WHAT IS WITH THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT!

So, as I have mentioned once, the general idea of majoring in Education is to take classes in the subject we did when we were younger (English, history, math, etc.) Yesterday we had to a major phonetics mid-term. Now I'm pretty good at transcribing...however it would help if I was doing real words. The professor gave us a list of made up words (aka. Lewis Carroll/Dr. Suess words) that I had to figure out and transcribe. HOW DUMB! Is that really going to make any of us better teachers! The entire class was pissed. (And I do mean the entire class, after the midterm all of us, ALL OF US, went to the closest bar and got shit faced silly!) Today most the class have written to their advisers, and heads of the school to complain. I have decided to go to the source of the matter and discuss this.

Really, one of the single dumbest things teachers do is "Trick" students. And yes teacher do this. For example, imagine if you got a question "Which is the largest state in the U.S." and the answers were A. Florida, B. Missouri, C. California, D. None of the above. The correct answer will be "D", but how is that helping the student. At least if there was "All of the above" that gives the student an idea of the answer, but "none of the above" does nothing. How can I transcribe a word when it isn't even a real word. (Note: I am not transcribing from English to phonetics, but phonetics to English. Get it?)

I don't feel the English department knows that as "future teachers" that they are example, as teachers themselves, for us to admire. Seriously, I don't think they even understand our major. I'd like to challenge them to teach a 1st grader to write a complete sentence!


"Have no fear at perfection, you'll never reach it." ~ Salvador Dali