A Year in Pictures of Working

Job #13: Charter School Teacher (Cont.)

Many charter schools are just places where students take computerized classes, trying to burn through them to get as many credits as possible in a short amount of time, while the school gets money for giving them a place to do this. To its credit, the charter school where I taught was slowly trying to get away from this, offering real classes with real teachers. But there were still a number of courses that were only outdated computer programs. ("Write a brief paragraph that tells how you think the world will be dressing beginning in the year 2000.") Mostly I taught classes, but part of my job was also to grade the essays students typed into the computer programs. "Grade" isn't the right word. I was told to "go in and just make sure they're putting any kind of effort into it."

An example:

"Q: Begin an etymology list. Look up 5 vocabulary words and write their etymologies. As you come across new words, add their etymologies to your list.
A: No."

Some of their essays would have been funny if weren't so painfully obvious that many of these high school students could only read and write at an elementary school level.

"Q: If you could change one thing about society what would it be?
A: That ever body would stop being stuped"

And then there were some student essays that were just wrong in so many ways.

"Q: Each decade during this century has received a nickname that seems to summarize the entire decade. What is your nickname for the 1990s. Why?
A: My nickname would be hitman because i would kill and kill and no one would know it was me it would be a mystery"

# posted by Arnie : 11:19 AM