Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Broken beyond repair

Week 2 of online school.
Students took a quiz. One student copied and pasted an answer directly from Wikipedia. I reported this to administration, and this is the answer I got:

Can you reach the student by phone or chat to figure out if she's hopelessly lost?
Many of our students read independently at a level far below our textbooks. They are used to having teachers "translate" the book and have few strategies if that is not present.
We currently have only about half of our students participating in online learning...and she's one who is doing something. Is there a way to reach out and praise the student for trying? 
 A second administrator had this to say:
Is there any proof that the student cheated on all of the questions, or just the one? Give them no points for the one question, and explain to them that this is not how we do things. Use it as a teachable moment. 

This is why our students aren't learning very well. Too many people want to coddle them and reward bad behavior. Administration doesn't make the students own their decisions or behavior. As a teacher, the message is loud and clear: we are not being paid to teach, we are being paid to appear as though we are teaching.

I have said this before, and I will say it again: education in this country is broken beyond repair.

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