This Is One Reason I Hate School

"JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder!" (jqj213) 01/15/2015 at 15:06 • Filed to: school, rant, teachers, writing, english

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We recently had to write an essay about whether or not we thought athletes made too much money. The teacher spent about a month teaching us formatting and the likes. I hated it. So I wrote my essay how I write normally and turned it in. On a scale of 1-6, my teacher gave me a 2. The county which then went and graded them gave me a 6. They didn't mention one complaint about the way I wrote it. English at this point is purely subjective and it drives me crazy. RS6 for reading.

Chuck 2(O=[][]=O)2 > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 01/15/2015 at 15:10

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Get used to it. I college you write for the teacher.

JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! > Chuck 2(O=[][]=O)2 01/15/2015 at 15:11

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Its insane how at this point it all depends on the teacher's opinion. Whatever they say goes.

English is supposed to be individual; everyone can have their own style. But its not the case.

HammerheadFistpunch > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 01/15/2015 at 15:12

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This is school, this is life.

CalzoneGolem > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 01/15/2015 at 15:13

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She spent a month telling you how to do it and you still couldn't manage to do it right?

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 01/15/2015 at 15:14

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Let me guess, your teacher is someone who feels that athletes are paid too much money and you argued the opposite of their predetermined notions.

Sorry, Charlie, this is a recipe for teacher butthurt. And teacher butthurt means low grade for student.

It's not fair, it never was fair, and never will be fair.

Also, English as a subject is completely subjective, and shouldn't be graded on an objective scale.

Chuck 2(O=[][]=O)2 > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 01/15/2015 at 15:15

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English, as in the class can be subjective. But, on a collegiate level, where english is language, there's a right way and a wrong way to do things.

HammerheadFistpunch > CalzoneGolem 01/15/2015 at 15:17

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seems like this should have been a slam dunk. Look friend (OP), Im not saying you should roll with the system your whole life...but i am saying that you will deal with lots of "systems" and figuring them out and playing them is almost always easier...with better long term results...that fighting them.

jariten1781 > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 01/15/2015 at 15:19

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English is supposed to be individual; everyone can have their own style. But its not the case.

That's not true at all. English has very specific styles for various types of writing (hence the existence of style guides). Unless you're a genius author who catches the public's eye at just the right time you don't get to define your 'style' unless you want people to not take your work seriously.

Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 01/15/2015 at 15:25

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I had a teacher give me an 'F' on college because she didn't like the way I interpreted certain pieces of literature. That grade would have put my scholarship in jeopardy, so I wasn't going to go silently into the night. I went to the department head and the dean of the school about it because the class was supposed to be about the mechanics of literature rather than the content. As long as the proper framework and structure were adhered to, what I had to say on the topic, my opinion, were actually supposed to be secondary.

I went so far as to have another teacher in the school that was regarded as being a more stringent instructor (she drove an Alfa Spyder, by the way) grade the same paper, just so that I would have some ammo. I knew that I had good work, despite what the instructor gave me, and was willing to go to the wall over it. The second instructor gave me an 'A' on the paper. The dean forced my actual instructor to redact the grade and then put the entire classes papers up for review, because apparently this wasn't the first time the light of doubt had been shined on her abilities. I was just the first to not let it go. That particular instructor retired not much later. Stick to your guns, man.

CalzoneGolem > HammerheadFistpunch 01/15/2015 at 15:26

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Gotta pick your battles. If your employer trains you to do a task a certain way don't do it differently because you're a beautiful snowflake. You'll be an unemployed snowflake.

Effef > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 01/15/2015 at 15:27

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This sounds like 1101, what that means for you is that you need to do what the prof wants no matter what you think you should be doing. High school and early college writing classes are about teaching the students good grammar and sentence structure within restrictive environments so when they get to writing in their chosen field they don't look like a complete moron.

If you want to write how YOU want to write, then become an English major or minor. They will pound that learned structure out of you and teach you how to actually write interesting things well, and one of the things they let you do is be a bit more free with how and why you write. But until then, just do what they say. Its not worth making a scene because all they are trying to do is teach you basic writing.

You are touching on the basic tenets of English prescriptivism, and I see you know how much bullshit it is, but just not doing the work correctly and using style as an excuse is not really going to fix anything.

Tohru > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 01/15/2015 at 15:28

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The modern educational system does not measure knowledge, it measures how you adhere to standards.

Chteelers > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 01/15/2015 at 15:33

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We (who?) recently had to write an essay about whether or not we thought athletes made too much money. The teacher spent about a month teaching us formatting and the [like]. I hated it. So[,] I wrote my essay [in the manner] I [normally] write[,] and turned it in. On a scale [from] 1-6, my teacher gave me a 2. The county [graders,] [omit "which"] then went and graded [the papers and] gave me a 6. [The county] didn't mention one complaint about the way I wrote [my paper]. English[,] at this point[,] is purely subjective[,] and it drives me crazy. [Here is a picture of a] RS6 [as thanks] for reading [my post*]

ttyymmnn > jariten1781 01/15/2015 at 15:36

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cf. William Faulkner

Unless you're him, you can't write a page-long sentence.

ttyymmnn > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 01/15/2015 at 15:43

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Writing to a set of rules is a skill in itself. If you were an author for, oh, I don't know, Jalopnik, there would be a very specific style guide and space constraints. You have to write for your employer first. And there's something to be said for simply finishing. I was helping somebody write their dissertation, and she was railing against the constraints placed on her by her adviser. I advised her that she should write her dissertation for him, then get out of school and write a book any way she felt like writing. Follow the rules, get out of school, then do your own thing.

Rico > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 01/15/2015 at 15:49

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To be fair the "county" is going to be much more lenient with grading as they have to grade everyone from the dumbest of dumb to the smartest of smart.

Rico > CalzoneGolem 01/15/2015 at 15:52

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But my mom told me I was special and my Kindergarten teacher told me we can be anything we wanted to be as long as we believed!

JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! > CalzoneGolem 01/15/2015 at 15:55

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I guess I should've been more clear. I wrote the way I was comfortable, which was how I was taught by previous teachers.

Then this year my new teacher tried to change everything on me. I got it done, answered the prompt, had the minimum number of words, And covered all key parts.

To me as long as the job gets done it really shouldn't matter how the end result was met.

Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 01/15/2015 at 15:58

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A couple of questions.

1) What kind of grading scale goes 1-6?

2) Why is a county grading your paper after your teacher has graded it?

Follow up to the second question, who in the county (both department and position title) is getting paid tax dollars to grade college essays after a teacher has already graded them?

CalzoneGolem > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 01/15/2015 at 16:03

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I understand exactly what you meant. Sometimes you just gotta do it completely by the book.

JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! > Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow 01/15/2015 at 16:43

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Its some sort of standardized test that all schools in our county have to do now. Its some sort of graduation requirement to get at least a 3.5.

Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 01/15/2015 at 16:44

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Weird. What state do you live in, if you don't mind me asking?

JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! > Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow 01/15/2015 at 16:54

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Itll make perfect sense when I tell you... floriduh

Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 01/15/2015 at 16:57

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Of course that's where it is. lol

Vince-The Roadside Mechanic > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 01/15/2015 at 18:16

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The thing I hate the most is the assignments about ourselves that have no purpose. I recently for health had to write about what my personal theme song was....WTF does that have to do with health?