Favourite quotes

[Ed]

I couldn't agree more.  On the teacher training course I attended, the tutor was one of those types and she drove me insane.  The bottom line, to my way of thinking, is 'learn or fail' and the didactic approach, combined with hard work and practise, has been time proven to be extremely effective in turning out decent, hard working people, who get things right, instead of failing and then looking for somebody else to blame.

People are coddled to much, I think, and the result is that we turn out generations of inept softies, with no pride, because it's never been earned through hard work and acceptance of failure along the way.

/End rant/

[SharonBell]

 We should introduce the concept of 'deferred success', apparently. 

Hmm.  So, I could tell my students who didn't get their act together in time to graduate for Spring that they will have to defer their success until August...and my colleagues with wretched teaching evaluations, that they'll have to defer their success to another university! I feel a wave of deferred successes coming on! 

[JoyceCarter]

they will have to defer their success

Oh, no - you have the wrong idea.  They HAVE deferred success at graduation.  They'd be up there receiving a scroll saying so, with all their classmates who did get their grades in time.  Otherwise they might get upset! 

Fortunately, MOST teachers greeted this stupid idea with mocking laughter.  Unfortunately, politicians will probably fall upon it with delight and sneak it in through the back door anyway... 

the didactic approach, combined with hard work and practise

The fact that this is right out of fashion actually gives me tutoring work.  I've lost count of the number of children 'having trouble in school' that I've been called to, and found that nobody has ever made clear to them that, in order to know something, you personally, yourself, have to make an effort to learn it.  These poor darlings haven't actually found out that their school textbook has explanations in it of how to do the thing they're so-called 'struggling' with!

[PaulC44446]

I concure! We're way to light with these younger generations. I used to walk 10 miles up hill wih no shoes through 4 feet of snow with 40 mph wind in my unprotected face  with no food in my stomache and backside hurting from the beating the night before everyday to and from school... both ways. Now they won't let my kids walk a 5 minute walk to school because they would have to cross a freeway... keep in mind that this freeway has a 4-way light at the intersection. They say they have to ride the bus or be driven... these are highschool kids by the way. Who's going to hold their hand when they have to cross the street when they're 25? The school?... I doubt it.

PaulC44446

[Walker]

Now they won't let my kids walk a 5 minute walk to school because they would have to cross a freeway... keep in mind that this freeway has a 4-way light at the intersection. They say they have to ride the bus or be driven... these are highschool kids by the way. Who's going to hold their hand when they have to cross the street when they're 25? The school?... I doubt it.

PaulC44446

You just described my 2 nephews to a tee. These 'kids' are so caudled that it's actually infuriating to watch!
Their mother has to come home from work early (she owns her own business) to make sure the 'boys' made it home from school okay, which is 2 blocks away, and to fix them a snack. They're 14 and 16, and can barely even tie their own shoes.
The younger one is already shaving, except he's not-- Are you ready for this?? His mother does it for him!!!
I have to stop now, I'm gettin' pissed off just thinking about it.
This is a 180 degree turn-around from when I was that age. I just don't get it.

[Walker]

Oh, yes. I have a 'quote' that suits my above post. Not really a quote, more of an expression, very fitting for some:

Lazier than a pet 'coon' (raccoon).

[SharonBell]

At the University level, we now get phone calls from parents complaining that Johnny's roommate is slovenly, or that the teacher just doesn't understand Johnny's NEEDS that A to stay on the football team.   

We call them "helicopter parents" b/c they hover and dive in to rescue Johnny or Janie.

I served on the Student Appeals Committee for 6 years--cheating, tossed from dorms, arrested for possession of drugs, selling drugs, etc. The most memorable case was a handsome young man who had copied an entire Psychology journal article, verbatim. Despite thr professor's documentation of extensive lectures, hand-outs and exercises on plagiarism, he claimed he "didn't know." His defense was that it was the professor's job to catch him out early--not to fail him.

His father sat in the room, as a "friendly observer." His mother was forced to stay out of the room. After we decided it was INDEED malicious plagiarism (after he and his father left the room), the staff said it was his SECOND offense.  They get expelled if they get caught twice.

On the other side of the door, we could hear the mother screaming, "He wrote it! I typed the paper for him! It is NOT plagiarism! We've already shipped his car to Florida for his exchange program! You CAN'T DO THIS!!"  They were escorted out of the building by Campus Police.

[JoyceCarter]

I see immediate application for both the Auntie Maude sayings I posted on here earlier!

[Ed]

I would have been mortified if my mother had ever tried to shave me

Mind you, if I had let her get involved with stuff like that, I might never have put aftershave in my bathwater that time

[SharonBell]

OUCH!!! :cry:

[JoyceCarter]

I cannot imagine offering to do that for my son!  I mean, his Dad took him through the procedure, and we stood by for moral support, but, well, that's something everybody has to do for himself... isn't it?

[Ed]

OUCH!!! :cry:

Yep - I did the rain dance that day

[JoyceCarter]

Livened up the important little places, I expect! 

[Ed]

Yes, it was quite an eye-opener, I can tell you   Even after the passage of a quarter of a century, the memory is still fresh in my pants.

[JoyceCarter]

Can you think of a suitable quote, though?  Can you quote what you said at the time?  (I can make a few guesses!)