Doing away with a school grade is like doing away with school. Which, given the current state of the system, might not be a bad idea... Michele On Sun, Jan 24, 2010 at 9:26 AM, Ask Etni <ask@xxxxxxxx> wrote: > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Linda Kuras Mizrahi - lindakm09@xxxxxxxxx > Subject: Re: school grade, and so on > > > Without going into any details, I had brought up the idea of doing away > with > this ridiculous yearly grade, commonly known as a magen.. ETNI even started > a poll because of my emails on this topic, which showed the great majority > of English teachers in favor of doing away with this. > What are we going to do about it?????? > Linda Kuras Mizrahi > > > Jennifer wrote: > > I would like to say something about the school grade, protecting > hard-working weak students, helping people with learning disabilities and > so > on. > > With all due respect to Dr. Sela, life is hard, and when she had to take > her > driving test, nobody gave her any accomodations, and she did it in the end. > > My dyslexic daughter got all the accomodations she needed and deserved, but > in real life she must still struggle with her reading problems. > > Life is not necessarily fair in its distribution of brains and talent. > Students learn in order to acquire knowledge.(Or no, as the case may be). > If we have created an education system where pupils don't come to class, > let > them stay away, and succeed or fail without any other grade than that they > get in their final examinations. Most countries do not give marks that are > included in the grade of a final external exam. > > Doing away with this grade can only benefit teachers; no more pressure from > principals and parents. And create an exam that really tests the knowlege > of the language. And allow teachers to teach the language; give the > pupils, > particularly those whose knowlege isn't up to the standard of most > literature, the tools that will eventually allow them to get there. > > And while I am ranting, please let me rant at the universities and > colleges, > which are making money, hand over fist, from these same students with a > weak > knowlege of English. I seem them, amongst other places, where I coach > voluntarily, at a centre for Ethiopian immigrants. It's not that they > aren't extremely intelligent and hard working, but it is difficult to start > building a house from the third floor. They are missing foundations. They > don't get that from the university courses! Wealthier students just give > their tasks to private teachers to do, and somehow, (one wonders how) get > through the exam and go on to the next level, at I believe, 3000 sh. a pop. > > Our pupils need to learn English; some are more tallented than others at > languages. Most can acquire a good working knowlege in the end, if the > teachers are allowed to teach. > > By all means help learning disabled students, but we should be very careful > who gets accomodations. We have all seen the chaos that has come about > with > the present situation. > > > ----------------------------------------------- > ** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org > or - http://www.etni.org.il ** > ** for help - ask@xxxxxxxx ** > ** to post to this list - etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** > ----------------------------------------------- > > ----------------------------------------------- ** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org or - http://www.etni.org.il ** ** for help - ask@xxxxxxxx ** ** to post to this list - etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** -----------------------------------------------