OT: What Are They Teaching Our Kids Today?

[BTM]

>Second One - we were discussing a Senior chemistry student who was about to graduate with a >degree in chemistry. He had scored 20/100 on the final exam, yet this prof passed him for the >class (this was in a situation where that student needed to do well on the final to pass, by the >way).

>Me: Why on earth would you pass someone who makes a 20% on the Final?
>Him: Well, if I failed him, he'd just take my class again next year. This way, he's gone.

Hell, that's probably how he ended up in college to begin with...

Sadly, I'm told that happens a lot in lower grades as well..

I don't know, to me it's a threefold problem, biggest being lack of discipline at home, then there's the fact that many good teachers aren't given what they need to TEACH the class, and have their decisions overridden by the principle or whatnot.  True story: woman, who's Caucasian, is sueing the former school she worked at.  Among other things when she told the female principle (who happened to be black) that one of the students threatened to rape her, the principle just rolled her eyes, saying something about how "Another white woman is trying to hold a brother down..."

Now, in that case, it crossed racial as well as social lines, but you get the point.

Then there's the third problem, incompotent teachers who should have been fired YEARS ago, but don't because there's a bigass teacher's union who'll go to bat for them, regardless of how incompotent they are...

And people wonder why well off folks send their kids to private school...

Anyway, sorry to get all political here... :)

[peter johnson]

Answer:  People make it up as a joke --
. . . in response to what they see as the unrelenting dumbing-down of culture.  
Genuinely funny examples are rare, so the joke circulates --
The TRUTH is the same, but the actual things never really happpened . . .
*  *  *
Here's a real one I remember from The Dating Game, a show that was popular in the '70's:
"You are to name the animal oppsite of these words:  Doe . . . "
The guy gave his answer as "knob . . ."
peter johnson/denny crane

[Ash]

peter johnson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Answer:  People make it up as a joke --
> . . . in response to what they see as the
> unrelenting dumbing-down of culture.

Uh uh!  No way!
I've seen it firsthand in real college classes.

It isn't a joke with some of these students.
They really have no idea and give the answer as best they can.
And here we all are really joking about the results of their efforts.

Granted, most students are pretty bright when they're challenged.
There are some that are not.

[BTM]

I just thought of something, Uthar, I bet you'd get along great with Liz from the "And You Call Yourself a Scientist" website... she does bad movies and science!  :)

[BoyScoutKevin]

Q: What does "varicose" mean?
A: Nearby.

Q: Give the mean of the term "Caesarean Section."
A: The Caesarean Section is a district in Rome.

Q: What does the word "benign" mean?
A: Benign is what you will be after you be eight.

And Finis!