Posted on 08/16/2013 6:52:53 PM PDT by thecodont
Thanks for offering that new data point for the academic quality scale.
Good
Adequate
Ridiculously Crappy.
I can’t believe that even at college no one ever encouraged him to get a good basic dictionary and read, looking up unfamiliar words. All he has to do to get his grammar and sentence structure in shape is READ. He could start with classic children’s books like the Jungle Book, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Treasure Island, Swiss Family Robinson and dozens of others. He probably would have been in 7th heaven not only becoming familiar with good grammar and expanding his vocabulary and understanding, but getting to experience the same adventures that have nurtured, inspired and challenged so many successful, confident and happy people.
He gets an A- in the pretend class.
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However, there are plenty of pretend classes for whites and Latinos, as well.
Not that I ever took one, of course! :-)
When I was in South Korea, I was an English writing tutor. Most of my students were the same as Keshawn but after a few months of intensive training I turned them around. The first step is to get them to recognize how awful they’re writing is and provide suggestions to improve it. The strategy is not an overnight solution, but takes weeks and likely months before they can write well-crafted essays. Writing is more of a hands-on practice. In my class I would tell students to write and when they submitted their essays I would pull out my scary red pen and they had to watch the editing process. At first, it was painful for them but after a few weeks, the students were much happier because they noticed less red on their essays.
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Excellent account. Have you ever even taken formal ESL training? My guess is you haven’t, but you obviously figured out how to teach one of the most difficult parts of English, if you got these kids to write decently.
How did you work on pronuciation? In my experience, the English vowels — especially short vowels (a, i, u) — seem virtually unconquerable by East Asians, though I confess I have never actually taught formally, as you have. I just have simply noticed this over the years.
I just focused on writing. I was a terrible ESL speaking teacher. I’m a journalist by nature, which means I love to find fault with everything even if it makes me look like a hypocrite. Well, this makes for a good writing teacher, especially when I got my trusty red pen to do the talking for me. After a month or two, some parents would offer me higher pay and I did not have to ask for it. Many of my students had won English essay writing contests. I anticipated that everybody would a bad writer when they start with me and my goal is to turn a bad writer into an adequate writer and if they remain persistent, perhaps I could turn them into a good writer too. I always had low expectations and required my students to prove me wrong. Many Koreans have an arrogant streak so they would just work hard, since their arrogance motivated them to say to themselves, “my teacher thinks I’m a bad writer but he’s wrong and I will show him.”
“Sesquipedalian bafflegab” Ahem, anybody see my dictionary? Not that I need it!
I also know that if he actually composed the papers for his African American Studies course, those papers were equally incomprehensible.How would anyone know? After all, Ebonics, Kwanza...
Reaction to African American Studies course grade: "YO,b***h... "Fo real n*****r?"
Or not so subtle, like...
"a cramped room on a dorm floor that Cal reserves for black students.
Precisely. This kid was an 'A' student compared to the slop that surrounded him. So when it came time to graduate, he knew most of the alphabet, and that was leaps and bounds ahead of the 'C' students who only knew it up to 'G'. That's the government schools for you.
Please don't tell me your son's name is Art Vandelay...
A course of studies taken by people who want to prepare for the only job that course of studies prepares you for... teaching African American Studies.
/facepalm
I had to look up the name you referenced. I haven't watched TV since 2000.
Sorry for the obscure reference (although Seinfeld did end around 2000). It was Dennis Miller on quaaludes.
Sometimes I amuse myself at other’s expense.
FRegards,
LH
Here is a guaranteed scholar, a national brain from a minority high school, 4.06 grade point average who suddenly finds himself in college, a CALIFORNIA college at that, and can't do well in anything but "African American Studies". Why is that?
Part of the black exceptionalism thing. Look at this statement from the article:
"It was so rare to have a kid like Kashawn, especially an African American male, wanting that badly to go to college," said Jeremy McDavid, a former Jefferson vice principal. "We got together as a staff and decided that this kid, we cannot let him down."
Exactly what did they do to "not let him down?" Grade inflation? Preferential race bias? Brainwashing? (the student did have a journal of sorts crammed with all kinds of propagandist encouragement statements). The truth is that there are many college freshmen out there who have been the recipients of an easy tenure in high school who hit that brick wall of disillusionment and final understanding at a tough college. They aren't as smart as they thought they were. All those AP classes were ego-boosters that didn't amount to much in a rigorous college. In the end, when you go for a job, it's your knowledge that counts, and even a 4.0 out of college isn't the golden ticket; it may get you an interview, but a company that knows what it's doing is going to grill you relentlessly during the interview process to find out if that 4.0 is the real thing.
About the only thing missing in this pity party treatise is it doesn't finally come down to blaming the college because of its own racism.
“sesquipedalian bafflegab”
I love that. That’s a keeper.
There’s a great Keenan Ivory Wayans sketch from the much missed show In Living Color that parodies the tendency towards the above. It wouldn’t be so funny if it wasn’t taking aim at a reasonably common occurrence.
In Living Color Oswald Bates Meets the Parole Board Season 2 Episode 15
http://youtu.be/TexL-eyZHzo
Isn’t Berkley one of the hardest for admittance?...
If thats the case, then what program did Keshawn
enter and/or did he bump someone who was a better student
that worked harder , longer ..?
Affirmative Action.
Obviously, the bar at his old high school was set artificially low such that a top student there would be a mediocre student elsewhere. He probably should never have been admitted to Berkeley, but he is where he is. Even though he just got through by the skin of his teeth at Berkeley (thanks to African American studies), I hope he keeps at it and gradually improves.
Wow -— and wow again. From Thomas More! I am in awe.
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