To: 
From: "Vern Humphrey" 
Reply-To: r_catholic-l{at}yahoogroups.com

To: goffscalif{at}aol.com [mailto:goffscalif{at}aol.com]
>
>
> I feel best about myself - though I don't measure myself by
> fallible, fickle
> emotional states - when I've set  out to do something, and have
> done it to the
> best of my ability.

You may be on to something there.

>I don't feel good about myself when someone gives me
> something I don't deserve just to boost my self-esteem.  If I
> actually did walk
> 16 miles in a day (as I've actually done many times, and I've
> done more, too),
> I feel good about it, and enjoyed the walk too.  But if someone
> treats me as
> though I'd walked 16 miles, when in fact I sat down after five,
> I'm going to
> feel like a cheat.

And our school system is built on exactly the reverse of that principle --
that we reward those who haven't won the race or walked the course.  And in
later life, when they run up against the real problems and challenges all
adults must face, they don't know how to respond.
>
> Kids will have great self-esteem if they meet challenging goals.
> If you give
> 'em everything, they just turn into spoiled, arrogant brats.

True.
>
> As for "creative writing," IMO that's overrated.  Some have the
> talent for
> creative writing, whether fiction, poetry, history, whatever.
> But *everyone*
> can learn to write competently, and *tghat* is what schools ought
> to teach.
> We've got college graduates these days who can't construct a
> coherent sentence;
> one wonders how they ever got their degree.
>
I once said we could judge a student's writing with a computer.  A teacher
objected "Only a human being can judge creativity!"

My response was "Only a human being could paint the Mona Lisa.  But
not EVERY human could."

I had to explain that one in detail -- that most teachers CAN'T judge
creativity, and that most students can learn craftsmanship (which is a
prerequsite to real creativity), and craftsmanship can be judged by a
computer.


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