"Agree" or "Disagree"

In my classroom world - - -

Today I gave my students five articles for their next project. They are required to read them, find the main point, analyze the message, and then write an "agree" or "disagree" thesis statement as if they were going to write their own position essay about each article. They must also create their three subpoints that will support their position. So, together in the classroom we read aloud three of the articles. They will read the other two on their own and hopefully re-read all of them again.

"The Final Grade" is written by a professor in Atlanta who tells the story of 10% of his engineering students asking at the end of the semester to have their grade changed to a better one. They admit they haven't earned the grade, they just want it so as not to lose their scholarship or flunk out, or whatever. He's appalled and gives stories of what happens when a person is granted an engineering degree, but does not have the know how . . . horrible accidents with bridges and buildings and you name it.

Another article, "In Praise of the F Word," is penned by a woman who writes that she is a teacher in an adult literacy program. She calls it an "educational repair shop." She claims that the educational system cheats students who are passed when they should be failed. She claims, "passing kids who haven't learned the material--while it might save them for the short term--dooms them to long-term illiteracy." Her main point is not to flunk students, but to threaten them with failure, so they will get motivated -- hence the title of her article.

So my students are looking for the main point , while I am hoping they get the point.

Last week my basic writing students wrote an in-class essay. The percentage of students who didn't even prepare and wrote dreadful essays is appalling, so are the grades on their essays. The students who prepared, though, wrote well! And that's exciting.

So after watching cement guys last Friday morning working with their hands and their backs--with skill, craftmanship, and pride, I am doing a compare and contrast in my mind wondering what in the world is happening with young people who sit in classes loathing education.

I appreciate ~~samiam's comment on my cement blip.
(She's another blipping professor.) She wrote:

"Ah--Have you read the book "Shop Class as Soulcraft"? It's about a PhD who decides to drop out of the "biz" and open his own motorcycle repair shop. It's really about the different kinds of intelligences and the changes in American culture that have led to the disappearance of shop class and the devaluing of anything that is done with the hands. I've been saying now for years, that our insistence that everyone should become part of the brain trust is insane. Many of my students do not want to be in college. And yet, their parents and society have set it up so that they must. I think it's led to the dumbing-down of high schools (after all, why teach kids everything that they need to know if they're only being shoved up the line to me?).

All I know is that it seems unethical to me to make people pay for something that they don't want or need. Ultimately, many of these kids will drop out. So then there they are, no college degree, student loans to pay back and no real skill set. I say, that we need to push for shop class to be revalued. After all, where would any of us be in this world without the true craftspeople?"

I agree with her. I'm looking forward to reading the book she suggested. In the future I may begin using the book with my classes.

So there you have it--another page from my campus life. Just me thinking and processing the day to day and wondering if there is something more I should be doing.

Good night from Southern California,
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka


P.S. Sesame Street is 40 Today! Happy Birthday SS!