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I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

bbc.co.uk

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Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#51

Post by everyone »

inglor_cz wrote: post #47
cwdegidio wrote: post #38

My grandfather, born in the back hills of West Virginia, was forced to leave school when he was around 6 years old to chop lumber so his family had enough to survive. After he left WV, he worked a press at a forge and was a landscaper at night an on the weekends. He never has learned how to read, and sadly he is in the early stages of dementia so I think that ship has sailed. But... he was always a whiz with finances…

One of my grandfathers was illiterate as well. Not a finance whiz, but not stupid either. He was a rural blacksmith and he was rather good with engines and small appliances, repairing them for paying customers. This is also a good moment to meditate on "right of repair". As recently as approx. 1970, most of the machinery in daily use could be repaired by a skillful, even though illiterate, person. The advent of semic…

You are implying finance people are intelligent???

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#52

Post by inglor_cz »

everyone wrote: post #51
inglor_cz wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my grandfathers was illiterate as well. Not a finance whiz, but not stupid either. He was a rural blacksmith and he was rather good with engines and small appliances, repairing them for paying customers. This is also a good moment to meditate on "right of repair". As recently as approx. 1970, most of the machinery in daily use could be repaired by a skillful, even though illiterate, person. The advent of semic…

You are implying finance people are intelligent???

Please read the original comment I am replying to. It had nothing to do with finance industry and everything to do with small-scale household economy.

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#53

Post by archibaldJ »

denton-scratch wrote: post #20
hliyan wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also not from the US, but I think read about him many many years ago in Reader's Digest. It was a long form that had a lot more information. I recognized the story because of this anecdote: "I passed my blue book out the window to him and he answered the questions for me." But the Reader's Digest version mentioned that he was dyslexic (which I don't think the BBC article mentions) and that he taught almost exclusivel…

It does sound like he was dyslexic ("for me it was like opening a Chinese newspaper "). But the speed at which he eventually acquired reading and writing doesn't seem consistent with dyslexia; I figure there was some other problem interfering with hiis literacy.

Computationally we don't understand what dyslexia is. Neuroplasticity is happening all the time. Perhaps at one point something changes and he has the ability to aquire the writing form of a language agian.

Similiar to in mathematics where it's a very different process reasoning with symbols v.s. trying to visualize the mathematical construct through communication. Maybe it's difficult to aquire the writing form of graph theory when you are 19. But when you try to do that again at 25 suddenly you can read all of Paul Erdos' papers less daunthingly.

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#54

Post by BrandoElFollito »

This also shows how poor the school system was it they did not uncover his illiteracy earlier. In France at least there was such an amount of loud reading at school that it would be hard to hide.

I ready the article with a strong dislike for the guy since I knew he was a teacher. I was pissed off for the pupils.

But it was not that bad, he was a teacher of PE where beside a limited technical knowledge (at the level he was in) the important part are social skills. So maybe it was for the better after all.

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#55

Post by [deleted] »

opheliate wrote: post #29
alexashka wrote: post #23

Rather than learning how to read, it'd do everyone a whole lot more good to admit that some people are not cut out for school and to send them off to work when they're teenagers. This poor guy has felt bad his entire life when he could've been an excellent coal miner instead. Every place I've worked is filled with people like this guy to one extent or another - fearful parents pushing their kids to go to school and p…

My (much) older brother has severe dyslexia. He's bright, and now owns his own business, but in his school, they'd already reached the capacity for SEN provision, and he was refused a diagnosis. He could have massively improved his literacy if help was just available, but at that time, it simply wasn't. Branding anyone who doesn't immediately take to school an "idiot" is incredibly myopic.

[deleted]

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#56

Post by avianlyric »

rubyn00bie wrote: post #39

I dream of having the confidence of a white man for only one day. Like, I’ve been writing code for twenty years, and I feel like an imposter still. I can’t even fucking imagine being able to wake up in the morning, living a lie like this, fucking up kids educations because your too much of a pathetic child to admit your own failings?! I find this article to be pretty disgusting to be honest.

> fucking up kids educations

Please provide evidence. Last I checked most schools have exams, and teachers performance is monitored. You don’t become a teacher, and suddenly face no further professional evaluation.

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#57

Post by krisoft »

timonoko wrote: post #28
nayuki wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be nice if they used IPA instead of yet another informal nonstandard system.

If you try "Wii shäl miit tu dei in Nyy Jork" in Google, it works quite well in Inglish too, except thö "Nyy Jork". It would be easy to organize meeting of all Anglos and accept this as an alternate spelling. Polish have some weird sibilants, so that it could be the starting point.

> It would be easy to organize meeting of all Anglos

You must be surelly joking there. :)

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#59

Post by xupybd »

rubyn00bie wrote: post #39

I dream of having the confidence of a white man for only one day. Like, I’ve been writing code for twenty years, and I feel like an imposter still. I can’t even fucking imagine being able to wake up in the morning, living a lie like this, fucking up kids educations because your too much of a pathetic child to admit your own failings?! I find this article to be pretty disgusting to be honest.

He probably dreams of having the confidence of an abel person. Dyslexia is no easy ride. Yes on one dimension he is privileged on another he is not.

I'm not sure he messed up these kids. He may have taught them well without the ability to read or write.

He is no doubt a fraud however. Especially with his collage degree.

Re: I was a teacher for 17 years, but couldn't read or write

#60

Post by beckman466 »

cwdegidio wrote: post #38

My grandfather, born in the back hills of West Virginia, was forced to leave school when he was around 6 years old to chop lumber so his family had enough to survive. After he left WV, he worked a press at a forge and was a landscaper at night an on the weekends. He never has learned how to read, and sadly he is in the early stages of dementia so I think that ship has sailed. But... he was always a whiz with finances…

> I can't imagine going through life like he did, how much I would hav missed.

Yeah your granddads story is impressive. I cannot imagine not being able to read and write.

> He was the kind of guy that can take a dollar on Monday and give you back $100 on Friday. He owns, I believe at this point, 8 properties including his own home.

So he owned other peoples homes? Ugh I hate this system. Why is absentee ownership a thing, why is it seen as ‘success‘? Lording over others isn’t ‘success’ in my book. I think it’s inhumane for some to be able to extract a toll from others for such a basic need. Yes the system makes it legal, but ‘landlords’ shouldn’t kid themselves that they are providing value to others.

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