288 The School Year Is Starting!

I see by my calendar that it’s after the middle of August, which tells me that the school year is (or is at least starting to get) under way all over the place.  I’m old enough, of course, to remember when the school year never began until after Labor Day and it was often nearer the end of September.  It is said that this choice derived from the need to have all of the members of the family available to harvest the crops, which was usually not complete until Fall was seriously getting started.  Well, we aren’t quite as rural now, so that’s not quite as big a concern.  In any event, I find it a bit hard to adapt to the idea that getting half of the school year over before Christmas is important enough to require kids to go back to school (often without air conditioning) during what is still the heat of summer.  But, that’s the way it is now, whether it makes much sense, or not.   So, school IS starting (or may have started where you live).

Students, by tradition, are supposed to dislike having to return to school (even if some, few, do, actually admit to enjoying getting back to a more “normal” routine and seeing the friends whom they haven’t seen during the summer).  The usual belief (strongly promoted by advertisers who are trying to sell stuff to the students, or to their parents) is that students require “bribing” with a new wardrobe and other “stuff,” to have them accept going back to school and that kids going back to school somehow relieves parents of all responsibility for their children since they will now become the school’s exclusive problem.  

This can lead to amusing ads and pictures, however.

Of course, this doesn’t really represent reality (although there are times when teachers could wish that it did!)

AND, students are usually portrayed as believing that teachers are the “spawn of Satan,” who only appear in order to plague them for the required months of the school year.  
See the Non Sequitur strip below:

Note: This idea expressed above seems just as unlikely as the commonly portrayed student attitude towards “having” to attend school.  (If you would like my opinion regarding the question Danae poses in the cartoon above, I think Kate [Danae’s blond sister] probably had the right idea in the last frame.)

My strong suspicion is that much of the “conflict” between teachers and students (I actually liked most of my teachers) is the result of the fact that teachers are required to “evaluate” (grade for the non-College of Education nerds) their students.  This would be relatively easy (and fair) if learning consisted completely of simply memorizing what the politicians have approved as “acceptable” knowledge; then testing to see how much can be recalled.  That implies, of course, that ALL learning is equal and may be accurately assessed through application of an essentially binary (right/wrong) process allowing for easy and simple numerical scores which are an adequate representation of educational accomplishment.

That, of course can only be considered “learning” by those who don’t know much (politicians?).  As Mike Luckovich suggests below, there was a time when grading was accepted as a teacher’s best effort at a fair evaluation of the student’s ability to understand the course material, which was intended to be at least reasonably factual.  In those days, unlike many places today, teaching was simpler. 

It should be obvious to anyone that ANY grade is, in fact, only an opinion, although most teachers (I believe) do make serious efforts towards being as objective as possible.  That’s probably why graduate (at least “terminal”) degrees are awarded after a COMMITTEE has examined a student’s original work (referred to as a Thesis or a Dissertation) AND discussed it among themselves (and with the student) prior to recommending to the School that the student be awarded the degree.  Therefore, it’s the opinion of MORE THAN ONE PERSON, which is almost certainly more credible than any, single individual!

The notion of grades as opinion seems to be quite hard for some people to understand, however, which can lead many teachers of basic skills to at least contemplate using teaching methods which they have NOT been taught in their “Professional Skills” courses, as this Wizard of Id cartoon suggests.

Teachers ARE (I think) important, however.  Yes, I’m probably prejudiced as I spent much of my career in the classroom of a university and the “teaching laboratory” of educational theatre, my father was a college professor, my mother was a school librarian, one of my grandfathers was a college professor and one of my grandmothers was trained as a school teacher.  I am a firm believer that one of the main strengths of the United States has been its system of public education.  Is it now, or has it ever been perfect?  NO, but it’s probably done more to create the (more or less) democratic society which has survived for almost 250 years than any other aspect of that society.  As the coffee cup below suggests.  Teachers ARE all too frequently unsung heroes of our society.  

And that’s in spite of the fact that we (as a society) have, all too often, chosen to denigrate not only teachers, but the whole idea of learning, the value of facts, and the importance of actual education (the application of facts in a rational manner) beyond the simple level of “Just shut up and do as you are told!”  That may lead to something resembling efficiency, but it’s unlikely to lead to progress, or even survival, in the long run.
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At the risk of being more disturbing than humorous, I offer this Pearls Before Swine cartoon from a recent copy of my local newspaper.

I won’t swear that the statements Goat makes above are true (although I have heard similar statements from other sources), but I can easily understand the idea that he was led to cry about seeing such statements.  Not happy thoughts….

I expect to be back in a couple of weeks, perhaps I will “cheer up” a bit more by then, but I won’t promise it.  The current state of US politics is enough to upset anyone.  I do have hopes, however.

🖖🏼 LLAP,

Dr. B