New Testingstan

So apparently all that worrying about my English paper and history exam grades over the break was for nothing.

I got an 82 on my history exam, and a 93 on my paper. My professor liked my paper so much, she wants me to fix a few of the minor composition mistakes and e-mail it to her to use as an example for future classes.

I was used as an example for future classes once.

A negative example

i miss high school

adr wrote: i miss high school

Sometimes I miss High School too, but that's really more about having unlimited free time.

Oh that too, but school itself was a blast for me too. All kinds of mischief and antics throughout the school day, and beyond the couple times I was lucky enough to score detention.

adr wrote:Oh that too, but school itself was a blast for me too. All kinds of mischief and antics throughout the school day, and beyond the couple times I was lucky enough to score detention.

Before I went back to college, I had dreams where I was still in high school and learning. They stopped when I enrolled three years ago.

My English teachers once made an example out of me, when I wrote an essay outlining why Shakespeare is not ideal for teaching modern youth, and it would be easier in many respects to used modern texts.

My zero was distributed to all classes.

Gands wrote:My English teachers once made an example out of me, when I wrote an essay outlining why Shakespeare is not ideal for teaching modern youth, and it would be easier in many respects to used modern texts.

My zero was distributed to all classes.

I've read your work on the subject and have every reason to believe that this teacher must have harboured a petty vendetta against you.

I'd like to read this essay.

Whether I agree or not, there's no justification for a teacher to single you out in a negative sense just because you argue a position contrary to what they think.

It was handwritten over a decadenago, so no copy is available. My basic argument was at Shakespeare presents an inherent barrier through linguistic differences between then and now. As a result finite class time is wasted explaining what Shakey meant when he wrote that Richard III was determined to prove himself a villain. Furthermore, he is primarily still in use due to momentum. People who were taught Shakespeare went on to teach Shakespeare.

As a solution, I proposed focusing on modern texts that feature the necessary critera (themes, symbolism, etc), and Shakespeare could be saved for advanced students for whom it's easier to teach harder content. I think I proposed using Romeo Must Die, as it has most of the original stuff, plus martial arts.

I wore that zero with pride.

The Scarlet Number

0

While I really like Shakespeare, I think it shouldn't be taught in english classes with the sole exception of video or movies. If people just read Shakespeare without trying to perform it, you lose a lot of the point of it IMO. Movies though show the words as well as the action, which is a great way to put it within context. Plus it's like that old joke from Space Above and Beyond - 'I don't know what they're saying but they sure do mean it.'

But frankly my respect for a lot of english teachers hinged upon how much freedom they gave me for studying texts. Like my old Lit teacher I respect a great deal because he knows a lot and was happy to go into various subjects when he was teaching a text; my year 12 english teacher I didn't respect at all as all she was interested in was teaching what the curriculum said for her to teach and I wound up rebelling more and more in her class and still got A+ out of it. I ended up doing my end of year essay exam on a text she didn't even teach.

Gands teacher/s seem like they would fall under the latter category.

They let us start picking our own texts in years 11 and 12. I picked ds9's final ten eps, and LoTR. My year 11 and 12 teacher for English was really good in that regard. My argument was that wrioting about aliens is the best way to address the human condition.

This wasn't the same teacher who gave you a zero for the Shakespeare essay?

Nope, the teacher who marked my essay was actually the teacher who taight both English and drama. We never actually met, so I'm not sure if she had a grudge or not.

Gands wrote:Nope, the teacher who marked my essay was actually the teacher who taight both English and drama. We never actually met, so I'm not sure if she had a grudge or not.

taight both English and drama.

English and drama.

drama

It sounds like she knew a thing or two about that subject.

Then addressing my argument along with the zero should have been easy.

I think he was cracking a joke about how the drama teacher would make drama about a simple essay.

You see it is a pun or play on words

i totally missed that

well played

evidently my doing poorly in english wasn't all undeserved

learning has to be fun to keep you coming back for more

Hence my multiple attempts at uni.

Once I found media history, everything clicked.

Man that Austria wants Hitler back thread is hilarious. Everyone is making excuses because we all know if those poll results were from America they'd all be questioning the methodology and talking about the Autobahns, right? Right? Right?

I don't think you can have a rational discussion about America over there anymore. Maybe it was possible at some point, but not in the echo chamber.

When July 4th comes around, I think i'm going to try and make an entirely un-ironic Independence Day thread, and see how long it takes to turn into an America-bashing shitfest.

It will take one post.

you mean INSURRECTION DAY amirite???????