Thr following essay describes the quality of humanities education in America and offers advice for change. Great for ANYONE who wants ideas about "what constitutes good pedagogy."

As I creep ever closer to the terminus of the undergraduate program in English education, feelings of felicity abound in the depths of my soul as I contemplate the opportunities that I will have to positively impact myriad young lives, helping them to grow as thinkers, writers, interpersonal communicators, readers, and as people as they prepare to enter a workforce and a society that demands multi-faceted talents and multi-dimensional abilities to communicate with an increasingly pluralistic American public. While the task does seem a bit daunting, it is a challenge that I wholeheartedly embrace and think about frequently.

One of the primary reasons that I desire to teach, perhaps paradoxically, is to make changes in an academic construct that I despise. It is an environment that, all too frequently, does not encourage inferential, divergent, and critical thinking, and panders to a radical egalitarian, hedonistic society that eschews lucubration in favor of constant entertainment.

Moodle Guide for Teachers

Phila. Teachers on Capitol Steps, Wash., D.C., 5/1...

Teacher in primary school in northern Laos

Students are only encouraged to think literally about objective facts. An abundance of true/false and multiple- choice tests are an indication of how low expectations are. Students must only be able to recognize what "looks right" from their readings, or perhaps only have to memorize information that their instructors dictate to them. Students are rarely forced to "reconstruct" information, such as on essay tests or in actual writing, and their minds turn to jelly because they are not held accountable for problem solving but only recapitulating information that is shoved down their throats - the quintessential representation of affectation - pseudo-scholarship. In addition to lack of rigor in the curriculum, grades are oftentimes inflated, making academics doubly impossible - a monster, sort of like Frankenstein. Well, I think it is entirely unacceptable. Students must understand that the world is an unforgiving place and that they must take...