WTF?!

This from today's newspaper:

Millions of students may flunk this year

...

I'm sorry, but unless I'm reading this wrong, this has to be one of the stupidest things I've heard of. Teachers are trying to stop the passing grade from going up to 75%?!

I smell a bunch of scared teachers worried about their own evaluation once they see that the students that they failed to teach start taking nosedives in terms of passing exams. Sadly, there are public school teachers in this country that are better off being shot and turned to fertilizer rather than teaching.

These are the ones that force their students into memorization automatons, drilling mindless idiocy rather than true learning. These are those who slap down on imagination and original thought.

I hate you.

I had an experience trying to undo what you twits have done. Back in high school, I taught English to a class of grade school students in public school. When I asked them to speak in front of the class to introduce themselves, I was appalled at the incredible amount of brainwashing they've been through. They all introduced themselves to the same formula, no originality, no personal flair, no charm.

"Good morning. My name is _____. I am _____ years old. I live in _____. I have ____ brothers and ____ sisters. I study in ____ in _____ grade."

I stood there, dumbfounded. This will take a while to undo.

For the better part of the time I spent there teaching them, I tried my best to undo the damage. I began engaging them in a little role-play (and they say its not a teaching tool), getting them to open up, letting them practice their english speaking skills in an environment where they could learn without fear of being graded, where mistakes were corrected, but never punished.

My only regret was I didn't have enough time.

In the end, they were able to converse in english better than their peers, having learned the confidence to actually use the language to communicate rather than to just speak formulae and verse, no longer docile sheep prodded by unthinking idiots dressed in pea green uniforms.

This is one of those days when I really want to take an arnis stick and do a little practice in a public school, stalking teachers who act like little tyrants, or even those who spend their student's resources and time on worthless projects for "extra points" to make up for their lack of teaching ability.

WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!

God that would feel so damn good.