that she never corrected...)

Ah, I digress. Anyway, after that year, I got bumped into our advanced English program, which may well have saved my future. I have a brother who wasn't so lucky. Our advanced English program is a new thing; it's only about two years old. Something you have to understand about my brother... he's not stupid, at least he wasn't until he hit high-school and the worst teacher I have ever known. The average-level English teacher in our highschool... doesn't teach a thing, not even the parts of speach, not even spelling, not even vocabulary. They read three books a year in that class, at the very best, and I believe this year... they 'read' Lord of the Rings on audio book, with him stopping the tape every two minutes to dumb it down. I don't think they were even required to write anything or analyze any part of the story. I honestly have know idea how the man grades.

But back on the point... My brother wasn't a horrible writer, per se, before he got into that man's class. For two years, he sat and learned nothing, and you can tell it now--I correct his papers, I would know. Just to clarify, if it's not crystal yet... I'm three years younger than my brother, who is starting college this fall. I hate to think of what he's going to have to do just to get his papers to a passable level before then...

Oh yeah, I know well the impact of a bad teacher. I used to win math competitions in junior high and early high school, and had fun doing it too. And then I took AP Calculus.

I had had that teacher two years ago, but I didn't realize previously just how un-teacherly he was... or maybe he just seriously degraded in those two years. (Apparently a year or two later, he just up and ran off or quit shortly before term was about to start with no notice, giving the school quite a headache. But I digress.) I was the TA for him as well as being in the class, which gave me much insight into his "teaching" methods. He didn't bother grading anything - had the TAs do it all - and stole/ripped off everything he used: tests, recommendation letters, housing leases... Yes, I know because I was the one to edit/type up all of those documents. Since he didn't bother putting any effort into his lectures (made mistakes all the time), we didn't bother putting effort into listening.

Well, somehow I passed the AP test with 5's in Calc, but that class totally killed any mathematical aptitude I had. I seriously have not wanted to spend my brain power on anything new in math since that year of high school. Algebra and geometry are still fun, but anything beyond calculus just hits a dead block in my mind. It might have been a combination of the subject and other things, but the teacher definitely didn't help me any.

Now, if I could have had such an unfortunate experience at my school, which was among top ranks in the nation and ultra-competitive... well, it goes without saying. And I think English skills are much more important than calculus, yet standards for English ability just seems to be sinking lower everyday.

Oh well, it'll be all I can do to instill good grammar and spelling habits into my own brother... he needs work but I think there's still hope for him yet, at 11 years old.

We're lucky. Our math teachers aren't too terribly bad, in fact, the higher-level one is downright good. But the lower one... well, just blah.

I can't say I really have a preference as to which is more important, however, it does seem that if you're a native English-speaker... you ought to be able to speak the language, for heaven's sakes...!

... XD He's only eleven and you're already worried? Well, good luck...! XD

I fear for the future of education.

Can I agree with that?

Re: Can I agree with that?

The sad thing is... it's common.

Re: The sad thing is... it's common.

Re: The sad thing is... it's common.