This one came across my Twitter... The story behind this is familiar to me, and I am sure will be experienced by many on the coming weeks as schools reopen: Teachers who seek to blame students for "not getting it" change the grading system, but nothing else!
I am reminded of the teacher a few years ago who led us in a day-long discussion about "failure is not an option," in her attempt to require students to retake exams until they passed and require students to stay after school to complete missing homework. I posed questions such as these (I wish I had had this comprehensive list back then) for the first hour. Her responses became what her teaching was (and apparently still is according to her students), namely to say the same thing again in the same way... She never deviated from the buzz words she heard at the conference where she got the idea just as she never deviates from her prepared script when "teaching."
These are great questions to get you and your colleagues thinking about what you do and how you measure it. Politicians, business people, and my former colleague from above, will find this lust dissatisfying. Some of us know to ignore these is to give the illusion of progress.
- Dr. Gary Ackerman
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