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Originally posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.
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As a someone who teaches at the jr. H.S. and H.S. level I most certainly do expect students at that age to be able to sit attentively and listen to an adult and to be able to ask intelligent questions.
School sports in the U.S. is supposed to be part of the learning experience (I do not necessarily buy into that school of thought). The quality of education in the U.S. is a major concern to the citizens of this country. One major problem with quality of education is that we do not demand more of our students and their parents. Telling me that 7th and 8th grade students are not capable of sitting attentively and listen to an adult for one hour is a classic example of the dumbing down of our students.
There have been a number of times when I have been told by a mathematics teacher, for whom I have substituted, that I am teaching over her students'heads. When following a teacher's instructions to go over a homework assignment, I have found that the students do not even know how to set up the problem to be able attempt a solution. Instead they are shown example problems which are very simplistic, but the teachers do not follow up with more demanding problems that require the students to think logically, and in the process discover how the example problems relate to a similar problem.
Today's students are more sophisticated than we think. We need to challenge. We do not challenge them because we do not want anybody to fail. But we cannot learn unless we do fail sometimes. [/QUOTE]
Mr. Denucci,
Thank you for pointing out the educational concerns of the country. I had no idea that citizens here cared about the quality of the learning that takes place in our public schools. I'm sure I'll be a better parent/concerned citizen from now on.
I think you have read way too much into my original post. I absolutely believe that 7th and 8th graders are completely capable of sitting still and paying attention for an hour, but honestly, how many of them actually will do this? This has nothing to do with "dumbing down" anyone. It is a simple fact. In a gym with various distractions (visual, audible, the person sitting next to them, the cute girl who walks through, etc.) they will not pay much attention to anyone, especially not a referee who they believe to be old and incompetent. I have a difficult time getting a HS senior (and captain of his team) to pay attention for a 1 minute pre-game meeting. Every player out there is capable of listening and understanding everything I say in this meeting, but is amazing how little they hear and retain. Why? Because they don't care what I have to say.
I agree that kids today are sophisticated and very bright. They are rarely challenged to exceed and succeed by their teachers. I interact with teenagers (who are not my children--mine are still quite young) almost daily in parts of my personal life. I am very well acquainted with their lives, capabilities and challenges--their attention span is largely a factor of the respect that they give to the person in front of them--not the message.
As I said before, take the 15 minutes, hit the high spots and answer every question. Be sure to thank the coach for the time.
[Edited by stripes on Sep 27th, 2001 at 03:48 PM]