The Fury

There's no surf. If there is, I don't want to know about it since I'm in my self-imposed paper-grading prison.

What is going on with our schools? Did these kids learn anything in high school? See, this is why my child will not be going to public school. Either he's going to get his ass kicked for being black—we're having some racial problems right now in some L.A. public high schools—or he's going to be given straight A's even though he lacks the skills necessary to do well in college. These irritating papers aren't even from my remedial students. These are the papers from my freshman comp kids. And have they heard anything I've said? How does one turn in a paper with run-on sentences? I've explained what proofreading is. I've explained the benefits. (Yes, I've talked about run-ons but shouldn't have to worry about this with them.) Why am I still getting sentences that frighten me? Let me give you an example: "This clearly showed that after so many years the way her Father and Mother reacted towards her still haunted her in her head, over all in her family's eyes he did something bad, but in society's eyes she did the right thing." Okay, it's a run-on sentence. "Father and Mother" should not be capitalized. The prounoun "he" is wrong since we're talking about a female protaganist. I want to believe that some of these mistakes could have been caught with proofreading. But what if this student did proofread this paper? This is unacceptable. No, I didn't fail him or anything. My goal is to help these kids improve their writing so I'm big on repeating myself—not that they listen—and giving positive reinforcement. By the way, is critical thinking that hard to do? It must be. I swear that some of the ideas in their papers came straight out of my mouth during a lecture. I don't mind them using my ideas. I do mind that they don't take the ideas a step further and analyze them. We're doing a disservice to our kids, people. They're not learning enough in the public schools and it's scaring me. I can't say that I learned much in public school either. I struggled in college, trying to play catch-up for the first three years. I didn't really learn anything until I lived in the Netherlands. I worked in a bookstore and read over 100 books while I was there. I think I learned more there than I did during the four years in college. Isn't that sad?

Okay, my rant is over for now. Tomorrow I will be surfing. The plan was to hit San-O. I really wanted to surf with Puttzle before he leaves. Unfortunately, our surf road trip plans fell apart and we're staying closer to home. Well, Puttzle, you'll be sorely missed. Perhaps we can have a blogger surf session in Hawaii—you, me, Whiff, Beachgirl, Crusty, RuggerJay, Alan, and Pam. As they used to say, write when you get work! Let me know where you are and what you're up to in Hawaii. Please don't send pictures. The envy will kill me!