Or they could work on policies that reward significant improvement throughout the year. A rough start can be just that. Mandating that everything is at least 50%, even when a student gets a 0%, is a terrible idea.
Really, I have no problem with a "lousy start" policy of some sort, but to guarantee 50% while other students are giving and earning 100% annoys me to no end. How about simply this, guarantee that all quizzes and tests can be made up after hours (before/after class) that were taken in the first half of the semester for a maximum score of 80% of the total points awarded (gotta at least give a small late bloomer penalty)? Higher of the 2 scores will apply. Thoughts there?
Cool, now if I'm really good in that subject (math comes to mind), I can just skip the entire first half of each semester and still get a B in the class!
Ever taken a math class... generally you can't skip the first half (fundamentals) and pass the second half (more advanced stuff). And while that might not motivate students to "be your best!", if the student is smart enough to pull that off... well I guess being smart does have benefits!
In my high school, there was a kid in the class that graduated the year before my class came in as freshman who only showed up to classes for quizes and tests all four years. He graduated with a B or B- average.
After he graduated and it was brought to the attention of parents and school administrators, a new rule was put in place that any student absent from a class more than a certain number of days during the year (I think it was 20 or so) for any reason could (at the discretion of the teacher) be failed.
In my high school, there was a kid in the class that graduated the year before my class came in as freshman who only showed up to classes for quizes and tests all four years. He graduated with a B or B- average.
That's not an example of a school failing to challenge a student. That's an example of a lazy student. Maybe he's a smart slacker, but at the end of the day, he's still just a slacker. What the hell does it matter if he's smart if he won't apply himself?
Imagine you were put in a classroom with a load of infants chanting basic sums "2 plus 2 is 4, 2 plus 3 is 5" etc.
When there is no purpose in you being there how long before you get so sick of it that you stop turning up?
That isn't lazyness. Lazyness is being unwilling to work. The "work" in this case is learing math and if he already knew all the material that well then it just means he did all the "work" long before everyone else.
I hope to god you're not a teacher.
I slept through most of my 1st year computer sciene lectures and still came top of my class. Why? I read the books, did the assignments and studied the material as soon as I got them rather than wait to be pushed to leaving me painfully bored in class. But if you want to call that lazyness...
I hardly turn up for any classes at uni, if it's not mandatory. I find it extremely boring to sit through a lecture that takes two hours which I could read up on at home in half the time. sitting through a lecture has so much resistance - getting to uni, sifting through the crowd, all the chattering going on during the lecture, etc etc. waste of time.
Depends on how you learn. Many people simply can't learn from just reading... their brains aren't wired that way. And that's assuming that the books are any good to start with... I know that many times in my engineering classes the instructor would go on a tangent about something that was quite important, but wasn't in the book, or was just glossed over in the book. And by going to class, you learn what you're going to be tested on.
Disobedience: The silver lining to the cloud of servitude.
-- Ambrose Bierce
Or more reasonable policies (Score:5, Insightful)
Or they could work on policies that reward significant improvement throughout the year. A rough start can be just that. Mandating that everything is at least 50%, even when a student gets a 0%, is a terrible idea.
Re: (Score:5, Interesting)
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Cool, now if I'm really good in that subject (math comes to mind), I can just skip the entire first half of each semester and still get a B in the class!
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Re: (Score:5, Insightful)
In my high school, there was a kid in the class that graduated the year before my class came in as freshman who only showed up to classes for quizes and tests all four years. He graduated with a B or B- average.
After he graduated and it was brought to the attention of parents and school administrators, a new rule was put in place that any student absent from a class more than a certain number of days during the year (I think it was 20 or so) for any reason could (at the discretion of the teacher) be failed.
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That's not an example of a school failing to challenge a student. That's an example of a lazy student. Maybe he's a smart slacker, but at the end of the day, he's still just a slacker. What the hell does it matter if he's smart if he won't apply himself?
As Edison said, genius is 1% inspiration and 9
Re:Or more reasonable policies (Score:3, Insightful)
Imagine you were put in a classroom with a load of infants chanting basic sums "2 plus 2 is 4, 2 plus 3 is 5" etc.
When there is no purpose in you being there how long before you get so sick of it that you stop turning up?
That isn't lazyness. Lazyness is being unwilling to work. The "work" in this case is learing math and if he already knew all the material that well then it just means he did all the "work" long before everyone else.
I hope to god you're not a teacher.
I slept through most of my 1st year computer sciene lectures and still came top of my class. Why? I read the books, did the assignments and studied the material as soon as I got them rather than wait to be pushed to leaving me painfully bored in class. But if you want to call that lazyness...
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bah!
*learning not learing
*science not sciene
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Depends on how you learn. Many people simply can't learn from just reading... their brains aren't wired that way. And that's assuming that the books are any good to start with... I know that many times in my engineering classes the instructor would go on a tangent about something that was quite important, but wasn't in the book, or was just glossed over in the book. And by going to class, you learn what you're going to be tested on.