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More education Nonsense
Still got a lot to say about the educational system in this country and why it is such a failure. Time to touch on a few more problems that never seem to go away. Being raised and schooled in the fities and sixties I really come from a few different generations. Then you were either seated in a classroom by the first letter of your last name or given the choice of picking a certain seat you kept all year. What does this have to do with learning in the classroom. A lot really but ask a newbie in education and he or she will come up with a long winded answer that doesn't answer the question.
I was to say the least one of the children the teachers did not hold in high esteem for any reason. In short I was trouble in the small town I was raised in. Knew the inside of the city jail before I was twelve and skipped more school than I went. Loved fishing and swimming and so did a few of my buddies. Not real trouble makers just didn't give a damn about school.
The first day of school if given the opportunity I headed for the back of the classroom to the last seat in a roll and if I was forced to be seated by my last name hoped it worked out I was in the back. Why would I do that? Simple I didn't have to learn, Teachers like to teach to the best and the closest. They did then and they still do today. Reasonable assumption to make? Yep I lived it then and I saw it everyday in the classroom when I taught not only in my classrooms but during the times I spent subbing for other teachers.
Little things like this that add up for a classroom of different personalities and students with more personal problems than we ever imagined. Classrooms today still operate under the same dynamics as thirty, forty or fifty years ago. Teachers teach and pander to no more than 30 to 40% of the students and the rest are left to handle learning on their own. The higher level student,or the afluent students are given first consideration in personal attention. A classroom has a social structure built into it by the students who occupy it.
There are a few special classrooms which everyone is ready to point out but all classrooms should be compatible or close. The structure is based on three levels. The back third of the classroom which includes the jocks, the kids who now don't have a clue and just want to suvive and the hoodlums the school would love to kick out but can't. Then there is the middle third sitting in the middle of the classroom simply because the afore mentioned group rooted them out of the back of the room. Shy, inverted students who have taken the art of becoming invisible to a new high. Decent grades because most have parents who care just a little, not a lot but some.
Finally we have the front third of the classroom where the cream of the crop are setting. High achievers who know more ways to kiss up to a teacher that most grown ups know how to ask for a raise in their jobs. Good students simply because their parents are either teachers, professionals or at least rich. Makes a good combination when trying to fund activities for the classroom or the school.
A lot more could be said on the subject but later for that. To close I have to mention a college professor I had who taught drafting in Tech E. The man was hated by everyone including other teachers, administration and all the students, the only people on campus who liked the guy were the female students but he did try to stay with graduate female students. He never met a person he liked or allowed them to get anything over on him. When you walked into his classroom you sat down and prepared to work. You never knew when he was going to come up with something that was going to throw you off balance whether it was to set there the entire class and not speak or make everyone change places once the bell had rang, if you were setting in the back you came to the front. You never ever took a change on setting in the same seat two days in a roll. Still at this time I can say I learned more from the man and respect him more than any teacher I sat in front of. Odd isn't is.