Tuesday, November 20, 2007

"How To Teach Stupid Students" WTF?




My eldest son brought this home from elementary school last week. He'd pulled it out of the scrap paper box in his classroom. The literal translation of the title is: How To Teach Stupid Students. My first reaction was "What the hell..?" but when I read the points below I soon realized it's meant ironically; in other words, tips on how not to teach, or "If you want your students to be stupid just follow these teaching tips". I presume this was handed out to teachers for training purposes or perhaps a zealous parent had printed it and given it to the teacher. No idea.

The list makes some obvious points from the School of Duh, but I suppose even good teachers need to be reminded of the basics every once in a while.

Let's run down the list. This is a quick, rough translation so don't get all picky on me, k?

  1. Only use one, unchanging style of teaching.
  2. Only teach what's in the text book.
  3. Require students to provide the standard answers to questions.
  4. Don't permit students to ask questions.
  5. Encourage passive listening.
  6. Make students obey absolutely.
  7. Frequently nag, seldom praise students.
  8. Constantly scold, and disrespect students.
  9. Focus on homework and grades.
  10. Do not permit any mistakes.
  11. Reach the conclusion quickly.
  12. Ask pointless questions.

Anything that you might want to add to that list?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whoa. That's really messed up.

Mark said...

Great find! BTW, what do you think of your son's school?

John Naruwan said...

I can't really pass judgement on the entire school but I like the teacher. She manages to do a pretty good job with the resources she has and the curriculum that she's required to follow to the letter.

I wish there could be fewer tests/ quizzes and less homework, but apparently a number of parents actually want more tests and more homework! In the future I might do what Michael Turton did for a while with his kids and send him to school in the mornings and homeschool in the afternoons.