I am a NYC high school teacher. I am appalled by the low level of work assigned to the students in many cases. I just witnessed last week an assignment given to 9th grade English students, which consisted of filling in 8 boxes for 8 word roots with the following information: 2 examples of words made from that word root, a PICTURE of what that word root means, the meaning of the word root and a sentence made with a word from that word root. In most cases, it was obvious that even after the drawing of cartoons and looking up of words, they hadn't a clue what the word root or words made from it meant.
Yet I am quite sure that this lesson would be lauded by the Bloomberg-bots observing it, in that it was "child-centered". Oh yeah, and the "new norm" in these small schools Bloomberg created from deliberately destroying large community high schools is that the students call their teacher by their FIRST NAME. No way, Jose. I am not "one" with my students. I am their TEACHER.
Would you agree that the level of this lesson was more appropriate to a 6th or 7th grade class?
This is but a microscopic example of why we are a nation of people not exhibiting age-appropriate behavior or levels of thinking.
“Would you agree that the level of this lesson was more appropriate to a “6th or 7th grade class?”
I do agree, and even maybe at a lower grade. These are language skills and that translates to the ability to think. Add this to horrible approaches to math (severely limiting the ability to perform at a higher level), and a decidedly leftward cant to history, it is less than surprising the state of the electorate.
Wish you the best. As a teacher where you are....