Because I haven't said this in a while: Brendan Nelson is an idiot

[melwil]

"The real problems that the kids from rural and regional Australia have got is getting a good Year 12 result which relates as I said earlier to literacy performance earlier in school."

Has the guy ever heard of Cultural Capital? Access to the city, to museums and galleries and big libraries and the performing arts play a huge part in student's acheivement. Obviously rural and regional students have less access to these things. As any first year teaching student could tell you. (But teachers aren't important in this country unless you're hoisting up a flag pole or teaching Howard's values to children.




One of my tutors ignored me in class yesterday. After allowing me to answer a few questions in the beginning of a two hour tutorial, she just ignored me. Totally. Like she asked a question, I was the only one to put my hand up, and she just kept talking. Someone else noticed it, and thought it might have been because I'd already answered questions. I hate that. I hate the way you're not supposed to put your hand up when you have an answer if you've already answered questions.

This class is really annoying me, actually. It's about learning to read, at the moment. But it's aimed right at average students and those just below average. Even when they're 'inclusive' and include non-english speaking backgrounds, they're still aiming it at the average kids. Nothing about teaching children who are deaf or blind or autistic or have ADHD or are dyslexic - although in our state they'll be in the same class room as the 'average' kids. Nothing about gifted children. Actually, I asked about gifted and the teacher said "oh, they'll just be further along the scale". So how do you teach children who can read and know their letters in a class of children who don't? "That's something you'll have to accomadate." No how we can do this. Everyone tells us we have to accomadate difference. No one tells us how!

In the lecture, the lecturer tried to belittle 'excellent' readers. She did an experiment where teachers and children read the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Then she and her associate made the grammer bad, and changed words like 'woods' into 'bush'. Excellent readers, were actually bad readers, apparently, because they read every word like it was written. Average readers, read the changed story like the original, which apparently made them 'better readers'

We judge readers by how well they memorise a story, not how well they read. No wonder no one can say my name without caling me Melinda or Melanie or Melissa - they're not actually reading, just replacing my name with a name they know!

I have to go into gifted education just so I can stand up against this kind of stupidity and stop it being taught to our student teachers

Comments

[melwil.livejournal.com]

Huh. Strange. I suggest you approach your tutor/lecturer with your budget and ask him/her to fit a text book into that. Or to buy it for you.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

Or give me her job. That would work. I've always wanted to arrange a class of 22-50 year olds in a circle and play a naming game to get to know each other.

[melwil.livejournal.com]

Oh you too. At least ours can be put into a classroom