Once again, why I hate the state of American education.

[Lexodus]

*Shakespeare
**This one has bugged me for a while now. What the fuck is a 'Shakespeare Play?' You don't get a 'Tolkien Book' or a 'Shakespeare Poem' or 'Shakespeare Sonnet' (although you do get a '(Michael Bay's) Michael Bay Film (Directed by Michael Bay (MICHAEL BAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111oneone)). It's just a play, written by Shakespeare.

You've clearly never seen a Shakespearian work in your life, have you?

Are you fucking kidding me? I live in England; they feed you that shit for breakfast until you're sixteen. You also clearly never read the rest of my post, did you? Besides, it's the bullshit term 'Shakespeare Play' that I'm complaining about.

 

[Agema]

*Shakespeare
**This one has bugged me for a while now. What the fuck is a 'Shakespeare Play?' You don't get a 'Tolkien Book' or a 'Shakespeare Poem' or 'Shakespeare Sonnet' (although you do get a '(Michael Bay's) Michael Bay Film (Directed by Michael Bay (MICHAEL BAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111oneone)). It's just a play, written by Shakespeare.

You've clearly never seen a Shakespearian work in your life, have you?

Are you fucking kidding me? I live in England; they feed you that shit for breakfast until you're eleven. You also clearly never read the rest of my post, did you? Besides, it's the bullshit term 'Shakespeare Play' that I'm complaining about.

Really?

Most people would quite happily talk about a "Hemingway" or "Steinbeck" and the listener should know perfectly well it's a novel, or talk about a "Hopkins poem", and they'd happily say a "Titian" to refer to a painting by that artist.

You possibly can't just say a "Shakespeare" because he wrote plays and poetry (and in fact you do have 'Shakespeare Sonnets'), so you may need to define which. You probably couldn't refer to a "Browning poem", because it would not be clear whether you meant Elizabeth Barret Browning or Robert Browning.

In short, I don't really know what's wrong with the term. At bare minimum, it's quicker to say "a Shakespeare play" rather than "a play written by Shakespeare".

 

[Lexodus]

*Shakespeare
**This one has bugged me for a while now. What the fuck is a 'Shakespeare Play?' You don't get a 'Tolkien Book' or a 'Shakespeare Poem' or 'Shakespeare Sonnet' (although you do get a '(Michael Bay's) Michael Bay Film (Directed by Michael Bay (MICHAEL BAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111oneone)). It's just a play, written by Shakespeare.

You've clearly never seen a Shakespearian work in your life, have you?

Are you fucking kidding me? I live in England; they feed you that shit for breakfast until you're eleven. You also clearly never read the rest of my post, did you? Besides, it's the bullshit term 'Shakespeare Play' that I'm complaining about.

Really?

Most people would quite happily talk about a "Hemingway" or "Steinbeck" and the listener should know perfectly well it's a novel, or talk about a "Hopkins poem", and they'd happily say a "Titian" to refer to a painting by that artist.

You possibly can't just say a "Shakespeare" because he wrote plays and poetry (and in fact you do have 'Shakespeare Sonnets'), so you may need to define which. You probably couldn't refer to a "Browning poem", because it would not be clear whether you meant Elizabeth Barret Browning or Robert Browning.

In short, I don't really know what's wrong with the term. At bare minimum, it's quicker to say "a Shakespeare play" rather than "a play written by Shakespeare".

You'd say, "Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' " rather than 'the Shakespeare Play The Tempest'. Shakespeare Play infers that there is something inherently special about him or that it is an entirely seperate genre. Like I said, it's not a 'Shakespeare Play', it's a play by Shakespeare. Plus, it sounds wrong. It just does. Yes, you'd say a "Titian" or a "Jackson Pollock" or whatever, and yes, a "Shakespeare", but not a "Shakespeare Play", if you understand what I mean.
Nor is it a "Shakespeare Sonnet"; it's a sonnet by Shakespeare.

In simpler terms, it's the phrase 'Shakespeare Play/Sonnet/Bucket of Sick" as a single noun rather than meaning a play/sonnet/bucket of sick by Shakespeare/the devil/paper cuts.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

snip

Sounds like your high school was crap. I went to school (6 months of senior year) in a small country town in Georgia. Georgia is very low on the US education ratings, but we read Dante's Inferno, Beowulf and things of that nature.... =\
In my other high school, I had to read the Metamorphisis, which is a pretty difficult story to understand.

I feel sorry for you, and to think Georgia's education supposedly sucks.

To be fair, the only reason our English classes suck is because of standardized testing. In Texas, we have/had (they change the name every few years and I don't care to look it up) the TAKS test. Teachers in every other subject figured that if we learn the material, we would pass the test, English teachers figured we would pass by using multicolored pens and fooling the graders into thinking we know what we're doing.

Every other class works quite well, as long as it's advanced or a science class. All but one of our Science teachers were fun. And sadistic, but in a fun way. But History and Math went by whether or not you were in the advanced course.

 

[DrDeath3191]

Maybe I can't talk, what with the whole private school thing, but my English classes were actually pretty decent, contentwise.

 

[Amnestic]

It's not just the USA.

I teach in a middle-ranking UK University, and I find the general calibre of students pretty disappointing.

What subject?

Neuroscience/Pharmacology.

That's just shocking. I'm studying at Durham (Applied Psychology, certainly not the hardest of subjects) and the quality of students around me is everything I expect from University. I know there's probably some rules against disclosure and whatnot, but do you have any examples? Colour me curious.

 

[Murlin]

Wanna trade for french system? just as bad but different language and different writers

 

[AkJay]

Everyone is high school is so stupid! Except, of course, for OP...

 

[crimson5pheonix]

Everyone is high school is so stupid! Except, of course, for OP...

No, the people aren't stupid, the system is broken. And the English teachers are stupid.

 

[theultimateend]

I had to prove to my 11th grade English teacher that disorientated was a word. Sad day...

After that, he differed to my vocabulary in times of duress.

Do you perhaps mean that he "deferred" to your vocabulary?

Maybe they never agreed on vocabulary whenever the environment was saturated with duress?

Seems reasonable to me. What better way to create an uncomfortable situation than to be in conflict with your professor .

It's not just the USA.

I teach in a middle-ranking UK University, and I find the general calibre of students pretty disappointing.

What subject?

Neuroscience/Pharmacology.

Behavioral Neuroscience was the most difficult class I've ever taken. Then again the professor was brand new and only stayed for three quarters.

Psychopharmacology was easy because in America every college student is apparently a drug abusing rambler. I need look no further than my dorm mates to see what LSD, Alcohol, and Pot can do .

 

[Internet Kraken]

Can someone explain to me what the point of this thread is other than to pointlessly bash English teachers?

 

[DonPauliani]

In this case, pertaining to English.

I was googleing the difference between poisonous and venomous (which I found out) and as I typed in my question the auto fill took over. The first suggestion by google after typing in "what is the difference between" was "what is the difference between effect and affect".

Sorry if this seems like over tread ground, but I have to release some bile. This bile stems from my experience in English class. My English classes were nothing more than exercises in multicolored pen use and drilling in white guilt. We didn't read ANY classic literature. The closest we got was 100 pages into Frankenstein, the teacher gave up and moved to.... multicolored pen use. I think I may have learned 3 new words in 4 years of High school. 2 of those words I learned in economics.

Back to the books, we didn't read anything memorable, thought provoking, or challenging. We tried Frankenstein in my Senior year and, like I said, the teacher gave up. He gave up because it was too difficult for most of the class. A book I read on my own in 6th grade was too hard for 12th graders... I'm just beyond happy that Twilight hadn't made it to my school while I was there, we would have read it had it been popular. We didn't need to read the Mars trilogy, but we could have at least finished Frankenstein. Maybe a part of the problem was that all of my high school English teachers almost exclusively used Ebonics...

I get what you mean, man. I had to self-medicate myself throughout high school by reading everything deemed canonical by Stanford, Cambridge and my philosophy-driven god mother.

But at least you can draw a mean doodle, right?

 

[crimson5pheonix]

In this case, pertaining to English.

I was googleing the difference between poisonous and venomous (which I found out) and as I typed in my question the auto fill took over. The first suggestion by google after typing in "what is the difference between" was "what is the difference between effect and affect".

Sorry if this seems like over tread ground, but I have to release some bile. This bile stems from my experience in English class. My English classes were nothing more than exercises in multicolored pen use and drilling in white guilt. We didn't read ANY classic literature. The closest we got was 100 pages into Frankenstein, the teacher gave up and moved to.... multicolored pen use. I think I may have learned 3 new words in 4 years of High school. 2 of those words I learned in economics.

Back to the books, we didn't read anything memorable, thought provoking, or challenging. We tried Frankenstein in my Senior year and, like I said, the teacher gave up. He gave up because it was too difficult for most of the class. A book I read on my own in 6th grade was too hard for 12th graders... I'm just beyond happy that Twilight hadn't made it to my school while I was there, we would have read it had it been popular. We didn't need to read the Mars trilogy, but we could have at least finished Frankenstein. Maybe a part of the problem was that all of my high school English teachers almost exclusively used Ebonics...

I get what you mean, man. I had to self-medicate myself throughout high school by reading everything deemed canonical by Stanford, Cambridge and my philosophy-driven god mother.

But at least you can draw a mean doodle, right?

And here's the sad part of the story, there was no art class in my high school. I'm a terrible artist and had no way to learn v.v

 

[DonPauliani]

In this case, pertaining to English.

I was googleing the difference between poisonous and venomous (which I found out) and as I typed in my question the auto fill took over. The first suggestion by google after typing in "what is the difference between" was "what is the difference between effect and affect".

Sorry if this seems like over tread ground, but I have to release some bile. This bile stems from my experience in English class. My English classes were nothing more than exercises in multicolored pen use and drilling in white guilt. We didn't read ANY classic literature. The closest we got was 100 pages into Frankenstein, the teacher gave up and moved to.... multicolored pen use. I think I may have learned 3 new words in 4 years of High school. 2 of those words I learned in economics.

Back to the books, we didn't read anything memorable, thought provoking, or challenging. We tried Frankenstein in my Senior year and, like I said, the teacher gave up. He gave up because it was too difficult for most of the class. A book I read on my own in 6th grade was too hard for 12th graders... I'm just beyond happy that Twilight hadn't made it to my school while I was there, we would have read it had it been popular. We didn't need to read the Mars trilogy, but we could have at least finished Frankenstein. Maybe a part of the problem was that all of my high school English teachers almost exclusively used Ebonics...

I get what you mean, man. I had to self-medicate myself throughout high school by reading everything deemed canonical by Stanford, Cambridge and my philosophy-driven god mother.

But at least you can draw a mean doodle, right?

And here's the sad part of the story, there was no art class in my high school. I'm a terrible artist and had no way to learn v.v

I learned to draw from dating wayyyy to many anti-social, artsy girls. It's all about multitasking.

 

[FinalHeart95]

English is so easy this year that it's ridiculous. I'm a freshman in high school, and we haven't read anything slightly interesting yet. We're set to read "To Kill A Mockingbird" next, which everyone bitches about, but I'll see for myself if it's any good. Other than that I think we're set to read Romeo & Juliet, which, while should be on the curriculum, is bound to be a snooze-fest. Those are the only two "classics" we're reading. I might not pass up on honors next year...

 

[grimsprice]

I had to prove to my 11th grade English teacher that disorientated was a word. Sad day...

After that, he differed to my vocabulary in times of duress.

But it isn't it should be Disoriented, you're probably getting confused with disorientate.

No, disorientated is a word. Its the past tense of disorientate. Spinning on a chair disorientated you.

Disoriented is a state of being. Because i was spinning on a chair, i am disoriented.

 

[TheGreatCoolEnergy]

Well I live in Canada, and currently(Grade 10) I am reading Romeo and Juliet. Earlier this year we read Of Mice and Men, and last year we read To Kill a Mocking Bird and The Merchant of Venice, so maybe you just have a shitty school.

 

[Chaos Bringer]

In my grade 8 class we read three books that I could read in the first grade. Half the class could not read it. No exaggeration.

I debated with my teacher on a regular basis because she was so dumb.

 

[Sethzard]

I had to prove to my 11th grade English teacher that disorientated was a word. Sad day...

After that, he differed to my vocabulary in times of duress.

But it isn't it should be Disoriented, you're probably getting confused with disorientate.

No, disorientated is a word. Its the past tense of disorientate. Spinning on a chair disorientated you.

Disoriented is a state of being. Because i was spinning on a chair, i am disoriented.

sorry, at time of writing i was tired, i'm now awake thanks to coke, and you're right

 

[grimsprice]

I had to prove to my 11th grade English teacher that disorientated was a word. Sad day...

After that, he differed to my vocabulary in times of duress.

But it isn't it should be Disoriented, you're probably getting confused with disorientate.

No, disorientated is a word. Its the past tense of disorientate. Spinning on a chair disorientated you.

Disoriented is a state of being. Because i was spinning on a chair, i am disoriented.

sorry, at time of writing i was tired, i'm now awake thanks to coke, and you're right

Ah, Coca Cola. The original. The best. The first to bring us the 'shyk' sound. mmmmm.