self censored student evaluations
There are some occupations where telling the truth is just not what you do. White House Press Secretary is obviously one of them. Another is teacher.
I just finished up a week long, intensive phonics course with group of eight to twelve year olds. I got to know a group of kids better than I have known any of my students so far. Now I have to evaluate them.
Most of the children, smart or slow, were charming and willing to work with me and not make everything a battle. But there's always a handful that you feel like you have to intervene and warn the parent that this kid is dangerously ill-equipped for actual life.
No parent reacts well to, "your kid is a vicous retard, incapable of learning and a menace to the public." There is also little point to it other than truth telling. The dumb kids won't get any smarter and we already tell the parents about the individual incidents of bastardy that the little bastards perpetrate. So to give honest evaluations would be both undiplomatic and fairly pointless.
These are my evaluations of children that I won't be sending.
Heather - Heather is an extremely smart, very brittle girl. She cried four out of the five days in class, usually because another smart kid showed her up in some way that she thought unfair. She is used to being the best at everything, probably because she's emotionally unable to handle the alternative.
Tony - Tony is a charming scamp. He's clearly used to smiling his way out of trouble. This is dangerous for Tony. His level of confidence is extremely high and in no way reflects his actual abilities. He's always the first one done with his test, but rarely amongst the top scores. I'm not sure Tony knows that he is mediocre. It will be tragic when he finally figures it out.
David - David has two loves, destruction and pain. His main skills are in calling people stupid pigs (in Chinese of course) and hitting. Unless I can convince him that English will further these pursuits, I doubt I'll ever make an enthusiastic student of him. His performance on the test was worse than the children three years his junior and worse than the two kids I suspected of having learning disabilities.
Peter - Peter is older than the other children, bigger than them and much disliked by them. I don't much care for him either. He is fond of shouting his own name in an alarming fashion. He has also taken up the astonishing habit of explaining to me in Chinese what he thought another kid was saying in English. He also speaks Chinese to me in what is known as the "foreigner accent." He learns nothing and cries easily. This was exploited by other children after he tried to bully them with his size.
Andy - Andy falls down a lot. I think he should have his inner ear checked.
Tom - Tom is surrounded by an nigh impregnable wall through which very little information penetrates. Tom is fat and slightly dim, thus a natural victim for the Davids of the world. Still ,Tom tries like the dickens and in this class actually did make some progress. Tom has officially hit mediocrity.
I just finished up a week long, intensive phonics course with group of eight to twelve year olds. I got to know a group of kids better than I have known any of my students so far. Now I have to evaluate them.
Most of the children, smart or slow, were charming and willing to work with me and not make everything a battle. But there's always a handful that you feel like you have to intervene and warn the parent that this kid is dangerously ill-equipped for actual life.
No parent reacts well to, "your kid is a vicous retard, incapable of learning and a menace to the public." There is also little point to it other than truth telling. The dumb kids won't get any smarter and we already tell the parents about the individual incidents of bastardy that the little bastards perpetrate. So to give honest evaluations would be both undiplomatic and fairly pointless.
These are my evaluations of children that I won't be sending.
Heather - Heather is an extremely smart, very brittle girl. She cried four out of the five days in class, usually because another smart kid showed her up in some way that she thought unfair. She is used to being the best at everything, probably because she's emotionally unable to handle the alternative.
Tony - Tony is a charming scamp. He's clearly used to smiling his way out of trouble. This is dangerous for Tony. His level of confidence is extremely high and in no way reflects his actual abilities. He's always the first one done with his test, but rarely amongst the top scores. I'm not sure Tony knows that he is mediocre. It will be tragic when he finally figures it out.
David - David has two loves, destruction and pain. His main skills are in calling people stupid pigs (in Chinese of course) and hitting. Unless I can convince him that English will further these pursuits, I doubt I'll ever make an enthusiastic student of him. His performance on the test was worse than the children three years his junior and worse than the two kids I suspected of having learning disabilities.
Peter - Peter is older than the other children, bigger than them and much disliked by them. I don't much care for him either. He is fond of shouting his own name in an alarming fashion. He has also taken up the astonishing habit of explaining to me in Chinese what he thought another kid was saying in English. He also speaks Chinese to me in what is known as the "foreigner accent." He learns nothing and cries easily. This was exploited by other children after he tried to bully them with his size.
Andy - Andy falls down a lot. I think he should have his inner ear checked.
Tom - Tom is surrounded by an nigh impregnable wall through which very little information penetrates. Tom is fat and slightly dim, thus a natural victim for the Davids of the world. Still ,Tom tries like the dickens and in this class actually did make some progress. Tom has officially hit mediocrity.
posted by otis @ 6:56 PM
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