TITLE: Unclear on the Concept
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: July 11, 2014  2:12 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
I love the following passage from
<A HREF="http://blog.mrmeyer.com/2013/the-unengageables-ctd/">
   Dan Meyer</A>.
He is commenting on a survey reported
<A HREF="http://www2.smartbrief.com/servlet/encodeServlet?issueid=7BDAFC55-C866-4CA1-8894-774B71D61199&sid=8cac1950-7171-4458-b53e-1c33d651835a">
   here</A>
(scroll to the bottom of the page), in which math teachers were
asked what the greatest limitations are on how they teach.
38.79% said, "students who are uninterested", and 23.56% said,
"students who are disruptive".  Says Meyer:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 It's like reading a survey of firefighters in which, when asked
 about the greatest limitation on how they fight fires, 38.79%
 responded "all the fires" and 23.56% responded "being a first
 responder."
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

Students who are uninterested are part of the job.  I don't know
that we can make every student who walks into my classroom
interested in CS.  But I do know that we can teach CS in ways
that lose the interest of too many students with the potential
to succeed.  Trust me; I've done it.

Also, let's not blame the K-12 system for creating students who
are predisposed to be uninterested and to lack curiosity.  It
does not matter if that is true or not.  My job is to teach the
students in my classroom, not some mythical students somewhere
else.
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