Re: Insight please...
Brendan McKennedy (suburbantourist@hotmail.com)
Fri, 17 Apr 1998 21:34:17 -0700 (PDT)
...maybe students who think
>they can wait for good teachers may never learn to accept
responsisiblity
>for their own learning progress--I Hope Mr. Chinda at least finds some
>good learning on this list, will
>
>ps: hint:good students make a teacher improve...
>
So the students don't take responsibility, and the teachers don't take
responsibility, and we're left with this ridiculous ennui. As a
professor, Will--and, if your contribution to this list is any
indication, a damn good professor--it may be easier than you think to
lay the burden of effort on the shoulders of the students. I won't deny
you that most of the weight *does* belong there. But as a 20-yr-old who
is still wiping his feet of high school, I can tell you that, while it
shouldn't take a good teacher to motivate a student, it's terribly easy
for a bad teacher to ruin a student's motivation.
I barely passed high school myself; we're talking a matter of three
percentage points on a final exam. Since I've been in college, though,
the teachers have made all the difference. I take credit for my former
indolence, but I can also tell you that I excelled in the few h.s.
classes where the teacher took some interest in helping his/her
students' learning experiences.
The problem with school is that you have teachers *and* students, and a
good education is a joint effort. When one lags, the other must lag as
well.
Brendan
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