SK> There is a problem all too prevalent in our society today to place b
SK> anywhere but on the student. I don't know why or when holding the
SK> student accountable for his own performance went out of style, but i
            ^^^^^^^^^^^
 
Sometimes I wonder if this word is in many students vocabulary these 
days.  On a grand scale I would tend to think that we don't hold people 
(in general) *as* accountable for their actions/behaviors anymore.
The concept of personal accountability and responsibility needs to be 
taught, nutured and developed at home with positive reinforcement 
coming from school, work and society in general.  The student has but 
to look around and see that it's not happening so why should they break 
the mold? (of course there are only *good* reasons why, but getting 
that through to the student is the challenge)
 
SK> sure didn't do the student any good. He found out that he could be
SK> careless, put in minimal (or no) effort, produce shoddy work, and bl
SK> someone else (schools, teachers, society, etc...). Result: many stud
SK> don't try their best in school. Then the schools get blamed if they 
SK> too many low grades, so sometimes the students are given passing gra
SK> in spite of poor performance.
 
True, rewarded behavior is repeated behavior :(  It reminds me of the 
scenario where an entire class fails an exam and immediately it's the 
teacher's problem for administering too difficult of a test.  While 
that may in fact be one of the possible issues, it tends to cloud over 
the other possibilities.  I saw this with my parents and I see it 
happening with me, I shake my head sometimes when I see the level of 
effort/work required in some of my kids classes -- I wish I'd had it so 
"easy" as a student.  I used to think it was just my parents laying 
that "I had to walk 5 miles in the snow, uphill both ways..." speech on 
me to sufficiently humble me into applying myself to my studies lest I 
enjoy myself or something.  When in actuality, they were held to 
tougher standards, and I believe I was held to tougher standards in 
many cases than my kids are now in *some* of their classrooms.  The 
standards don't need to be static, but they should be realistic to 
prepare the student for the "real world" and to be a contributing 
member of society.
 
SK> Exactly. However, I think that there may be the possibility that the
SK> employer would think that the high school diploma would  certify cer
SK> minimal skills. In theory, I agree that it should. But from what I r
SK> I'm not so certain this is reliable, and perhaps checking the
SK> transcripts should be done.
 
I think we expect that basic level of skills, but it may not be as safe 
to count on it as it used to be [truly a shame if that is really the 
case]
 
SK> Short and slick, eh? I guess that is what one might expect from a
SK> business leaders group. :-{
 
Yes, well marketing is part of the process.
  
SK> someone actually went out and ordered one of those reports as a resu
SK> of my cross-posting from the DRC. It's the first time anyone has
SK> publicly so stated, anyway. I've thought about it a number of times,
SK> but...)
 
Oh yes, I'm finding this echo very enjoyable from that standpoint. I've 
ordered a few things already...that MetLife survey on the American 
Teacher came in last week (kinda ho-hum though after reading some of 
it) This gives me the opportunity to exercise my grey matter a little 
;)  I read some abstracts of Ed Ford's books last night based on a 
thread I've been involved in with Leona Payne. The abstracts were 
pulled off the web and interested me enough to head to the library to 
get his books.  It's just an effort in balancing the time, but this 
slides into the professional development category, and I try to give 
myself a fair amount of time each day/week to focus on that.
 
Thanks
 
Dale
--- TriDog 10.0
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