Dear every teacher I've ever had...

[MrNate]

If you don't understand a word that I've used in my essay/writing assignment, look it the f**k up. Circling it and putting question marks next to it does neither of us any good.

I have had numerous teachers do this to my papers going back as far as I can remember, and I cannot for the life of me figure out the intended purpose.

Sorry if this isn't appropriate here, but I just started going back to school (yet again) and I got a paper back marked this way. Is this some sort of secret code they teach in teacher school? Because I sure as hell don't have a decoder ring.

 

[BigKahuna]

I am posting her because I find your pain quite ammusing. I am glad for the teachers I've had, both good ones and bad ones, but in general....I think there are a LOT more good teacher than bad, but I still think that when you can't do....TEACH!

 

[Parker36]

but I still think that when you can't do....TEACH!

Oh come on, its true that you don't need to be top of your field to be a good teacher, but it takes a whole different skill set. I've had some of the top minds in my field teach me. They knew everything and were geniuses, but couldn't teach worth a damn. To teach you need to be both adept at the subject and skilled in conveying information.

 

[BigKahuna]

To teach properly you need to be both adept at the subject and skilled in conveying information.

I fixed that for you!

Your point is correct though....I AM top of my field in many areas, but I don't have the patience with people to teach someone to open a bottle of pop.

 

[MrNate]

I AM top of my field in many areas, but I don't have the patience with people to teach someone to open a bottle of pop.

I think that's pretty common for people who are very good at things... no patience for teaching it.

 

[zoebisch01]

If you don't understand a word that I've used in my essay/writing assignment, look it the f**k up. Circling it and putting question marks next to it does neither of us any good.

I have had numerous teachers do this to my papers going back as far as I can remember, and I cannot for the life of me figure out the intended purpose.

Sorry if this isn't appropriate here, but I just started going back to school (yet again) and I got a paper back marked this way. Is this some sort of secret code they teach in teacher school? Because I sure as hell don't have a decoder ring.

So wait, you're essentially saying your paper is being red marked because the teacher doesn't have your level of vocabulary? Are these red marks affecting the paper grade?

 

[MrNate]

I have no idea in this case. All I know is that she circled the word "hubris" and put a bunch of question marks next to it. There were plenty of other marks on the paper, so I have no way of knowing what she meant by that or if/how it affected the grade.

I just find it fascinating that teachers do this. I can only assume it means they aren't familiar with that particular word and are too damn lazy to look it up and too stupid to shut up about it.

If it were one teacher I'd write it off as a quirk. But I've seen this from a number of teachers starting back in grade school. Like I said, I need a secret decoder ring or something.

 

[Jester369]

Is it that they don't understand what the word means, or could it be that you have used the word incorrectly? I'm not saying you are of course! I'm just trying to figure out what 's going on. Could you post some examples?



EDIT: I really hope you aren't offended by my comment - it's not intended to be douchy!

 

[TheJadedDog]

Personally I'd speak to the teacher and find out what they were trying to communicate. Circling a word and using question marks is copy-editing shorthand for saying either "I don't understand this word" or "I don't understand why you used this word here". While it is entirely possible that the teacher was just lazy and didn't look up the word, I'd want to find out for sure by speaking to them.

 

[A4J]

"I don't understand why you used this word here".

This is usually what I take it to mean, but in some of my upper division college classes, we actually had to "dumb down" our writing to make it more understandable to the common person, so maybe that's what your teacher/professor is saying.

 

[MrNate]

Ah, you cheeky bastards! I knew someone was going to call me out on this...

I tend to be cocky, arrogant, and intolerant, no matter how misplaced my hubris may be.

I leave it to the panel to decide. No offense on anyone's part inferred, BTW.

 

[EdWort]

Perhaps you should have footnoted a definition for the teacher.

 

[MrNate]

...so maybe that's what your teacher/professor is saying.

Maybe they could actually say what they're saying is my point, instead of being obtuse in attempting to communicate their opinion that I should communicate more clearly.

Not knocking you... I'm just saying that unless this type of markup means something completely different than what I think it does, it's basically saying "Hey! I'm an a**hole with a red pen!" Might as well just write, "F** you" on the paper with no other explanation.

 

[jspence1]

Thanks that's 30 seconds of my life I'll never get back. I looked up a word I'll never use. Hell even if I could find a way to use it in conversation people would think I made it up

 

[goplayoutside]

I don't mean to be an a-hole here, but speaking of hubris...

...when you can't do....TEACH!

The way I look at it, there will always be some individuals who are bright enough to make direct contributions in their fields and also possess communication skills and enjoy working with people. These individuals will have to choose between working in their fields and teaching. Lack of respect for the teaching profession, as exemplified by the above comment, probably keeps some of those people who could go either way from seriously considering a career in education.

Maybe the fact that our culture tells our best minds that they can "do better" than "just teaching" is relevant to the fact that the US public education system lags significantly behind the average for industrialized nations... and maybe that has something to do with the fact that we are increasingly being out-competed in high-tech sectors by other economies, notably India and China?

Of course it's important to have good minds doing the actual work, but if we are not preparing our up-and-coming professionals to succeed in a globally competitive environment it is difficult to envision a future where Americans will enjoy the same standard of living to which we have grown accustomed over the past two generations. So I say... "If you can do, TEACH!"

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

That is odd... its not like you were even using a oddball word. I mean, I am assuming this is a college level thing, how have you never heard of hubris? Seems fishy to me. Was it a TA?

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

Thanks that's 30 seconds of my life I'll never get back. I looked up a word I'll never use. Hell even if I could find a way to use it in conversation people would think I made it up

I think you will find that many many people know what hubris is. Have you ever heard of a poem called the Odyssey, it is about a warrior (Odysseus) and his hubris against Poseidon, and his adventures to make his way home against the will of some of the gods. That is just one example, many stories and works of literature center around a theme of hubris.

 

[Parker36]

I think you will find that many many people know what hubris is. Have you ever heard of a poem called the Odyssey, it is about a warrior (Odysseus) and his hubris against Poseidon, and his adventures to make his way home against the will of some of the gods. That is just one example, many stories and works of literature center around a theme of hubris.

I like to dip my pita chips in hubris

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

I like to dip my pita chips in hubris

I think I just hubrised in my pants

 

[MrNate]

Lack of respect for the teaching profession, as exemplified by the above comment, probably keeps some of those people who could go either way from seriously considering a career in education.

Classic chicken/egg scenario there. Does the lack of respect come from the fact that there are a lot of "bottom-of-the-barrel" teachers already, or are there a lot of bottom-of-the-barrel teachers because no self-respecting [whatever] would put up with the lack of respect teachers get?

In the end, money talks. You up those paychecks to the point where it's a competitive option to advancement within the field of discipline, and you'll see more competition for the same teaching job, which leads to a positive evolution in the quality of educators.

 

[Brew-Happy]

Hmm.

Hubristic Illegitimate Child Ale?

Guess it doesn't sound the same

 

[MrNate]

That is odd... its not like you were even using a oddball word. I mean, I am assuming this is a college level thing, how have you never heard of hubris? Seems fishy to me. Was it a TA?

Exactly! Not a TA, a college professor! Granted, it's an intro class at a community college, but still... you're supposed to be a teacher. I go back to my initial statement that just circling those gosh durn funny-looking words doesn't do either of us any good.

To steal a turn of phrase from Salvador Dali, "Teacher, teach!"

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

Exactly! Not a TA, a college professor! Granted, it's an intro class at a community college, but still... you're supposed to be a teacher. I go back to my initial statement that just circling those gosh durn funny-looking words doesn't do either of us any good.

I had a prof once at school for two subjects in the same semester. This guy was hired by the college on short notice to fill a void left by a prof who got pissed at the school and left. So I am stuck with this guy who doesn't know d!ck about engineering and especially the classes he is teaching! Long story short, I was paying for this imbecile to F-up this class and mark my correct solutions wrong because he didn't understand the theories! I got so pissed after the first test, I went to the front of the class and proved the solution from basic principals in front of the whole class to make this guy feel like an idiot. At the end he was like, yes that's correct but you still don't get any points. This pretty much continued all year and I got B's in both of his classes, drastically lowering my GPA and I was straight pissed about it. I couldn't reverse the grades, but I did get the idiot fired, so I saved future generations from his idiocy.

If you have a teacher you are paying to be intelligent on a subject and they are not, call them out and make their life hell until they shape up or get out! [/rant]

 

[A4J]

I'm just saying that unless this type of markup means something completely different than what I think it does, it's basically saying "Hey! I'm an a**hole with a red pen!" Might as well just write, "F** you" on the paper with no other explanation.

I'm not defending teachers or anything, but if you're having to read at least 30 papers per class multiplied by how many ever classes you have, it's easier to just circle a word than having to write out why I circled the word.

I review and red-line a lot of documents/studies/plans. If you don't understand why I marked up something, the onus is on you to ask me why i marked it up the way i did.

 

[Danek]

Yeah, I'd guess if the word was circled it means the teacher thinks you used it inappropriately. At the very least, if there's doubt about why the word was circled, you should ask. That'd remove any doubt or ignorance, which is surely one of the main aims of education.

 

[MrNate]

I'm not defending teachers or anything, but if you're having to read at least 30 papers per class multiplied by how many ever classes you have, it's easier to just circle a word than having to write out why I circled the word.

I review and red-line a lot of documents/studies/plans. If you don't understand why I marked up something, the onus is on you to ask me why i marked it up the way i did.

Bull. Your job as teacher is to teach. It'd be a lot easier for me to copy down stuff someone else had written, too. But I don't, because that's not what I'm there for.

The teacher is there to teach, which includes correcting mistakes. The purpose of marking up a document is to indicate what is wrong with it, not to exercise your personal stream of consciousness.

If I wandered off mid-topic into something that bore no relevance to the subject at hand, I would be marked off for it. Is the onus on the teacher to try to understand why I was confused? Absolutely not. Why? Because it does not serve to educate. Just as it does not serve to educate for a teacher to express their own personal delirium on a paper they are marking.

Or to continue the analogy to the absurd, if I wrote all my future papers in German I could rest secure in my knowledge that the onus is on the teacher to translate it.


Edit: Just to be clear for those who say I should just ask - This is not a rant against one particular teacher. This is a rant against the general practice of circling a word used correctly for no other reason than your own ignorance.

 

[zoebisch01]

This is usually what I take it to mean, but in some of my upper division college classes, we actually had to "dumb down" our writing to make it more understandable to the common person, so maybe that's what your teacher/professor is saying.

The thing I would have to then ask would be if it were a technical writing class, or something of that nature where they are specifically teaching you to address a particular audience. Then it is correct to judge misplaced vocabulary. If it's just a personal gripe of the teachers then it would be incorrect to call attention to "Hubris".

At any rate, it is most likely affecting the grade so I would indeed question why this was done. Albeit gently, indirectly....you don't want the person grading you to take up issue with you....you know like "I noticed that you circled "Hubris" here and wrote some question marks next to it, could you explain to me what is incorrect here"?

 

[MrNate]

Eh... I'll pass the class regardless. Generally speaking, it's best not to put myself in situations where there's likely to be an argument with a person in authority, especially when I'm right. I tend to get worked up.

 

[zoebisch01]

If you have a teacher you are paying to be intelligent on a subject and they are not, call them out and make their life hell until they shape up or get out! [/rant]

That's kind of the crux of the matter. It should be addressed in an orderly manner first, otherwise it can turn into a semester long struggle because emotions get involved. I agree though, they do need to be called out and held accountable, but there needs to be a history on behalf of the student so that he/she can fall back on "here are the steps I went through" if push comes to shove and the Dean gets involved...etc.

 

[zoebisch01]

Eh... I'll pass the class regardless. Generally speaking, it's best not to put myself in situations where there's likely to be an argument with a person in authority, especially when I'm right. I tend to get worked up.

It's a rock and a hard place really. If you step out and call it, then your work will be scrutinized either overtly or surreptitiously...but it will be scrutinized. If you're always right on the subject then it's no big deal, but sometimes it's just not worth the effort to pursue it.