Fear this...

[Lictalon]

Want to become scared for the future?

The stage: A high school classroom.

The participants: An English teacher and 24 college bound students, ages 16-17.

The scene: A vocabulary test on chapters 5-6 of The Great Gatsby.

The requirements: To correctly spell pompadour and match it to the correct definition. (For those of you who don't know, a pompadour is a hair-style where the hair is swept back from the forehead. Pretty common.) The definitions are typed neatly, and there is only one definition that has anything to do with hair. Only one.

Action!

Teacher: Okay...Number 5 is pompadour. POMP-A-DOUR. teacher pauses to allow students time to write.

Student #1: How do you spell that?

Teacher: S-T-U-D-Y. Quiet. It's a quiz.

Student #2: I don't know this...

Teacher: Okay...loudly Pompadour. Michael, Susan, and Jane (teacher points to relevent students) are all wearing their HAIR in the style of a pompadour. POMP-A-DOUR.

Student #3: Huh?

Student #4: Your sentences are all too hard...

Student #1: How do you spell that?

Student #6: Why do we need to do this?
Students all break into whines and complaints. Teacher grinds teeth

Teacher: LISTEN! waits for quiet I went to get a new HAIR STYLE, that looks like Jane's, Maichael's, Susan's, and Jane's, and everyone liked my new POMP-A-DOUR.

Student #1: How do you spell that?

Student #12: Huh?

Student #9: This is too hard...

Teacher smacks forehead, leaves room, and breathes deeply in hallway for a moment. Hears students conferring. Despite the obvious cheating, none have managed to figure it out. Teacher sighs, rolls eyes, and determines that he must start working on that book again now and returns to room.

END SCENE.

That was MY Friday. I'll tell you, I was never so happy to hear the bell ring...

[Evnings]

They'll probably have a hard time with A Catcher in the Rye and Hamlet . I had to read and understand these and many others when I was in high school.

I actually thought Shakespere was interesting after I began to understand the form of English he was writing in.

[RachelR]

hehehe, sounds like my college English class now

[JKT]

Sounds kinda like the basic language skills test we use in the hiring process.

45 vocabulary questions, multiple choice, and the majority are fairly common words that are seen in most leisure reading.

48 reading comprehension questions, also multiple choice.

I won't reveal the pass rate, but let's just say the raw scores run from 28 to 91 out of 93 possible correct

Really makes one wonder about some of the school systems....

[shooter1201]

You guys ought to try 5th grade Social Studies.

Me: 'What continent do we live on?'

Them: 'Tennessee?'

Me: 'No, no, no.... What CONTINENT?'

Them: 'Ohhhh..... the United States!'

Me: 'Jeeezzzzz......'

[kateykakes]

When I came home from work today, the house was completely quiet. I decided to take advantage of it and went upstairs to lay down because I was spent.

Of course that didn't last long. 30 minutes later, the kids came home. My son, Anthony (age 14, 8th gr) came upstairs, and as we do everyday, we asked each other how our day went.

He told me that school was ok today, with the exception of a pop quiz in science that was given. So fearing the worst, I asked how he did on the test.

He was one of only two children in the entire class to pass the test. One girl received a 100, and my son's grade was a 95. The rest of the class finished 60 and below, with the lowest grade being a 10.

I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of my son (all of my children actually).

*edit

May as well brag while I've got you all here. My Bubba has been an honor roll student every marking period for 4 years in a row.

[ 10-04-2002, 10:22 PM: Message edited by: kateykakes ]

[shooter1201]

quote:

---

. My Bubba has been an honor roll student every marking period for 4 years in a row.

---

Are you SURE you're from 'Up North'?

Seriously....congratulations!

I remember my daughter talking about 'how hard' her AP Biology classes were last year(she still made all As). Now that she's in nursing school, she's GLAD she had a hard(good) teacher. SHE's one of the few students in her Anatomy/Physiology class that ISN'T having problems.