<p>Let me just start off that I know this is impossible thing to fix, however, this topic is just for discussion amongst Collegeconfidential.</p>
<p>Ok, as you know, a student's education is in the hands of the teacher. If the teacher is awesome, the student gets an A. If the teacher is crappy and terrible, student gets a lower grade. Does anyone see this to be corrupt?</p>
<p>Heres a scenerio to clarify things:</p>
<p>Subject: Physics 11th Grade.</p>
<p>Teacher A: Smart, outstanding teacher, knows exactly what he/she is doing and can control a class easily. He gives a mediocre amount of homework and gives test and quizes. Teacher is relatively easy and loves his position. Teacher is outgoing and has a favorable tone of voice.</p>
<p>Teacher B: Not the brightest teacher, and he is new. This is his first time teaching at a highschool and it is hard for him to control the class behaviorwise. He gives a lot of homework due to the fact that a minimum is accomplished during class. He gives tests and quizzes, however students have no idea what to do. Teacher is hard and is iffy about his position as a teacher. He is not that outgoing and has a monotone nasally voice.</p>
<p>Result?: Students in Teacher A's class gets much higher grades than Teacher B's class.</p>
<p>^ that obviously happens, but nothing can be done about it. It’s a sad fact that some students who get B’s in certain classes are much better academically than students who get A+'s in what ‘appears’ to be the same classes (even AP level) when in fact the true level of the classes are radically different.</p>
<p>Its just a sucky fact of life, (I’m in the same situation for my AP English class…its a ‘true’ college/post-college level class)</p>
<p>First off, it’s not Teacher B’s fault. At least, not entirely. When students know a teacher is new, they’re harder on that teacher for some reason. Thus, said teacher, having never been in such a position before, doesn’t have the necessary skills to control a class. </p>
<p>It’s also not his fault what his voice sounds like.</p>
<p>Now. I have had some bad teachers…but what are you really complaining about? The fact that it’s effecting your grade, or the fact that you just don’t like that others are getting higher grades than you? </p>
<p>Life isn’t fair…get used to it. It may sound harsh, but it’s reality.</p>
<p>You know, I had that same exact experience with a chemistry teacher. My chem teacher was very experienced, but extremely lazy. He didn’t grade papers, he gave notes on, at most, a monthly basis, spend the whole time talking about tan lines with the seniors, and earned the hatred of practically every kid taking his class. Meanwhile, the other chemistry teacher was an amazing woman (I had her for biology, so I know how great she is firsthand). She’s one of the rare teachers who actually teaches you what you’re doing. Her personality is perfect: nice and easy to talk to, but not a pushover by any means.</p>
<p>Yet several students who had my teacher for regular chemistry have sky-high scores in AP Chem. Granted, many of Amazing Teacher’s students have good grades, too. But there seems to be a common thread among the success stories: they are highly motivated individuals. They don’t let a bad teacher get in the way of their learning.</p>
<p>I have also seen the same thing occur with my less-than-stellar physics teacher, who has produced many top AP Physics C students despite the fact that she is a teacher who “doesn’t teach.”</p>
<p>So many kids I know use their teachers as excuses for poor performance in classes, i.e. “OMG my teacher can’t teach at all! That’s why I have a D!” It’s not entirely your fault if you are doing badly in a badly-taught class, but it isn’t entirely the teacher’s fault, either.</p>
<p>True, valid, nobody’s going to argue it’s a bad system…</p>
<p>But, on the other hand, I think Regents, SAT II’s and SATs, while hated, provide a balance to a transcript. </p>
<p>For example, my school has some of the worst teachers (no joke-teach the wrong stuff so I have to study the wrong stuff to do good in school and then the right stuff for Regents, SAT II’s, etc)so transcripts could (and do) easily read like this from my school.</p>
<p>Person A
Chem H: 98 overall, 100 on Regents, 750+ on SAT II
AP American History: 90 overall, 100 on Regents, 750+ on SAT II, 5
Overall Class Average: 97 ish
SAT: 2200+</p>
<p>Person B
Chem H: 100 overall, 90 on Regents, sub-600 on SAT II
AP American History: 100 overall, 95 on Regents, sub-600, 3
Overall Class Average: 100
SAT: 1900</p>
<p>Which looks like they had a stronger transcript? Which looks like they kissed up to get their perfect little 100’s?</p>
<p>I had a chem honors teacher in high school that was a PharmD and didn’t lecture in English. That year, the class’s attrition rate within the first half of the first trimester was about 50%. Needless to say, I dropped out after watching my test grade fall from an 86 to a 70 to a 57 despite proportionately increasing effort. The whole harrowing experience took 6 weeks. I dropped the hell out and got a B+ in the regular class, but only because I had a 100 homework/lab average. I STILL despise, fear and fail to understand anything that has anything to do with chemistry. And I’m in college.</p>
<p>So bad teachers come in all shapes and sizes and ages and experiences.</p>
<p>“Ok, as you know, a student’s education is in the hands of the teacher.”</p>
<p>I’d argue that a student’s education is in the hands of the student. Teachers give out the grades, but most of the time, you get the grade that you earn. Bad teachers may not be effective at teaching their subjects, and some students may lose interest in school, but motivated students will seek to learn no matter what.</p>
<p>Sure, there will be times when you get a terrible teacher who refuses to give extra help, doesn’t explain concepts clearly, gives tests way beyond the appropriate level, and is ineffective in other ways, and you may not get a good grade, but that grade doesn’t necessarily reflect what you’ve learned. You could’ve worked hard outside of class to understand the material, and you still might leave that class knowing a lot, even with a bad grade.</p>
<p>I’m not directing this at anyone in particular, but it’s unfair for students to always dump the blame on “bad teachers”. And quite often, “bad” is an arbitrary term. A lot of students describe strict teachers who push their students as “bad” when these teachers are actually encouraging them to go beyond their best. Teachers should strive to motivate their students and teach them the material, but students can’t always blame teachers for their lack of motivation.</p>
<p>Okay, so it maybe unfair, but I don’t think it’s corrupt. The two definitely aren’t the same. There are very few bad teachers who actively seek to undermine their students’ success. Many of them are probably inexperienced in the classroom or just don’t know how to communicate ideas well. They’re not out to get anyone or anything.</p>
<p>“I’d argue that a student’s education is in the hands of the student”
The above was perfectly said. This situation should allow a student to see what he or she is made up of. Whether, he/she sits back and wait for things to happen or make things happen. As other posters have eluded, this student must seek outside help/ tutoring . An option is to even reach out to Teacher A by making appointment before/after school, to discuss areas where one needs help.</p>
<p>Unless you will be graduating college and starting your own business, you will need to be prepared to start facing reality. In the working world you will have an equivalent known as a “Boss” they come in the package of A & B as well, and they administer what is called “Performance Appraisal” equivalent to grades. </p>
<p>You will need to adjust to your situation and make the best of whatever opportunity you get. The ball is in your court, not your teacher’s!</p>
<p>yep you’re right. i know that personally in a number of occasions, but i’ve always been in the “good” teacher’s class! not that i don’t hear complaints from others. examples: apush, ap english, alg.2 honors, physics, etc. however iknow that a few of them (apush, ap enligh) ppl get lower grades not cuz their teachers suckk but cuz their teachers are harder on grading and teach much MORE so they have more things to know. which really is the point of going to school and taking hard classes and studying–not to get the grades, but to learn. haha NOT that anyone here secretly agrees</p>
<p>“The student’s education is in the hands of the student”</p>
<p>So perfectly said, people who say the system is corrupt pay heed to this statement. We understand teacher X is better than teacher Y, but some people here are acting like the student is the catalyst. Wrong. Wrong. Thoroughly wrong. The teacher is the catalyst. </p>
<p>I like biology so here is an analogy…</p>
<p>Some people have certain enzymes that catalyze better than other peoples’, makes no difference. Some people are lactose intolerant because they don’t have lactase, they work on it and work around it…</p>
<p>Stop acting as if it is the teachers fault that someone gets a grade, it is your fault. </p>
<p>I see this a lot at my school, it is sad. Imagine the trouble teachers must go through many times. On top of that they get paid less than fifty thousand a year, their salaries are still dropping in many places… Even with inflation…</p>
<p>For a lot of classes like US History, there are 2-3 teachers a lot of the time. One teacher is so easy and lets you use notes on tests while the other is a Nazi Party survivor and gives you such a hard time.</p>
<p>I got the easier teacher and got a A+ in the class while a lot of my friends got C- in the other classes. </p>
<p>One again, the student’s education is in the hands of the student. You control what you learn. If your teacher doesn’t do anything, bring a textbook to class and read it.</p>
<p>Proletariat2, what you don’t understand is that it isn’t that simple.</p>
<p>The other harder US History teacher uses a different test which has 150 questions and 5 essays! Not only are a lot of the questions not covered in the text, but the essays go under HEAVY critique.</p>
<p>Compare that to my US History teacher; who gives us a 10 question quiz with one essay. She never gave homework or a test in the class.</p>
<p>^ My teacher lectures and teaches the class throughout the class. The other harder teacher sits at his desk and puts on a movie 3 days out of 5 days of the week to teach the class.</p>
<p>Everyone in that class didn’t have the balls to bring it up with the administration until it was too late. And by semester ends, most of them didn’t even care anymore.</p>
<p>This is such an old thread, but it reminds me so much of what’s happening at my school.</p>
<p>We had two tracks this year for history/English: AP and regular. The APUSH teacher is notorious for being the hardest teacher in the school; his tests have frequently been said to be harder than the AP test, and many graduates in respected colleges still remember him as being their toughest teacher ever–but also their best. </p>
<p>My friend M. and I both love history. I chose to take APUSH despite the fact that the teacher was so notorious, because I wanted a challenge (regular history was way too easy). M. took regular history (ridiculously and notoriously easy teacher) to keep his 4.0. Meanwhile, APUSH killed at least three juniors’ 4.0s this past trimester.</p>
<p>M. will be valedictorian, most likely, because he skirted the hardest classes, whereas those who worked hard to earn a 3.9 in more difficult classes will be ignored. </p>
<p>^ Well those straight A kids may have also taken the easiest teachers.</p>
<p>There are a lot of people at my school ranked above me because they have never taken a hard course EVER. They take classes like cooking and art classes and get A+'s. </p>
<p>I think this is why course rigor is more important to colleges than the actual grade you get.</p>
<p>at least at my school, you can’t choose your teachers. so while some students are luckier than others, everyone ends up with a mix of hard and easy teachers.</p>
not that i don’t hear complaints from others. examples: apush, ap english, alg.2 honors, physics, etc. however iknow that a few of them (apush, ap enligh) ppl get lower grades not cuz their teachers suckk but cuz their teachers are harder on grading and teach much MORE so they have more things to know. which really is the point of going to school and taking hard classes and studying–not to get the grades, but to learn. haha NOT that anyone here secretly agrees</p>