Oregon, fighting for proper education.....

[z31maniac]

http://gizmodo.com/5714578/oragan-publac-schools-now-okay-wiht-spell-checkking-during-examz

"But! The state of Oregon seems to disagree: "We are not letting a student's keyboarding skills get in the way of being able to judge their writing ability," explains state Superintendent Susan Castillo."


Spellchecker? Really?

Not sure how keyboarding skills FORCE you to MISSPELL words, but we wouldn't want little Jimmy to have low self-esteem!

[KenC]

People can't be good spellers an poor typists?

You have to approve spelling corrections anyhow... they're able to see the correct spelling in real-time.

[KenC]

I also agree that students aren't challenged enough. I took every advanced class offered and hardly ever studied.

But underpaid teachers dealing with kids and parents who don't care is another issue.

[z31maniac]

^They can, but it's out of laziness, not difficulty. I mean, seriously, how hard is to read what you've typed and fix it if it's wrong?

I can't believe any educator would think it's a good idea to skip over teaching kids
something so fundamental such as how to spell!

But you know, if the teachers actually TAUGHT the kids how to spell to begin with instead of giving them a crutch............ahh nevermind.

[KenC]

They're not replacing spelling instruction with the spell-checker.

I consider myself an excellent speller, however, at times I am not the greatest typist; especially when trying to type as fast as possible. The spell-checker catches typing mistakes. Hell, they even have a spell-checker on the MCAT. It makes it easier for people to read.

[z31maniac]

But underpaid teachers dealing with kids and parents who don't care is another issue.

I'm tired of hearing/reading/seeing this excuse.

I would argue any person who becomes a teacher and doesn't know that they are going to be woefully underappreciated by parents and monetarily, aren't astute enough to be teaching our young people anyway.

Same thing as cops/firemen/etc, you knew it was going to be a hard, underpaid thankless job when you took it, BUT YOU TOOK THE JOB OF YOUR OWN VOLITION!

[KenC]

We should pay professionals a professional wage.

[z31maniac]

We should pay professionals a professional wage.

Everyone agrees with that, but it's not the argument or the issue.

[joshh]

Living in Portland I'll attempt to comment on this in a way that communicates some of our problems with our schools.
My daughter got all A's and B's with just one C. But that doesn't tell you what she knows or doesn't know. The reason why is because the standard for what a child here is supposed to know at this age (13) has been lowered so far that a student that doesn't know his/her multiplication tables by heart still gets a passing grade. I've had to step in and start doing her home work with her and doing flash cards for Christ's sake.

After being to a Parent teacher "conference" this last year I finally got down to a bit of nitty gritty on why our schools suck so damned much.
The politics up here goes like this...."If you don't pass this tax hike, we're going to have to pull more money from our schools". Bill passes, they still cut the school budget anyways...and liberals continue to vote for tax hikes to this day. In other words politicians here have their way with taxes thanks to liberals.

At the parent teacher conference what I saw was (in my opinion) two good teachers surrounded by emotional grading from other teachers. My daughters Science teacher had enough of my daughters attitude and was grading her on her attitude and attendance more than her actual grade. But she may be a good teacher?
Her Social studies teacher had a "poor Morgan" (my daughter) attitude (smacks forehead).
Kids are not allowed to be punished for their behavior. Teachers are not being held to a standard and paid based on their ability to keep that standard. And Parents of many of these kids are near non-existent. But the parents all of a sudden come out of the woodwork when the kid is finally being held to a bottom rung standard. "Don't touch my kid". Because these parents are fucking terrible parents generally. Even I have had a really hard time with my daughter because I'm fighting both my daughters attitude and my wife who keeps defending Morgan over shit that should be corrected. Making my parenting ineffective. to that degree. No I'm not a perfect parent but fighting my own wife over some of these matters has brought me to near grief over my daughter turning into what I hate in humanity. I can't do it by my self.
The good teachers are severely underpaid but mostly under supported to deal with kids.

1. Bad parenting.
2. Bad teachers/good teachers under paid for dealing with little shit head kids that are protected by our system and poor parenting.
3. Good teachers under supported or not given the tools to really help kids.
4. A system that cares more about bike paths/taxes than our own children.
5. An utter lack of moral standards that children should be held to.

[e30e]

I love educational threads, reminds me why I rather dig holes than be a teacher. Ignorance is bliss.....yes it goes both ways.


FYI, spelling of words works two ways for the brain, one through repetition and two memorization. Which in theory is used by spell check, I as an adult may not know how to spell the correct words but through the repetition of using a word will learn to correct and memorize a word. Teachers probably have a program in place this makes student do this, this article is clearly biases to teachers being lazy fucking idiots. When it comes to reading, the first and last letters of most words combined with the length of the word are used to identify subconsciously by the brain of what word is what, so technically again, spell check helps with learning process. The real problem with education is because of new technology which uses new experimental or non tradition teaching methods, stone age people who will believe it that they way the learned something is the only; will throw there arms up in the air and claim once again our system is failing, which I don't deny. But at the same time teachers in this day in age actually have to worry about teaching information that no longer correct or relevant. Students today are multitask learning styles and require more engagement then even students 10 years ago, hence why test studies and standardize testing used for the past 20 years show a decline in "knowledge" but not relevance. Truth be told the most successful teaching philosophy the Career and Technical Education philosophy but because our country does not value skills anymore and it continues to be blissfully ignored.


Cliffs:
Society is falling and its starts with the education system, whether you lean one way or the other, skills and thinking are no longer taught on a larger scale.

F my specialized degree in education, thank god for the paper being on my resume though.

[Ryann]

I'm tired of hearing/reading/seeing this excuse.

I would argue any person who becomes a teacher and doesn't know that they are going to be woefully underappreciated by parents and monetarily, aren't astute enough to be teaching our young people anyway.

Same thing as cops/firemen/etc, you knew it was going to be a hard, underpaid thankless job when you took it, BUT YOU TOOK THE JOB OF YOUR OWN VOLITION!

Thank you. I bust my ass daily to make sure that the individuals that own the company I work for make the millions they expect to make. I get dirty, I get cold, and I work hours that I'm not paid to work, in the name of getting the job done. If you're teaching, you ought to be doing so because you believe it's a worthwhile thing to do. Not because you'd like to drive a late model Acura, have lots of government holidays and other paid time away from work, AND live in an upscale home- all of which you can do on an Oregon teacher's salary.

Everybody knows that schools and public safety are always put on the political chopping block in the name of raising taxes. It's time the people called bullshit on this strategy and put six figure public administrator's incomes, bullshit union contracts, and unprecedented government worker benefit/retirement packages on the 'block instead.

[ck_taft325is]

Here's one.. it's not just the teachers job to teach the kids. Sorry parents, but most of us are failing miserably as parents in that department. Because your kid goes somewhere for 6+ hours a day doesn't mean they are being taught. Parents NEED to be more involved.

[Need4Speed1299]

If I write a word on paper and think its right.. I continue to think its right until corrected.

If I type a word on a computer and think its right.. spell check will alert me that its wrong and I will be corrected. I will SEE that I made the mistake, and LEARN the correct way to spell it.

This debate is fucking stupid. A "magic word wand?" Thats the gayest shit I have ever read. Thanks to spell check, I am a master spellerer.... er.

I think the real debate is the involvement of parents in schools. The fight is "autocorrect" which fixes words automatically for you.

[Raxe]

The underlying problem is everyone is expecting more for doing less. Society as a whole has become lazy and addicted to instant gratification. Kids expect good grades without putting in the work, parents expect kids to raise themselves without putting in the time and teachers expect easy money without putting in the care. The old adage "you reap what you sow" still rings true.

[mrsleeve]

The underlying problem is everyone is expecting more for doing less. Society as a whole has become lazy and addicted to instant gratification. Kids expect good grades without putting in the work, parents expect kids to raise themselves without putting in the time and teachers expect easy money without putting in the care. The old adage "you reap what you sow" still rings true.

I agree with this Canadian