Edmonton teacher suspended for giving 0s

[CanadaSue]

He directly contravened the school board's 'No Zero' policy, saying he couldn't in good conscinece give marks to kids to whom he'd given every chance to turn in past due assignments, etc. He was suspended. Reader comments overwhelmingly support this teacher's position - making reference to breeding snowflakes, bubblewrap kids, etc.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/offbeat/story...-sheppard.html

[Twoolf]

So now we are teaching kids that there are no consequences for their actions, or in this case, inaction. One step further for the nanny state.

[MaxTheKnife]

I don't know why for sure, but this quote came to mind: "Let them eat cake"

[CanadaSue]

They won't be able to afford cake.

Many provinces have similar policies, carefully worded so it's not obvious. 'Education' is a joke. If my kids were Very Smalls, no way in hell they'd be going to public schools.

[Samen]

I bet the 1 million engineers rolling out of China colleges every year actually know math, how to read, something on engineering and actually had to pas K12 with good honest grades.

[CanadaSue]

Probably, they sure as hell don't have to here. My step daughter graduated high school here 5 years ago with a 'body of knowledge' I had coming out of eighth grade - which is the last of our primary years.

[Mama Alanna]

You have to wonder if our current nanny states, and our medical systems, are saving people who would have been weeded out of the gene pool in previous generations. I hate to call humans "substandard", but that's the long and short of it. In the caveman days, someone who was too stupid to pour piss out of a boot even when told how would be eaten by a sabertooth tiger. In medieval times, if you weren't smart enough to know that animals die when kept in the wrong conditions, you starved to death.

But now we have people too dumb to comprehend that "crunchberries" are not real fruit. Too dumb to know that potatoes grow in the ground and that "coffee grounds" aren't real dirt and that if you walk out into the road without looking, you might get hit by a car. (Because if you ARE hit by a car, you can sue everybody in sight. )

[Exodia]

Originally Posted by Mama Alanna

But now we have people too dumb to comprehend that "crunchberries" are not real fruit.

Wait, what? My Dr said to increase fruit intake, so I switched from Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch to Crunch Berries. Maybe if I go to OOPS! All Berries...

[Exodia]

After getting some 0s for uncompleted assignments, I showed my kids mathematically how hard it is to recover from zeros. They went away for the most part. But then again my kids grow up in a house and community that values education.

[Mama Alanna]

Originally Posted by Exodia

Wait, what? My Dr said to increase fruit intake, so I switched from Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch to Crunch Berries. Maybe if I go to OOPS! All Berries...

Reasonable Consumer Would Know "Crunchberries" Are Not Real, Judge Rules

[sandyd]

I do keep wondering what the teachers and admins expect the kids to NEED from education.

Do you need to do math in your head? Or is it enough to know how to do it on a calculator?
Do you need to know how to write a full sentence? Is it enuff 2 no 2 tx?
Why is doing homework even worthwhile? At most jobs, you do not take work home. So, should students only have assignments that are done right there in class?

I know the idea that growing taters or 'maters or chickens for eggs is a good thought but will it matter to most if they can't do that? It has not mattered in my lifetime.

I know I learned a lot of 'stuff' in school that never helped me at my fast food jobs, didn't do much for me at my office jobs, was totally useless in using a computer at my banking job and really only helped me in going further in college to get more education.

I just wonder how much is us old fashioned 'do it like we did it' thoughts vs the new reality and how many teachers and admins in schools think...

I mean, how many of us HAD to learn to shoe a horse? Why not....our grandpas did.

---------- Post added at 11:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:40 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Mama Alanna

You have to wonder if our current nanny states, and our medical systems, are saving people who would have been weeded out of the gene pool in previous generations. I hate to call humans "substandard", but that's the long and short of it. In the caveman days, someone who was too stupid to pour piss out of a boot even when told how would be eaten by a sabertooth tiger. In medieval times, if you weren't smart enough to know that animals die when kept in the wrong conditions, you starved to death.

But now we have people too dumb to comprehend that "crunchberries" are not real fruit. Too dumb to know that potatoes grow in the ground and that "coffee grounds" aren't real dirt and that if you walk out into the road without looking, you might get hit by a car. (Because if you ARE hit by a car, you can sue everybody in sight. )

I've wondered the same as you but I do also understand that then we are talking eugenics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics and sadly the nazis made it 'wrong' to think.

[CanadaSue]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmont...s-trustee.html


No matter what we decide is an important body of knowledge for children to learn, it's equally if not more important to teach them that in life there ARE deadlines, there IS accountability, there HAVE to be some standards to be met.

I don't want my lawyer 'having tried hard' to learn Constitutional lawyer if that's his practice, I want my firefighter to do better than "could ALMOST carry 150 lbs. 100 feet'.

We've created a generation that's coddled in the wrong ways for the wrong reasons. And if it doesn't start at home, it sure as hell does in the schools.

[Potemkin]

More Idiotocracy and "everyone get a trophy".

I see it now at work. Under performers get angry when high achievers get bonuses and raises.

I worked at a job where they began a program where everyone got the same bonus and raise. Easy on HR and management. Everyone was miffed but no one got really p*ssed off. No unpleasantness to deal with.

They wondered why all of the high achievers left in 18-24 months.

[Kassy]

But that will hurt on the long term so that will be taken care of by the market somehow.

The problem with the schools is that they probably have a different incentive.

I think it's proper to grade 0 if they turn in zero. It's what you'll get in real life so it makes no sense to exclude that froms the schooling program.

Here the schools get paid more when more students graduate.

Recently there have been some scandels were a number of seriously under par students did get their diploma's without meeting the requirements.

That happened in big community colleges (the type just below universities i'm not sure if it's the right translation).

The highschools have more or less the same incentive. Students final grades depend on the avarege of the score from school tests + score from national tests. So if your students are weak you organize easier tests to ensure they have an advantage.

You could compensate anything with anything but they changed the rules with minimal grades and they decreased the portion of imput from the school tests. They fear that a lot more kids will fail.

The problem is schools having a financial incentive to sacrifice quality of teaching to quantity output.

They should be rewarded for delivering the right kind of quality.

[Dreamweaver]

Not allowing zero's is a trend that is taking place in most school districts. Here in North Texas, Dallas included, just about all have this policy. Their reasoning is it's hard to recover from zeros and the teacher is not doing their job if they are giving out zeros. Teachers responsibility to see that the student does most of the work assigned.

[Mama Alanna]

Is the teacher supposed to go to each student's home every night, duct tape him/her to the chair, wrap their hand over the student's, and force him/her to do the homework or write the paper? Because that's what it would take in some instances. Why bother doing the work, the kids figure, when everyone will pass anyway? Learning for its own sake is just not part of their worldview.

[CanadaSue]

Another one - same school - taking a stand. And judging by the looks of him, he's got a lot more at stake:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmont...iscipline.html

[Potemkin]

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews...18-213828.html

Embattled Edmonton teacher can give zeros at new gig



EDMONTON – While still facing termination from his post at Ross Sheppard High School, the so-called zero hero Lynden Dorval will be returning to the classroom this October.

The physics teacher— who was suspended last spring for giving students zeroes on assignments — accepted a new post Tuesday at Tempo School, a private kindergarten to Grade 12 school.

"I took the job, yup," Dorval said proudly when reached at his home Tuesday evening "The headmaster called me yesterday at home and mentioned they were looking for an advanced placement physics teacher, so I said yes.”

Dorval toured the school with Headmaster Peter Mitchell and was impressed by the academically-oriented school.

"It was neat to be back in a school again, for sure," he said. "They have 30-some classrooms and some good science labs. They give zeroes."

Come late October, Dorval will have a part-time position teaching physics to smaller classes of roughly 20 Grade 11 and 12 students. He said the post is an ideal way to supplement his pension while still educating youth.

"It was the first offer, but it was also what I was looking for," said Dorval. “It's teaching some very bright students some very high-level physics, which will be both challenging and interesting at the same time."

Dorval received an official letter of termination from the Edmonton Public School Board on Sept. 14 for insubordination.