Virtual cruising

[rkacruiser]

Just now, lenquixote66 said:

She is 60 years old,really hard to believe.

 

Yes!  There is a book that was required reading when I was in college attending an American History class.  It was called Only Yesterday.  An excellent book, but it's title and the author's message has become increasingly meaningful to me as the years have gone by.  

[lenquixote66]

2 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Yes!  There is a book that was required reading when I was in college attending an American History class.  It was called Only Yesterday.  An excellent book, but it's title and the author's message has become increasingly meaningful to me as the years have gone by.  

The only required book that I remember from college was by C.Wright Mills,The Power Elite.I never heard of the book you cited.

[rkacruiser]

On 9/21/2020 at 8:11 PM, lenquixote66 said:

The only required book that I remember from college was by C.Wright Mills,The Power Elite.I never heard of the book you cited.

 

I regret not having the textbooks and the other material that I used during my undergraduate and graduate years in school.  

[lenquixote66]

13 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

I regret not having the textbooks and the other material that I used during my undergraduate and graduate years in school.  

I have one paperback novel that I read in HS and several books from college.I also have every post card that I received with a grade of A.I cannot recall why the colleges I attended sent grades in the mail.

[rkacruiser]

On 9/23/2020 at 8:24 PM, lenquixote66 said:

On 9/23/2020 at 8:24 PM, lenquixote66 said:

I also have every post card that I received with a grade of A.I cannot recall why the colleges I attended sent grades in the mail.

 

 

Where I attended college, if we wanted to know our course grade before the official grade report was sent by the Registrar's Office, we would give a self-addressed postcard to our Professors and they would send us the grade.  These postcards would arrive several days before the official grade report would arrive.

 

As an 18-21 year old, those days were stressful days!  

[lenquixote66]

48 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Where I attended college, if we wanted to know our course grade before the official grade report was sent by the Registrar's Office, we would give a self-addressed postcard to our Professors and they would send us the grade.  These postcards would arrive several days before the official grade report would arrive.

 

As an 18-21 year old, those days were stressful days!  

That may have been what it was but it has been so,long I just cannot remember.I agree that college was very stressful at least the first 2 years.

[lenquixote66]

15 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Where I attended college, if we wanted to know our course grade before the official grade report was sent by the Registrar's Office, we would give a self-addressed postcard to our Professors and they would send us the grade.  These postcards would arrive several days before the official grade report would arrive.

 

As an 18-21 year old, those days were stressful days!  

I have to amend my response.I thought there would be an edit option but for some reason there is not.Even though we were in college in different states we were in attendance during the same years.Therefore,I believe that I gave a self-addressed postcard tin my professors.

[ilikeanswers]

11 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

I thought there would be an edit option but for some reason there is not.

 

The Edit option only lasts for 15 minutes after posting. Then it disappears. 

[lenquixote66]

1 hour ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

The Edit option only lasts for 15 minutes after posting. Then it disappears. 

Thanks,I did not know that.

[rkacruiser]

23 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

I agree that college was very stressful at least the first 2 years.

 

It was for me as well.  Needed to maintain the GPA to keep my financial aid.  Year 3 was less stressful, yet....  Year 4 was my best.  I ended my last term being on the Dean's List for that term.  Neither my first Freshman's term results nor my SAT score would have predicted that.  Entering Graduate School and graduating with a Master's Degree, while it was not a "piece of cake", those studies/work did not produce the stress that I experienced during my undergraduate years.

 

I have reflected on this for quite some time.  I have concluded that while I had a very good 1st Grade-12 education (a Kindergarten level did not exist in my community at that time), it took me some time to learn "how to learn" when I was an undergraduate.  

 

During my career, I have had the responsibility of hosting/supervising several student teachers.  Several have asked me after they have observed me of doing/saying/handling a classroom situation, etc.:  "how did you know to do/say that"?  My consistent response always was:  "I don''t know."  I think back to the time when I "learned how to learn".  I don't know now how I did that then.  I think that applied when I entered my profession.     

[lenquixote66]

1 minute ago, rkacruiser said:

 

It was for me as well.  Needed to maintain the GPA to keep my financial aid.  Year 3 was less stressful, yet....  Year 4 was my best.  I ended my last term being on the Dean's List for that term.  Neither my first Freshman's term results nor my SAT score would have predicted that.  Entering Graduate School and graduating with a Master's Degree, while it was not a "piece of cake", those studies/work did not produce the stress that I experienced during my undergraduate years.

 

I have reflected on this for quite some time.  I have concluded that while I had a very good 1st Grade-12 education (a Kindergarten level did not exist in my community at that time), it took me some time to learn "how to learn" when I was an undergraduate.  

 

During my career, I have had the responsibility of hosting/supervising several student teachers.  Several have asked me after they have observed me of doing/saying/handling a classroom situation, etc.:  "how did you know to do/say that"?  My consistent response always was:  "I don''t know."  I think back to the time when I "learned how to learn".  I don't know now how I did that then.  I think that applied when I entered my profession.     

My GPA was 3.59.Prior to taking the GRE I studied harder than for any exam.I hoped to do well and surprisingly I only had one wrong answer.The college I graduated wanted me to pursue my Masters there and I would have except that a favorite teacher of mine in HS was teaching graduate level courses and another college.I applied was excepted and I was thrilled to be reunited with him.

[rkacruiser]

19 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

Prior to taking the GRE I studied harder than for any exam.I hoped to do well and surprisingly I only had one wrong answer

 

My gosh!  The GRE!  I had forgotten that potential hurdle.  I don't have any memory of what my score was on that exam, but I am certain that I had more than one wrong answer!  I do recall that whatever score I had on the GRE was better than my SAT or ACT scores.  

 

 

[lenquixote66]

35 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

My gosh!  The GRE!  I had forgotten that potential hurdle.  I don't have any memory of what my score was on that exam, but I am certain that I had more than one wrong answer!  I do recall that whatever score I had on the GRE was better than my SAT or ACT scores.  

 

 

I only took the SAT .I do not recall my scores.

[rkacruiser]

1 hour ago, lenquixote66 said:

I only took the SAT .I do not recall my scores.

 

I don't recall my exact scores, but they were not encouraging.  

 

As an educator, partly because of my own experience with testing, the recent trend for "testing" to determine the quality of a school district, etc. is invalid data.  Use the data as an indicator?  OK.  Reasons to work towards trying to make improvements?  OK.  

 

It's the individuals who are taking the tests who need to look at their test results and decide:  do I want to spend my life selling apples on a street corner or flipping burgers at McDonald's?  Or do I aspire for a better life than that if their test scores are discouraging?  

[lenquixote66]

37 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

I don't recall my exact scores, but they were not encouraging.  

 

As an educator, partly because of my own experience with testing, the recent trend for "testing" to determine the quality of a school district, etc. is invalid data.  Use the data as an indicator?  OK.  Reasons to work towards trying to make improvements?  OK.  

 

It's the individuals who are taking the tests who need to look at their test results and decide:  do I want to spend my life selling apples on a street corner or flipping burgers at McDonald's?  Or do I aspire for a better life than that if their test scores are discouraging?  

I understand what you are saying.I have 2 daughters who are school teachers.

[ldubs]

5 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

As an educator, partly because of my own experience with testing, the recent trend for "testing" to determine the quality of a school district, etc. is invalid data. 

 

Measurable performance standards usually mean improved results.  Those who are measured usually do not like them.   I don't understand why test results would be an invalid measure.    

[cruisemom42]

13 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

As an educator, partly because of my own experience with testing, the recent trend for "testing" to determine the quality of a school district, etc. is invalid data.  Use the data as an indicator?  OK.  Reasons to work towards trying to make improvements?  OK.  

 

It's the individuals who are taking the tests who need to look at their test results and decide:  do I want to spend my life selling apples on a street corner or flipping burgers at McDonald's?  Or do I aspire for a better life than that if their test scores are discouraging?  

 

So are you suggesting that states with endemically low test scores are full of less intelligent and/or less motivated students who only aspire to earn minimum wage?

 

[ilikeanswers]

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

So are you suggesting that states with endemically low test scores are full of less intelligent and/or less motivated students who only aspire to earn minimum wage?

 

I can only speak from an Australian perspective but the issues are really varied. You can have social and family issues, somethimes it can be as simple as no quiet place to study especialy in large multigenrational families who are squished in small flats. Then there are undiagnosed learning disabilites and even if diagnosed most school don't have any resources to assist the students. Sub standard teachers (I admire teachers but there are people who really shouldn't be in the proffession) which is a big issue in outback areas and something state governments are trying to fix with programs to encourage those at the top of the class to go outback. In communities with large immigrant populations you obviously have the language problem but also if you have refugees it is not uncommon to have PTSD issues which lets face it not many schools are equipped to deal with. Of course there is also the unequal funding issues. We have some schools that get government funding for their second pool while others who can't get funding to get their broken computers replaced. There are so many other reasons I haven't touched on but I guess if there is one thing I have learnt is every school's issues are individual so governments trying to standardize them isn't helping🙄.

Edited September 27, 2020 by ilikeanswers

[donaldsc]

On 9/25/2020 at 8:53 AM, lenquixote66 said:

I have to amend my response.I thought there would be an edit option but for some reason there is not.Even though we were in college in different states we were in attendance during the same years.Therefore,I believe that I gave a self-addressed postcard tin my professors.

 

Note to Moderator - how did a post on virtual cruising morph into a discussion of SAT scores?

[lenquixote66]

2 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

 

Note to Moderator - how did a post on virtual cruising morph into a discussion of SAT scores?

Note to the Las Vegas gentleman. If you check every thread since the pandemic began you will find hundreds of threads that morphed into other subjects. Most of those continue whereas this one about SAT scores has ended.

😀

[rkacruiser]

9 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

So are you suggesting that states with endemically low test scores are full of less intelligent and/or less motivated students who only aspire to earn minimum wage?

 

 

No, I am not.  Please consider the following two posts.  They are well stated and expresses my experiences and my opinions quite well.

 

7 hours ago, ilikeanswers said:

I have learnt is every school's issues are individual so governments trying to standardize them isn't helping🙄.

 

Children don't come to us in a standardized form.  Those who enact "laws" and "regulations" impacting the education of our children do so mostly, I hope, for improving the education the children receive.  There are unintended consequences for many "laws and "regulations" that are enacted.  Too slowly, in my opinion, do such consequences become recognized and admitted that then would lead to a different course of action.

 

There is a parallel here, I think, between the current pandemic crisis and the issues in the field of education.  Does one believe the scientific professionals?  Or not?  Does one believe the educational professionals?  Or not?  

 

  

7 hours ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

7 hours ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

I can only speak from an Australian perspective but the issues are really varied. You can have social and family issues, somethimes it can be as simple as no quiet place to study especialy in large multigenrational families who are squished in small flats. Then there are undiagnosed learning disabilites and even if diagnosed most school don't have any resources to assist the students. Sub standard teachers (I admire teachers but there are people who really shouldn't be in the proffession) which is a big issue in outback areas and something state governments are trying to fix with programs to encourage those at the top of the class to go outback. In communities with large immigrant populations you obviously have the language problem but also if you have refugees it is not uncommon to have PTSD issues which lets face it not many schools are equipped to deal with. Of course there is also the unequal funding issues. We have some schools that get government funding for their second pool while others who can't get funding to get their broken computers replaced. There are so many other reasons I haven't touched on but I guess if there is one thing I have learnt is every school's issues are individual so governments trying to standardize them isn't helping🙄.

 

I so agree with your post!  I have taught students who were blind, who suffered terrible birth defects that impaired their normal function, so many, many from dysfunctional homes, some whose mental capacities were lacking due to no fault of their own, some whose native language was not English, some early adolescents whose knowledge of basic personal hygiene was lacking as well as what to do about it.

 

Stringent governmental "rules" do nothing to solve the "HUMAN" issue that is at the root of schools who test poorly.    

[cruisemom42]

1 hour ago, rkacruiser said:

 

No, I am not.  Please consider the following two posts.  They are well stated and expresses my experiences and my opinions quite well.

 

 

 

 

Forgive me. I don't mean to make light of a very complex system. After careful reading I think the point you were making is different from the one I jumped to...  IMHO, testing does help to highlight flaws in the system.

 

My mother was an elementary school teacher who taught in one of the best school districts (Ithaca NY) followed by one of the worst (rural Georgia), where even back in the 1970s classrooms were too overcrowded (she often had 35-40 first graders, of extremely varying ability, with no aide, assistant, or call-outs for one-on-one or special help). And then integration happened -- schools even more crowded, she had children who'd never had an indoor toilet. Most had no kindergarten either. In the 1970s!

 

She tried hard, but she wasn't blind to the failures in the system. There was one, another first grade teacher, who thought nothing of yelling at her students for 20-30 minute stretches -- you could hear her all the way down the hall. Paddling was quite common for her as well. Often she'd tell her kids to put their heads down on their desks and be quiet because she had a headache.  The principal, another failure, was an alcoholic who had affairs with other teachers. My mother kept teaching in public school there only long enough to get me through elementary school (the principal promised her he would assign me the "best" teacher in each grade level if she stayed...) During that period she was threatened several times when she refused to advance students who could not do first-grade work to the next grade level.

 

In high school, when I was supposed to be learning Trigonometry, there were no teachers who could teach the subject. Every day the "lead" math teacher would just allow in-class discussion of whatever current events students wanted to talk about. She'd assign homework from the textbook that was never checked, and tests were graded on an extreme curve. Suffice to say I suffered when I entered a rigorous university.

 

I also live in Atlanta, home a few years back of the huge cheating scandal in the major metro public school system:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_Public_Schools_cheating_scandal#:~:text=The Atlanta Public Schools cheating,subsequent trial in 2014–2015.

 

So no, children aren't "standardized" -- but I do think we need some way of measuring their progress CONSISTENTLY and not simply -- or perhaps it would be better to say not ONLY -- in the opinion of their teacher.

[rkacruiser]

23 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

So no, children aren't "standardized" -- but I do think we need some way of measuring their progress CONSISTENTLY

 

Agree.  What we are currently doing in the USA doesn't meet what is needed.  

 

23 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

I was supposed to be learning Trigonometry, there were no teachers who could teach the subject.

 

Freshman Algebra was my experience with a teacher who "supposedly" knew his discipline".  

 

23 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

Every day the "lead" math teacher would just allow in-class discussion of whatever current events students wanted to talk about. 

 

My most vivid memory of that Algebra class was at the start of the school year.  The most important classes during that Fall did not concern helping me learn the basics of Algebra.  It was who was going to win the World Series that year.  This is no exaggeration:  I "paid" for such a poor math education when I entered college and became a science major.  

 

 

23 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

23 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

- you could hear her all the way down the hall. Paddling was quite common for her as well

 

 

 

An interesting encounter that I have had with a former student who said that he remembered the time that I paddled him.  I NEVER paddled a student.  There are better ways of correcting the behavior of an early adolescent.  I did witness the paddling of students that another teacher did.  This is what this gentleman must remember.  If so, yes, I was present because I was required to do so.  

 

(I must say that the behavior in all of our classes in the hall in which it occurred did improve immediately, however.)  

[lenquixote66]

On 9/27/2020 at 8:10 PM, cruisemom42 said:

 

Forgive me. I don't mean to make light of a very complex system. After careful reading I think the point you were making is different from the one I jumped to...  IMHO, testing does help to highlight flaws in the system.

 

My mother was an elementary school teacher who taught in one of the best school districts (Ithaca NY) followed by one of the worst (rural Georgia), where even back in the 1970s classrooms were too overcrowded (she often had 35-40 first graders, of extremely varying ability, with no aide, assistant, or call-outs for one-on-one or special help). And then integration happened -- schools even more crowded, she had children who'd never had an indoor toilet. Most had no kindergarten either. In the 1970s!

 

She tried hard, but she wasn't blind to the failures in the system. There was one, another first grade teacher, who thought nothing of yelling at her students for 20-30 minute stretches -- you could hear her all the way down the hall. Paddling was quite common for her as well. Often she'd tell her kids to put their heads down on their desks and be quiet because she had a headache.  The principal, another failure, was an alcoholic who had affairs with other teachers. My mother kept teaching in public school there only long enough to get me through elementary school (the principal promised her he would assign me the "best" teacher in each grade level if she stayed...) During that period she was threatened several times when she refused to advance students who could not do first-grade work to the next grade level.

 

In high school, when I was supposed to be learning Trigonometry, there were no teachers who could teach the subject. Every day the "lead" math teacher would just allow in-class discussion of whatever current events students wanted to talk about. She'd assign homework from the textbook that was never checked, and tests were graded on an extreme curve. Suffice to say I suffered when I entered a rigorous university.

 

I also live in Atlanta, home a few years back of the huge cheating scandal in the major metro public school system:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_Public_Schools_cheating_scandal#:~:text=The Atlanta Public Schools cheating,subsequent trial in 2014–2015.

 

So no, children aren't "standardized" -- but I do think we need some way of measuring their progress CONSISTENTLY and not simply -- or perhaps it would be better to say not ONLY -- in the opinion of their teacher.

I watched a few minutes of the new Fargo show.A teacher in 1950 was holding a paddle.

[cruisemom42]

3 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

I watched a few minutes of the new Fargo show.A teacher in 1950 was holding a paddle.

 

I'm not talking about the 1950s, I'm talking about the 1970s. We knew better by then. It was not allowed in the previous two school districts where she had taught.