Assignment 6
ENGBL1
Proficiency
Marja Nordh
Don’t destroy children’s lust to learn!
Today it is a well known fact that most parents want authoritarian rules in schools. After the laissez-faire attitude from 70-s and “get-to- know-courses” from 80-s and 90-s, there is a demand of strict rules and control again. There is an amount of free schools which offer order and rules for our “spoiled” children. We look anxious to our neighbour countries and think our school system is much too allowing. What are we going to do? Are the teachers too afraid of conflicts and let pupils do what they want? Are parents too simple-minded about the authority of school or do we just wait for some new whim of fashion to tell us what to do with our children?
Some of us think that the answer of all prayers for a strict and right order is grading of children as early as possible. When children know what is missing in their lack of education they automatic search for it. Qué? Do children automatic search things they don’t like?
Do children automatic do things they know others want them to do? No. The answer is no. Children do things they are good at. Children do things others tell them they master. So, grading children is a very good thing for those who are good in a lot of subjects in school. Grading supports clever kids to be cleverer. It encourages them to have new challenges and gives them the courage and the desire to take new steps on their path of knowledge.
So, what about them who get low grades. Who fall under the limit of passing grades? Teachers are working hard with finding new vocabulary and new ways to tell they do not well enough. We try to use encouraging and cheerful terms while failing students who do not have the right “spirit” or understanding about the different subjects. But a rejection is a rejection. It does not matter how academic or fine words we use. The only thing concerning both children and parents is: Did I pass or not?
So, what are we going to do with our grading system? Skip it because it makes students feel unsuccessful? Change it so even those with big difficulties feel accepted? Or just let it be like it is and hope for the best for those who cannot be graded at all because of different matters.
The answer is tricky. Of course we have to verify children. Of course we have to tell them they do the right thing. But. When they are not. When everything they do is a signal of failure.
As a mother of a child with concentration difficulties it is easy to answer. When you have had a lot of meetings and consulting about what to do with a child reluctant to ordinary rating and who only is interested in if it is ok to stay in class, you don’t care about grading. What do you want as a teacher to give all your pupils? Big applauses when they succeed or courage when they fail? I think it is as Bodil Jönsson – a great pedagogue and discourser – says: “The things your students succeed in, write it on a solid rock, but things they fail in, throw it away with the bathwater!”
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I really like how you argue here Marja; it really shows how passionate you are for this subject! You follow the argumentative structure nicely, and your language is overall good. The introduction of the subject is informative and gives the reader you point of view right away – good!
SvaraRaderaAfter the introduction, you present your arguments in blocks where you first have the counterargument and then your argument. The paragraphs are coherent, but I think there is place for improvement here.
• In an academic writing it is not allowed to use abbreviations like: don’t, I’ll, We’d etc.
• You could also use more linking words like however, in addition, Further etc. you start two of you paragraphs with so – maybe you could change at least one of them?
• Some of your sentences sound a bit off, e.g. “Teachers are working hard with finding new vocabulary and new ways to tell they do not well enough.” Here you could try to rephrase yourself and for instance write “Teacher work hard to find better ways of telling the students that they are not quite there – it is not good enough”
• Even these sentences sound a bit strange: “But. When they are not. When everything they do is a signal of failure”, maybe you could make them into just one line by including comma?
Otherwise, I think you did a good job, you argue in a convincing way and as I said earlier, your overall language is fine. I did not find any spelling mistakes apart from one – anxious, shouldn’t it be anxiously?- but this is just minor.