Monday, February 21, 2011

I'm Afraid They'll Vote

Questions and answers from assignments I'm grading.  See why my hope for the future becomes bleaker by the year?
  1. What are a few of the positive things the Equal Rights Amendment would have done for women in America?
  2. Critics of the amendment pointed out some negative repercussions. What were they?
  3. All things considered, would you be in favor of the amendment or against it and why?
1. Women got equal rights as men. (got to vote, work, and be educated)
2. Racial preferences violate the 14th amendment, no freedom of speech, no same sex marriage,  no bare arms.
3. It's really hard to say. I have my reasons I'd be for it, and against it. Women should have equal rights as men, but we should have the right to bare arms, freedom of speech, and no one should be racist. 


I reassigned it to her and left her this note:

Women already had the right to vote, work, and be educated in 1972.  You need to do more reading about the ERA and think about your answers.  The 2nd Amendment had nothing to do with the proposed Equal Rights Amendment.  And it's "bear" not "bare" arms unless you meant wearing sleeveless dresses. 

Next assignment that got a note and was reassigned.  Kill me now!
  1. How have social norms changed in America since the decade of the '60s?
  2. How does your generation's norms and mores differ from those of your parents? Grandparents?
  3. In your opinion, why do these changes take place?
1. Attitudes to a variety of issues changed, sometimes radically, throughout the decade.
2. Both of my parents are different, but parts of me look the same as both of them. Some things are different as well like my eyes change to my mood, my moms eyes are hazel and my dads are blue. I'm very light skinned like my mother, but my father and sister are very dark. My grandparents have blue and brown eyes. We all have brown dark colored hair.
3. If everyone looked the same the world would be a lot different, and not for good. We all have our own personality and our own look, but what make's some of those looks, is our parents.

There are some worse than these!  Yes, it's possible! 

7 comments:

the dogs' mother said...

LOLOLOL!!! Oh, dear, sorry, but what the HELL?!?!

mrs.missalaineus said...

??????


good luck with that.


xxalainaxx

Ken Riches said...

Unbelievable, and sad.

Annie Joy said...

I would say that this is unbelievable, but I'm afraid that it's no surprise. Much of what I've been reading (and hearing) points to a lack of critical thinking in our students. Unfortunately, your examples demonstrate a lack of thinking of any kind! Thank you for trying, and I guess our responsibility is to be informed and to give you, other teachers, and schools as much support as possible. Annie

David Dust said...

I know how much it must pain you to read these "answers". Oy.

XOXOXOXO

Joy said...

I wanted you to see first-hand what No Child Left Behind has done. Training them to take tests but not to learn how to think, study, and did I say think is doing them a tremendous disservice, as you can see. It's gotten even worse since I retired in 2005.

Kailyn said...

And this is why while I have an active teaching credential, I am no longer in the classroom. No, the real reason is because I could read something like this and then have to sit through a conference in which the parent/guardian tried to convince me of how this student was brilliant. What is wrong with me in not recognizing this? And then the student would come in with total attitude saying how if they didn't get a good grade, I'd be out of a job. And then being told by the administration that my job was to expose kids to concepts, not to get the students to master them.

I still do private tutoring. I often want to bang my head on a hard surface when some student wants me to spoon feed stuff to them instead of giving them the tools to think it through.

Somewhere along the way, the powers that be have done a huge disservice to children -- and this country.