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Apr. 27th, 2004
Percy Ficathon
Apr. 27th, 2004 04:13 pmBetween taking four classes (17 credits I'm nuts), the Percy Ficathon, the Percy Ficathon website, writing for Percy Ficathon, writing original fiction, SNAFU... I'm utterly swamped.
I know a lot of you are feeling the same, some of you swapped stories (gosh I'm sorry![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
silverthistle) and just started a couple weeks ago, other have the joys of writer's block (I call it writer's constipation) or mercury retrograde or the late stages of Ficathon Syndrome (signed up for every ficathon available - back when that sounded like a good idea).
[Poll #285528]
I know a lot of you are feeling the same, some of you swapped stories (gosh I'm sorry
silverthistle) and just started a couple weeks ago, other have the joys of writer's block (I call it writer's constipation) or mercury retrograde or the late stages of Ficathon Syndrome (signed up for every ficathon available - back when that sounded like a good idea). [Poll #285528]
First day teaching ESL
Apr. 27th, 2004 06:29 pmSo today I met my new student. She's from China and speaks intermediate level English.
She comes across, of course, like a little child, or someone without much education. I know better from my own experience of trying to speak German and Tibetan, but our perceptions of each other are so based upon language - how we use it, our vocabulary, what we choose to say - that I was still surprised that she was college-educated.
Her manner was matter-of-fact about it. You could tell it was expected, not a special or proud achievement.
I recall that China used to have a real deep separation between the sexes. Women weren't educated at all, and there was a lot female infanticide. I know who changed this: Mao Tse-Tung, the same man responsible for the Cultural Revolution and the destruction of Tibet. I wonder how many revolutions are so double (and triple and quadruple) edged. The definition of evolution is just 'change over time,' but some changes we can accept and some we can't. The very same policy of equal education took my friend Kyid-pe from his nomadic family, shipped him to a Chinese boarding school where he wasn't allowed to speak Tibetan, where he was was told what his name was now... and given a Chinese name. The kids were cruel because in a school of a couple hundred there were only four Tibetans who weren't allowed to associate with each other because they were to be Chinese now. The Great Leap Forward.
When he went home, years later, he couldn't find his family.
To the school administrators, they were educating a barbarian, doing him a favour. Without their intervention he would have raised horses and yak and never learned to read and write. This was a goal we would laud. But he wasn't given an equal education. That would have been taking it too far, because he wasn't really Chinese. Even if he had a Chinese name.
I wonder if there's also a sense of educating women, but only so far. My college-educated student, her husband's a Chinese Physicist, a Ph.D. There's still female infanticide.
I suspect that the bind Kyid-pe was caught in has less to do with the Cultural Revolution, and more to do with Chinese culture as a whole - that view of outsiders as barbarians - and how difficult that is to change. I suddenly feel a little empathy for Mao, despite all the suffering his unilateral policies caused.
She comes across, of course, like a little child, or someone without much education. I know better from my own experience of trying to speak German and Tibetan, but our perceptions of each other are so based upon language - how we use it, our vocabulary, what we choose to say - that I was still surprised that she was college-educated.
Her manner was matter-of-fact about it. You could tell it was expected, not a special or proud achievement.
I recall that China used to have a real deep separation between the sexes. Women weren't educated at all, and there was a lot female infanticide. I know who changed this: Mao Tse-Tung, the same man responsible for the Cultural Revolution and the destruction of Tibet. I wonder how many revolutions are so double (and triple and quadruple) edged. The definition of evolution is just 'change over time,' but some changes we can accept and some we can't. The very same policy of equal education took my friend Kyid-pe from his nomadic family, shipped him to a Chinese boarding school where he wasn't allowed to speak Tibetan, where he was was told what his name was now... and given a Chinese name. The kids were cruel because in a school of a couple hundred there were only four Tibetans who weren't allowed to associate with each other because they were to be Chinese now. The Great Leap Forward.
When he went home, years later, he couldn't find his family.
To the school administrators, they were educating a barbarian, doing him a favour. Without their intervention he would have raised horses and yak and never learned to read and write. This was a goal we would laud. But he wasn't given an equal education. That would have been taking it too far, because he wasn't really Chinese. Even if he had a Chinese name.
I wonder if there's also a sense of educating women, but only so far. My college-educated student, her husband's a Chinese Physicist, a Ph.D. There's still female infanticide.
I suspect that the bind Kyid-pe was caught in has less to do with the Cultural Revolution, and more to do with Chinese culture as a whole - that view of outsiders as barbarians - and how difficult that is to change. I suddenly feel a little empathy for Mao, despite all the suffering his unilateral policies caused.
From Rick Clark, Literature professor and Creative writing and ESL teacher for the last, oh, 20 years.
As for the questions below, I certainly have some comments:
A teacher can't be held responsible for the veracity of every bit of language in a personal essay. A personal essay frames a personal experience, a personal view or position, or a body of knowledge or information with which the essayist is familiar (i.e. write about what you know). A research paper is a different animal. Information or assertions of fact or truth need to be documented in order to give authority to the paper. In this context, a teacher needs to be more on the ball. Still, it would take a teacher the rest of his/her life to check on all facts and assertions in all student papers. Best to focus on the skills: developing a topic or thesis, researching sources, organizing materials, critical thinking, mechanics and style, rhetorical strategies, not plagiarizing, etc.
Now plagiarism is a bigger issue. Checking on this can keep a teacher too busy as it is. However, there are ways to get around having to check the internet for stolen or purchased papers. Get samples of student writing early in the quarter and become familiar with each student's voice and writing tendencies. Keep records. Stolen or purchased papers rarely match. Or give assignments that are so particularized that there is no paper out there to answer the assignment. Finally, require students to turn in rough drafts reflecting the process of producing their papers. Lastly, teachers should never let students see the backsides of their eyeballs.
As for the questions below, I certainly have some comments:
A teacher can't be held responsible for the veracity of every bit of language in a personal essay. A personal essay frames a personal experience, a personal view or position, or a body of knowledge or information with which the essayist is familiar (i.e. write about what you know). A research paper is a different animal. Information or assertions of fact or truth need to be documented in order to give authority to the paper. In this context, a teacher needs to be more on the ball. Still, it would take a teacher the rest of his/her life to check on all facts and assertions in all student papers. Best to focus on the skills: developing a topic or thesis, researching sources, organizing materials, critical thinking, mechanics and style, rhetorical strategies, not plagiarizing, etc.
Now plagiarism is a bigger issue. Checking on this can keep a teacher too busy as it is. However, there are ways to get around having to check the internet for stolen or purchased papers. Get samples of student writing early in the quarter and become familiar with each student's voice and writing tendencies. Keep records. Stolen or purchased papers rarely match. Or give assignments that are so particularized that there is no paper out there to answer the assignment. Finally, require students to turn in rough drafts reflecting the process of producing their papers. Lastly, teachers should never let students see the backsides of their eyeballs.
