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Rant & Rave
Tuesday, October 31, 2000
Editor's note: One of the 10 issues on the Kids Voting election ballot Nov. 7 is whether students should be able to evaluate their teachers. These freshmen from Moanalua High School respond.
By Alicia Tapia
ALL students have different ways of learning. Some students learn best when listening and reading, and others learn better through watching and drawing. It's the teacher's job to teach all students to the best of their capacity. What is better than letting the teachers know, directly from the student, how the teachers can improve their lessons? Evaluations help
teachers improveI believe every student has the potential to earn straight As on report cards. On the student's part, it takes discipline and responsibility.
On the teacher's part, it means finding out from the student the best way they each learn and the best way the lesson gets through to them.
I know a lot of students who study night and day to try to get good grades, but they never do. It's because the teacher doesn't know how to help them understand the lesson.
Students should be able to evaluate their teachers because it would help them know whether they are doing their jobs right. Teacher evaluations would improve the education of future generations .
I think there are some good and bad arguments regarding the issue of teacher evaluations. By Jennifer Takano
Guidelines necessary
for processSome of the good things that can happen to teachers if we evaluate them is our ability to help them see how their performance affects ours. We can tell them whether we understand what they are trying to teach us, and whether their pace is too fast or too slow.
Another reason why it may be a good idea to do an evaluation is because students would probably never tell their teachers what they think of them out of fear of retaliation. We should be able to tell them what we think of them and not have to worry about getting busted or getting into trouble.
There's always the possibility that a student will write something really bad. The teacher could find out, take it personally and then give that student bad grades or send him or her to the office for insubordination.
I think we should be able to do this, but there should be some rules involved. No harsh words should be used. Comments should be fair and simply let our teachers know how they are doing and how they can improve so the next class will have a better learning experience.
Rant & Rave is a Tuesday Star-Bulletin feature
allowing those 12 to 22 to serve up fresh perspectives.
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