Will being ‘fair’ push students to succeed?
Will being “fair” help students to succeed? Lowering of standards would help all students succeed and pass on to the next grade level. What do you think?
Will being “fair” help students to succeed? Lowering of standards would help all students succeed and pass on to the next grade level. What do you think?
October 9th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
I think it is not right for teachers and administration people to be “fair” to boys and girls in school.
I think this because if the school tries to be “fair and just passes kids through school, when they go to the real world they will end up working at McDonald’s or some kind of job that gives you eight bucks an hour. You can then hardly pay for Christmas presents for your family and that is one reason to push students to succeed.
Another reason that teachers should “push” kids to succeed is Hawaiians are the number one race to go to jail, do drugs and are not very educated. So the teachers should push us so we can be successful people in life and have a good job and represent the Hawaiian people as good people and not people who go to jail and do drugs.
I can understand how people are getting at the fairness thing because if they are in a low income school and they do not have as much money as other people do and they have a hard time living and finding food and things that you need to live and they fell bad for them so they are being easier on them and letting them pass becasue there life is hard enough but, since that is they should “push” them more so they can succeed in their poor family and that will make their family proud so they can get a good job so they don’t have to live like how they used to!
October 9th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
I believe that standards should be higher. What happens when the students who had it easy get into the real world and they think that they are so smart, but when they try to get a job they are denied and can only get the lowest paying jobs.
October 9th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
To me, Mr. Sowell’s article about fairness is great, but I am going against Arturo Gonzalez because he wants to stop the test that high schoolers have to take to get their diploma.
My first argument is that if the schools are “fair,” they are just setting the kid up to trip and fall in the world. If all schools are fair, they adjust the school standerds to what the kids can do so that all the kids pass.
My second argument is that I think that this is a publicity stunt so that more people send their kids to that high school. They want the parents to say “ Oh, all the kids from that school got A’s in all of their subjects and they passed with flying colors. Their teachers must be very good teachers”.
My third argument is that I think that the teachers just don’t want the kids back the next year because they flunked. They don’t want to teach the same people over and over again.
I understand that some of the teachers want their kids to move on but they have to understand that the only thing that they are doing is hurting them for the future. They have to keep the standards up because it will give them the chance out in the world.
So all the schools should keep the standards up because they will help the kids prepare for their futures.
October 9th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
When a teacher lowers the standards, they allow all the kids to pass just because the teachers are lazy and they just pass the problem on to their next teacher. We should really push for high standards so the students can succeed in the real world.
October 9th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
I believe that being fair will not help you be sucsessful in the future because it is so much harder than school to survive in the real world. What will happen when they are unprepared when they get into the real world and end up in low income housing. We will be paying for them.
October 9th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
I think that it isn’t good to be “fair” to the students.
I think this because if teachers don’t challenge us and keep everything all easy and simple throughout the time that we’re in school, WE will have to pay big time later on because of our past teachers who didn’t tell us the truth before we had time to change our bad habits.
Another reason why I think that being “fair” isn’t good for students is because it hurts everyone. It hurts the students because it doesn’t prepare them for reality. It hurts the teachers because they know that the students and their parents don’t know that their child is struggling to keep up with the class.
I can undestand why people like Artuo Ganzeldez think that we should be “fair” to everyone. What I’m guessing is that he might have had it hard when he was younger and he doesn’t want anyone else to feel like they’re dumb or stupid.
If you want to be smart and inventing new things, then I would be studying right now and doing your best. But, if you want to stay low and work at McDonalds, then I would watch t.v.
My froggy-> .:-:.
October 9th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
The teachers may think that if they fail the kids, they are hurting their self-esteem but if you don’t hurt them now you will hurt them for the rest of their lives. We should push the Hawaiian people because they are the ones who are in jail and on drugs.
October 9th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
My thesis is that we should be challenged. We should raise the standard so we don’t suffer in the future and change the world’s thought of the Hawaiians not being able to rule our own country.
My first argument is that we should be pushed to make good decisions in our life that we won’t regret. Let’s try our hardest to finish what we are given to do for any kind of work.
#2 We should not fail our future families because if you can’t think you’re are not going to get a good job to buy things for your family.
#3 If we don’t start paying our full participation to work and study you are gioing to want to go back in time and not do what you did. Even if you are not that smart you can imagine anything and work on it to improve on the world.
October 9th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Maybe we should have a diffcult test to pass high school and maybe that would help to stop more people from coming into low income housing.
October 9th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
I think that like you said, we should raise the floor instead of lowering the ceiling. When we raise the floor, things get easier for us so we need to move up, then when we get to our highest point we will be good at that subject. But, if we lower the ceiling, we will get so used to just doing minimum that that minimum will become your average instead of average being our average.
my froogy -> .:-:.
October 9th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
I agree with Carson, maybe we should have a test for us to pass thru high school, like the test we took at the beginning of the year but has more thinking to it to raise the standards a little bit.
my froggy -> .:-:.
October 9th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
I feel that lowering the standards would help kids end up on the street in the long run. Some people on the street end up that way because they don’t try hard enough or don’t make a strong effort to succeed. They end up on the street because they think that life is easy, that others will do the work for them and they don’t try to get a job that can pay for their food or place to live. Sometimes they end up with no job at all. If teachers lowered the standard students would either stay at the same level or drop down a level. In other words people tend to get lazy when their goals are not challenging. Don’t lower the standards so you don’t have to go through all this trouble.
October 9th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
I am for raising the floor and not for lowering the celling. I have three ways to argue with raising the floor.
I think that we shouldn’t lower the net because we have to learn to do lots of good things in the world and not work for Mcdonald’s. If we don’t, we will fail in the world. If we do, we will get good jobs like doctors, engineers, and business owners.
If we lower the net we are going to get bad jobs. But the teachers, parents, and students will feel better about themselves.
Those are my thoughts.
October 9th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
I don’t think that being fair will help students to succeed in school. If the teachers don’t go hard on students, then they will be shocked by the comings and goings of the world. It’s as if you are a small little mouse and the world is a big cat that’s gaining on you. I think that schools shouldn’t have to teach the same way and that if teachers can do better than the education program, then go ahead and do better!
I think that students should strive to learn more so that they will know how to face the real world. Those teachers out there, are just teaching children how to cower in a corner instead of teaching them how to stand proud and strong. Like you said, raise the floor so that they are being pushed to do well. Don’t lower the ceiling and trap them in “minimum land.”
I think that Mr. Gonzalez was tring to do what he belived was right but, was it a good thing for those students? I think that Mr. Gonzalez should have thought about those kids and tried to see the effect it would have on them as they grew older. I am glad that most schools did establish the rule that the students have to pass a test before they moved up. I wonder, why did Mr. Gonzalez think that education should be made to match the standards of the students who were doing poorly? It wouldn’t be “fair” to the students who were exceeding and doing well.
Some people may think it’s O.K. to lower the standards for kids but all they are doing for them is nothing. When kids do what they already know how to do, it’s easy, but it’s not teaching them anything. I think that teachers should push them really hard to suceed. Then, kids will be able to survive on their own.
People should really think about education and how important it is.
October 9th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
I think that teachers should be more like Mr.Chung! He pushes you and we will soon thank him when we are not working @ McDonalds, but when we are doctors or something like that. That is why I think that the teachers don’t need to be fair. If they are, they are not helping the children one little bit. So that is why I think there should be a law or if there is one, they should enforce the law more about having a certain level in which the children are learning @! We enforce that law, then we (students) will become a better student and help our community more when we are smarter! We should make a new law!
I think that if we raise the standards, then the students of the 21st century will be smarter and advance our technology even more than it is now. So if you look @ people who are old-schooled and a student now you can see a BIG difference. If we raise the standards then maybe we can just have the world a better place.
October 9th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
I think that If the teachers want a good reputation then yeah fine pass the kid but all the teachers are doing is just creating a world were none of us know what to do and pretty soon U.S will have the lowest standerds if we don’t already. I mean if yo look @ africa or somplace like that you see the African kids speakking more then one language and here some people don’t even speak proper english! So if the african’s struggle to get n education then why can’t we have our kids do the same?!
October 9th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
I think that if you was to be fair we will have higher grades but we won’t
be getting any smarter and then when we get to middle school we are going to have a really hard time doing are work and stuff. If it is not fair then we will start getting more resposible and we will start getting things in on time and get smarter. It is better being not fair for example making us chant because we were being too noisy or giving us 80 page math packet for not being respectful to people or sending us to study hall or tutering for not doing are work because were going to have more responsibility and then we are going to learn that are really capable of doing fifth grade stuff and then when we master fifth grade we will be ready for sixth and seventh grade and we don’t have to worry.
October 9th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
I think that teachers should not lower the standards, because if they do then students will easily pass and won’t learn anything because they aren’t being challenged and won’t improve. Some people lower the standards because they think it’s helping the kids but it’s really hurting them. They would get worse because they are doing the same things over and over again. If they pass students freely they are going to think that they are really smart, but when they go into the real world they are only going to get a very low paying job, all because the teachers were trying to be fair.
October 9th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
I like Carson’s idea about a hard test to pass high school.
Also teachers should most definitely push students. You shouldn’t even have to ask that question!!!!! DUH!!
Isnt that what school is—to push kids to learn?
If the parents didn’t want the kids to be pushed they would teach them kindergarten stuff until the kids realize they are late on what they are supposed to know for their age??
It’s common sense…Right??
That’s just like leading your kid to New York streets…are you guys watching a movie on this?
October 9th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
I think that it’s o.k. for teachers to be fair and respect their students but not to the point where standards will be lowered just to help students to succeed and pass on to the next grade.
Teachers should push their students because it will pay off in the future. I think that it’s important that parents and teachers prepare students for the real world. In the real world, standards would not be lowered in college or in a professional career.
I also think that if teachers don’t challenge their students, students will get bored and will never reach what they are actually capable of doing. Students will never reach their full potential and may be quick to give up or quit when they are faced with a challenge.
I think that some teachers lower the standards because they don’t want to face the parents and want the students to feel good about themselves. Teachers think that they are helping their students by doing this but these students will struggle in the next grade when they get a teacher that doesn’t believe in lowering the roof.
So teachers out there, push your students because if you don’t and you lower the standards, it will hurt them in the future. Teachers should push their students to their full potential because they will become successful and be thankful that you did challenge them!
October 9th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
I agree with Thomas Sowell that being ”fair” to students won’t push students to succeed.
I disagree with teachers who think of being fair to everyone, and not helping the students who need help is just plain selfish. I think it is selfish because if you give someone an A+ on a test even though they don’t deserve it, that student will think they are smart, even though when the years go by, they will fall behind and get dumber.
I also disagree with schools making their standards lower to make the students who need help in learning pass classes, and the people who are smart not as smart by not making them work as hard as they can and letting them cruise. I think instead of bringing the standards lower, the teachers should bring the standards higher and work with the students who need help learning so they get better and the smart people are being challenged too. In the end, through hard work everybody will really feel good about themselves because they worked hard.
I think it is good that to get a diploma you have to take a test to see if they had real knowledge. Even though people don’t like it, people have to be ready for the world of high expectations if they want to succeed, and if they don’t meet the expectations they will have a low paying job and be filled with regret.
October 9th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Great discussion! So this is where all the bloggers are hanging out….
I am encouraged by all of the comments that I have read so far. You students will achieve success because of the standards that you set for yourselves (and not by the standards or “lack of standards” set by others.) Choose to live an extraordinary life! Imua.
October 10th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
If we continue lowering the standards, we won’t get anywhere in life! We will all end up working at McDonalds or Pizza Hut!
Or if we higher the standards we will expand our learning skills and become successful docters and teachers.
I think that educators should have higher standerds because this will help us in the long run. If they don’t, we will learn less, have an easy time in school, and we won’t be ready for the world when we’re on our own. In college and at a professional job, your boss or teachers WON’T lower the standards for you.
Some teachers are lowering the standerds believing they are helping the students by giving them less work, but THEY are just making it worse.
October 10th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
I think that teachers need to push his or her students. They should be more like Mr. Chung and Mrs. Burgess. They push us and make us work. Like last year I don’t think I was pushed enough ,and I knew I could do better. But I slacked so I didn’t work my hardest. I think that we need to be pushed and I think that teachers don’t have to be fair but they do need to push thier students.
October 10th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
This is what I think about pushing students.Teachers NEED to push students. Isn’t that the point of school?????????? I think that teachers can be nice to the students sometimes. But they can’t be NICE ALL THE TIME because if he/she goes in to the real world, he/she won’t know what to do and might end up homeless and have NO friends at all. So if you don’t want to be homeless and have no friends you should do something about it NOW. Mr.Chung was right. If you don’t know your math, you should improve now because you might get a job that you need to know your math. ByE bYe!!!
October 10th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
In my opinion, the teachers lower standards in school because they think they are doing something for the students, but they are actually making school harder for them. Because when they go into middle school and into real life you aren’t going to have a clue to what you’re doing in life. I also agree with Mahea on how she said that some teachers need to be more like Mr.Chung and Mrs.Burgess. I agree with her because in the begining of the year I was doing ok, but when the year moved on I started to slack not only in my homeroom but even in some of my special classes. Mr.Chung really pushed me hard to finish my work.
Another reason why I think it isn’t right for the teachers to lower our standards is they would be not only be cheating themselves in life, but they are also cheating us students and our parents because they are making our parents think that we are doing so well in school, but they don’t know that we’re actually getting worse then we ever were before. The reason for this is because if you do younger students work you are probably not going to be doing the work that you are supposed to be doing for your grade level and you are never going to get good at it.
October 10th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
I agree with Trevis. I think that we go to school to learn, not for people to feel sorry for us and give us easier work!! Kids need to be pushed to learn (not all the time). If teachers don’t push students in certain subjects then he/she will have a harder time in the real world. But then again, I don’t think that it is right to push students too much. Example: if someone doesn’t know their times tables and everyone else knew all of them, do you think that the teacher should push the student to learn them….So teachers, if you want your students to work at Mc.Donald’s then go ahead and don’t push your students. But, if you agree and want your students to have good jobs, push your students to do their best!!
October 10th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
I don’t think lowering the standards and passing students to the next grade level would be fair. The students would be cheated out of getting a good education that our parents have strived for. School should not be easier because we would get passing grades for tasks that are lower than our level. If our teacher gives us school work that is easy, we wouldn’t be learning much. We would be cheating ourselves. School should be challenging and not easy.
October 10th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
I feel that teachers should put students at the highest of their standards. The teachers may feel sorry for them, but they shouldn’t lower their standards. If the kids are in 3rd grade and they are learning 1st grade work they will end up in the same place they had started. They won’t be abe to face the real world. And you know what? It is not really their fault. It is not because they are dumb. It’s because their teachers lowered their standards and they were never taught the things they needed to know later in life.
Before we were taught this I used to think, why are my teachers being so harsh? Well, after the lesson I started to understand. They were trying to put us to our highest standards. I realized they are trying to lead us down the right road. By this I mean, they aren’t going to be holdng our hands right next to us for our whole lives. We are at some point going to have to face the real world by ourselves, with no one to guide us. when you want to get a high quality job you should be able to look back into all of those school of years and use the things you learned. If the teachers lower kids standards why should they even be there? They aren’t learning anything. Isn’t school about learning!?
If teachers feel sorry for a student they should not lower their standards. Some day a problem they faced in school and the teachers never did anything about it, and they said everything will be fine, but really it wasn’t, and that problem will show up again. And you know what, they never knew how to face it back then, so they definitely won’t know how to face it in the real world. They won’t have anyone to guide them, and the problem will come back to them even bigger.
And Mr. Chung, I now understand that you have been giving your kids algebra because you are trying to get them to their highest standards. And they will get much further in life. So, I think teachers should not be fair, but push their students to succeed.
October 10th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
I don’t think that being fair will help students to succeed because giving people the easy way out just makes it harder for that person. When they enter the next grade, they won’t be prepared with the amount of knowledge that they need to succeed in that area or subject.
October 10th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
Telling a student that they are doing good and giving them tests that are for 3rd graders just so they have confidence is one thing that might help them in the short run but will be ineffective in the long run because they won’t know math or english, etc. So I know that Mr. Gonzales is just trying to show his point and all…bla,bla,blabity,bloo, but he should think ahead of what might happen to them in the future if schools go “easy” on them. OH RIGHT and brandon it’s wailani not 203.
October 10th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
I agree with Mariko & TrEvIs. You go to school to learn and every job requires math and if you don’t know simple English you can’t get a good job. Even an artist needs to know their math to get their supplies. Man and if you get married and have a kid and he/she needs help with his/her homework. Get my “gig”? huh?
October 11th, 2007 at 5:57 am
I do not agree with Gonzales because he wants to let people have a easy time in school just because they have a rough life. But if you do not push people to do good they won’t have a successful lfe like they want to have. They will still have a rough life because in school they just cruised. That is why I do not agree with Gonzales.
October 11th, 2007 at 7:13 am
I think you shouldn’t be “fair” to kids because it won’t make them smarter, it will just make them feel good that they passed something they already knew. Teachers should push kids harder to their full potential to succeed in their life. I also agree with Nanea.
October 11th, 2007 at 7:45 am
I agree with Trevis and Keau. Teachers need to be more strict on tests and homework. If you were in 5th grade and someone gave you 4th and 3rd grade tests you would ace them all but wouldn’t get any smarter. You would have a hard time in the next grade when you get a stricter teacher.
October 11th, 2007 at 7:51 am
I think it’s not fair that teachers just teach kids EASY stuff. You know, just to pass. Well, it’s not going to be good! In the future for the people who are having it “easy” are not going to SUCCEED in their future. So too bad for those people! Hopefully, kids can have agreat future!
October 11th, 2007 at 10:25 am
Sometimes I think that being fair will push sudents to suceeed because being unreasonable is unfair but I only think of like that when I am really confused or frustrated about my school work. Other than that I think it is totally wrong for teachers to give their students chances because you are not preparing them for the next grade.
October 11th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
I say, teachers, push your students to work hard if you care about our future. Oh and if teachers take it easy on people, students should say, ” Can you give it to us a little harder, and stop teaching us easy stuff.” But the sad part is that we don’t say anything!
October 11th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
I think that being fair to children in school is not fair at all. I think we should push children to their real standards, not just any kind of easy work and things that we already know. It’s not right to be giving the students work that isn’t up to their actual standards. The teachers should not be lowering their standards and pushing them away from getting them ready for the next grade.
It is weird how some people say all these things online but don’t do anything about it. Or some people say that it is not fair to lower standards, but in class when they don’t get something, they think the teacher is not being fair, and that it’s TOO HARD. But it really isn’t that hard, they just really have to think about it and try for higher standards.
October 13th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
I didn’t read the article you folks read, but I think the point of view of the author may have been too simplified. I’ll have to ask Mr. Chung to post the article, or go see if it is here and I just missed it.
Teachers talk about this issue a lot so I think I can predict some of the things the author may have written.
I think my answer to the author would be:
“Lowering standards isn’t the only choice!”
There are other things to do to help struggling students, that are fair, that aren’t lowering standards.
I’m not sure if the article talked about any of the other choices or only discussed what the students mentioned in their comments above.
I agree that standards should remain high, but I think there is more than one way to measure how students reach the standards.
I think schools sometimes only measure knowledge one way, using written products.
I think there are a lot of other ways for students to show what they know.
Some kids can do things, and talk about things, choose the right answer from several choices, make a prediction, or build, draw or demonstrate things that they may not be able to explain well in written words, (and finish in half an hour).
If kids are good at thinking but not writing or not talking, people sometimes think they are dumb.
Here are some real life examples of people who can “do” things.
Wouldn’t you rather have a house built by a person who has practice building good homes and understands how all the pieces fit together, rather than by someone who has written and read a lot about building but never done it? Do contractors only pass written tests or do we look at the quality of homes they build?
Would you rather ride in a bus or plane with someone who drives or pilots well, or someone who has read all about it, and written a lot about it, but never done it? Somebody could know how to take a car apart, name all the pieces and put it all together again, but not be able to drive safely. Do drivers or pilot only take written tests or do they take driving tests too?
Sometimes people do understand ideas, or know how to do things, but they may not be able to put what they know in writing.
We sometimes don’t see learning disabilities that could keep people from being good at writing, like Dyslexia, or memory weaknesses, or slow thinking or working speeds, as easily as we see people with physical disabilities. So, we don’t think about changing things a bit so they can express what they know and show what they can do in other ways. There are some times when we do make accommodations though, and nobody argues that it is lowering standards.
We don’t think it is unfair to give a student glasses or hearing aides or a wheel chair.
We wouldn’t make a paraplegic take a swimming test in PE, or make a blind student take a test identifying pictures by famous artists.
We wouldn’t make a child sing in choir without their hearing aid just because none of the other kids have hearing aids. Nobody would ever say the hearing aids were unfair or lowering standards.
Those examples seem silly.
But, sometimes we make Dyslexic students take spelling tests or grade them down on their writing ability when they misspell words.
If their ideas are organized, they use colorful vocabulary, and give supporting details when they write, do you think it fair to lower their grade because many of the words are misspelled?
Would it be lowering standards to let a Dyslexic student use a spell checker or word processor for a test or project?
If you let a blind person talk their ideas into a tape recorder, why isn’t it fair to let a Dyslexic person talk their ideas too?
If a student can get all the answer right on a math test, but it takes them a long time. Is it fair to give them a timed test? Does working slowly mean you don’t understand math, or that you just need more time to think and write?
What if they can calculate all the right answers all the time but can’t explain in words what they were thinking? Does this mean they don’t understand math or that they aren’t good at writing down their ideas?
Does giving them more time, or just grading their calculations sometimes, lower standards?
Some of the 6th grade teachers and I are reading a book called, “Fair Isn’t Always Equal.”
It is sort of about how to give each student what they need rather than giving all student the same thing.
We don’t give wheel chairs and glasses and hearing aids to everyone, but we don’t ever complain that it is unfair or lowering standards to give these things to the kids who need them.
Maybe it isn’t lowering standards to give some students more time to work, or let them complete fewer problems if the ones they do are all correct. Maybe it is fair let some students take a multiple choice or matching or fill in the blank test rather than producing a 5 page project.
Maybe different people are good at different things. Maybe everyone isn’t supposed to just be good at writing.
There is a story, called Animal School, about forest parents starting a school for their children. Racoons, squirrels, rabbits, turtles and owls go to a school to take classes in flying, tree climbing, digging, swimming and hopping. Poor little rabbit is going to flunk flying and swimming, and his parents are going to take away hopping until he learns how to swim. Too bad the final test isn’t just being able to transport yourself from one place to another in the best way you know how. All the animals could pass then because they each are able to move well in their own way.
This story is a simple example of what it is like for some students who don’t do well in the school skills the way we usually measure them. They would do well in a school that had core subjects in talking, football, singing, drawing, sitting quietly and thinking, basketball, making friends, telling jokes, dancing and soccer. Can you imagine your parents taking away after school math and spelling clubs until you can shoot 10 baskets in a row and get an E in basketball? Well, some of us can dream.
Hopefully you can start to see why I think it is too simple to just say the choice is between lowering standards or continuing to just evaluate students as we traditionally have, giving timed, written tests.
I absolutely do think it is fair for teachers to make accommodations like: giving kids more time to complete assignments, having someone read to them, or write for them, listening to them talk and watching them work to see if they show what they know, and giving multiple choice tests sometimes rather than always grading everything in writing.
The problem with providing some accommodations is that we need to give teachers time to plan the different options and evaluate students in varied ways. We need to change report cards so they can reflect the different types of assessments.
Also, It is sometimes hard to tell if a student has a learning disability or if they are just disorganized or irresponsible.
Sometimes when something is hard to do, or very complicated, it is just easier to not do it.
I sometimes think people who argue that making accommodations is unfair or lowering standards just don’t understand how to do it or think it is just too hard to do.
Or, maybe they’ve never met anyone who is really smart and can do lots of things, but doesn’t write well.
Or, maybe writing is so easy for them, they can’t understand why everyone else can’t do it the way an eagle couldn’t imagine a rabbit not being able to fly.
I think they could learn to make accommodations for students while keeping standards high if they just open their minds up just a bit to try to see this issue from another point of view.
I think eventually, the evaluation of a good teacher is going to include being able to teach and evaluate students in a variety of ways that match the way varied students learn best. Lots of educators actually already hold this opinion.
Change happens slowly and some people change more quickly than others.
I’ll be patient with the ones who are still working on expanding their point of view because I know even grown ups need a little more time to think and understand when they are learning and growing.
October 15th, 2007 at 10:26 am
I think that everyone should be fair to anyone even if you hate those people.
We are all different, but we should not treat each other unfairly. I think that teachers should not treat any students or other teachers unfairly.
October 15th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Being fair won’t help. The people you’re being fair to are going to end up in the same place that they are in at the moment, in the gutter or the ghetto.
We should be given harder lessons that would be challenging to us.
October 15th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
I agree with Brook. But, I don’t think that it is right to push students too far because sometimes some people take a little longer than other people to learn things. But, most times being fair won’t help.
October 16th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
NO! NEVER! Why should we be happy and maybe a little too happy in school and then BLAH,BLAH,BLAH,WHATEVAH!, we’ll go out and be unprepared! Jees!
October 17th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Yeah Keao but do you want your teacher to be way toooo MEAN…I wouldn’t want that. So you think that all of the teachers should give all of their students triple as much work just to push them!!…..
I know what you are saying and I agree, I just don’t think that teachers should push students too much. Teachers should work with students that don’t learn as fast but should push them at their own speed (all I mean is not yelling at a student or giving them too much work). Everyone learns at different speeds. I am saying that the teacher should push the us but also help us learn everything that we need to learn.
October 17th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
I think that teachers should push their students and raise their standards. If the teachers are fair and they tell their students they are doing a good job when their work is junk, they will grow up thinking that they are smart people and will apply for a job that you need to think . If they don’t get the job then they will wonder why. Teachers need to push their students. Being fair won’t do anything to help you to get better. I agree with Mariko because I wouldn’t want a mean teacher who pushes you too much! Just enough to help students to learn what they need to learn.
October 18th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
i agree w/ Keenan. i forgot to say that it is okay for a teacher to tell you that your work sucks because that just means that you need to work harder which means that your teacher is trying to be nice. (I don’t think that teachers like to tell you that your work sucks). Teachers have to tell you if you are doing bad (if you are) because if they don’t then you will just continue to do bad work. Then, when you are older you will continue to do bad. If no one tells you that you are doing something wrong then you will end up working at McDonald’s or even worse become homeless. i don’t think that any teacher likes to see a KAMEHAMEHA student working at McDonald’s or see a KAMEHAMEHA student on the streets.
mariko 
NOTE TO TEACHERS: alaways tell your student if something they are doing is sucky because your student might come back to thank you!!
P.S. the stuff Keenan said, i was trying to say that.(just in case you had no idea what I was talking about before)
October 18th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Loads of people go on the blog now… Anyways I agree with Mariko. You need to have teachers that push you forward but not not too hard because then you would be stressing all of the time. It is always good to struggle because that means you are challenged. And when you are challenged, people seem to work harder because they are so close to their goal.
October 19th, 2007 at 10:04 am
You already know what I think, Mr. Chung. How the students work right now shows how they will be when they grow up. If you let your students lay back now, you as a teacher will fail. Well I’m not going to go on because you already know what I think. 1 year of talking about that is enough for me. Well I’ve got to get back to class. Bye 5th graders.
October 19th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
I think teachers telling you that your work sucks is okay if you get like under a 50% but if you get like a 99% they shouldn’t yell at you as much but still WHY DIDN’T YOU GET 100%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 19th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
No, it will not push us to succeed. We need to be pushed. Mr. Chung and Mrs. Burgess push and we become better students because of that. They are good teachers.
October 19th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Ya, Mrs. Burgess is the teacher that pushes us past the things we didn’t even know last year and she takes time to explain it ’till we get it. (I’ll be a smart student by the end of the year. Mr. Chung is the interesting teacher that gets us wondering and makes us think. (I’ll know many facts by the end of the year.) Thank you all teachers!!!!!! ^_^
October 19th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
That is true, Brook. Mrs. Burggess does push us past the things we didn’t learned last year and I think that’s a good thing. Teachers have to teach their students stuff they are supposed to know even if they don’t know it. But they shouldn’t push their students too hard. Just so they can do well.
October 19th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Yeah, Mrs.Burgess is a great teacher!!!!! This is because Mrs.Burgess pushes you until you get it. Whenever, I don’t get something, I try to learn it fast. If I wait too long, I know that Mrs.Burgess will let everyone go on and then, I will be behind. This is what I think all teachers should be like. I learned sooo much, and it’s only been one quarter!! Mrs.Burgess is nice and she can push us enough to learn a lot and much more!! Yay, Mrs. Burgess
October 20th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Mrs. Burgess is a fantastic teacher that pushes us till we get it and that is how all teachers should be. not mean, they should push their students enogh so they can learn well.
Keenan :-p
:-$
October 20th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Mrs. Burgess is a fantastic teacher that pushes us ’till we get it and that is how all teachers should be. Not mean, but they should push their students enough so they can learn well.
Keenan
October 24th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Keenan is right. Pushing students isn’t mean, it’s actually helping the students out.
October 28th, 2007 at 12:25 am
But they have the push the students enough so they can learn.
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Sometimes pushing the students is a good thing because the more you push them, the more they’ll learn. But if you push them too far, they might get stressed and they might not even want to come to school.
February 28th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
HI! I think that students should not be pushed. Every student gets the chance to learn the facts. If they choose not to pay attention, that’s their problem. If they flunk on a test, they should be blamed, not the teacher! But, I do think that kids should be told to ask more questions.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:18 am
I agree with Makena. The teacher should push but they shouldn’t push to hard. They should push at how much the student is able to take. It’s only for the student’s own good.