Chuck, you are welcome here with another essay that teaches us what teaching should be about, how learning changes us, how Dickinson should never be forgotten and how the pen and paper reach the heart in ways that only those who use it know. The paradox of the safety in the prison, too, marks its place here. Thank you, Chuck Rybak!
Another superb essay. Why on earth are we are teaching our kids not to think???? I am so invested in the students in prison, in their growth through education and the analytical thinking it is teaching them. Bravo 👏👏👏
Several important points to mention, not the least of which is the administrator's awakening about literacy before that trend is replaced by the newer, buzzier, AI. There's no accountability for sticking with those initiatives. Admin are there for maybe 5 years, maybe less. The literacy initiative will be a line on the resume, maybe with some token numbers showing impact.
Your point about teachers being asked to teach things they have no expertise in is also painfully familiar. A major point of dissonance there should be the expectation that professors help foster employability when it is incredibly difficult for academics to pivot to industrial roles (as I see constantly on LinkedIn). To gain any credibility on the employability front, one must stop being a professor, navigate the stormy waters of the job search, and hopefully emerge remade on the other side. By which time there are no more incentives remaining to return to a faculty role.
I agree with Annette about the stupidity of LMS. It is conformity masquerading as accountability. Some of this, as you show quite well, is very basic. Many students perform better on timed written exams than they do on take-home work because they never otherwise do nothing but write, without distractions, for two hours straight.
This needs a far, far larger audience, Chuck. Your daughter's midnight deadlines is the sort of thing that makes me want to turn colleges into high schools, staffed by liberal arts professors, and run with sanity. Oh, and the student who doesn't want to bring a notebook is an insolent twerp. What a great shame nobody will tell him that.
Chuck, you are welcome here with another essay that teaches us what teaching should be about, how learning changes us, how Dickinson should never be forgotten and how the pen and paper reach the heart in ways that only those who use it know. The paradox of the safety in the prison, too, marks its place here. Thank you, Chuck Rybak!
Thank you for the incredibly nice words. I truly appreciate it.
Another superb essay. Why on earth are we are teaching our kids not to think???? I am so invested in the students in prison, in their growth through education and the analytical thinking it is teaching them. Bravo 👏👏👏
Several important points to mention, not the least of which is the administrator's awakening about literacy before that trend is replaced by the newer, buzzier, AI. There's no accountability for sticking with those initiatives. Admin are there for maybe 5 years, maybe less. The literacy initiative will be a line on the resume, maybe with some token numbers showing impact.
Your point about teachers being asked to teach things they have no expertise in is also painfully familiar. A major point of dissonance there should be the expectation that professors help foster employability when it is incredibly difficult for academics to pivot to industrial roles (as I see constantly on LinkedIn). To gain any credibility on the employability front, one must stop being a professor, navigate the stormy waters of the job search, and hopefully emerge remade on the other side. By which time there are no more incentives remaining to return to a faculty role.
I agree with Annette about the stupidity of LMS. It is conformity masquerading as accountability. Some of this, as you show quite well, is very basic. Many students perform better on timed written exams than they do on take-home work because they never otherwise do nothing but write, without distractions, for two hours straight.
Thanks for shining a light on these things.
Josh, yes to all of this, and I know you deep experience here makes this all familiar.
This needs a far, far larger audience, Chuck. Your daughter's midnight deadlines is the sort of thing that makes me want to turn colleges into high schools, staffed by liberal arts professors, and run with sanity. Oh, and the student who doesn't want to bring a notebook is an insolent twerp. What a great shame nobody will tell him that.