Essay Chat - page 3

re: should students write their own recommendation letter?

Jun 22, 2023

Students should not make it a habit of writing their own recommendation letter for college or higher learning admission. They should also never do that when applying for student scholarships. Students have to trust that the letter their teacher will be writing for them will be to their benefit. If a teacher does not want to write a recommendation letter for him or her, then that means the teacher is not supportive of his ambitions or, the teacher does not believe he will make it. A recommendation letter only works if a teacher believes in the capacity of the student. It must be worded in an appropriate manner. It cannot sound juvenile nor contain information that is out of focus. These are the problems that indicate a student written recommendation letter. When the admissions team suspects that, the student will find his application weakened. They will tend to call the teacher to confirm the information, which could end up being the reason for his application rejection.

re: labor based grading creates more responsible students?

Jun 22, 2023

Labor based grading is a unique way of teaching students. It also highlights the learning style of each learner as they are given the freedom to establish their own learning routine and class participation. Either the student becomes a diligent learner, who becomes more active in terms of his own learning and class participation or, he becomes a cramming specialist who barely passes in class because he just does enough to glide by. By giving the students the responsibility for their learning, we see who is responsible and who is not. Labor based grading can create responsible learners, as it does most of the time. Students like being in charge or an active participant in their educational quest. It is up to the teachers just the same, to ensure that they inspire the students to be responsible and take charge of their learning needs. It does not take much to prod those who are responsible. Those who are not, well, even labor based grading can fail because they apply it incorrectly to their learning needs.

re: the case for ending the pass or fail grades

Jun 21, 2023

Well, pass or fail grades serve a purpose in the educational world. Internationally, schools will consider students based upon their academic performance and standing. How well they perform in subjects related to their chosen major and whether they would have the intellectual capacity to successfully complete overseas academic assessment tests. Thinking along those lines tells me that there is no way pass or fail grades can ever be completely done away with. It might just take on a new form of grading or assessment testing, but it will always be there. It is important that students are assessed for intellectual capacity so that they can forge their future based upon the knowledge that they can perform well in one particular field of study. Additionally, failing grades help strengthen the character of a student. It allows them to learn about failure and how to deal with it or, eventually, how to overcome it. There are a lot of benefits to pass or fail grades.

re: schools: evolve or become obsolete?

Jun 21, 2023

As schools continue to forget what they are supposed to be doing, which is educating our kids instead of trying to rewire their brains, I believe that schools will eventually find themselves becoming obsolete. Parents who do not agree with the way the kids are taught these days will be pulling out their kids and enrolling them in home schooling or some other alternative educational program. They may even hire tutors directly. So the purpose of sending kids to school will be end up being defeated.

Schools are the ones creating the obsolescence of their purpose. They are no longer focused on education. They are looking at fulfilling political intents and virtue signalling. Both of which have never been considered a traditional part of education. So yeah, I do see schools becoming obsolete in the future. Not because their usefulness has been reached, but because they have forgotten what schools are all about. Education, not indoctrination. Learning, not brain rewiring.

re: should college students be admitted based on trauma essays?

Jun 20, 2023

Regular college should not, in my opinion, be admitted based on trauma based considerations. It just isn't fait to the students. They work hard in high school to gain admittance based on merit, so they should not lose their chance just because they do not have a sob story to share. If students must be admitted based on traumatic events in their lives, then let that consideration apply to refugee students or ESL students, not to American students. Universities and colleges have diversity quotas anyway so use the diversity quotas properly and not just on the basis of race, religion, skin color, or the alphabet of a person. Fairness in the admission process can only be found when the admissions committee learns to get real and assess the regular students on a level playing field. Do not force them to develop some sort of fake trauma just to get into school. That defeats the purpose of the personal statements. Accept the students based on their realities, not what you want them to make up for you to enjoy reading.

re: why slow down with revisions-

Jun 19, 2023

I find that my students who take their time in revising their papers always end up turning in the best researched and most informative papers to my class. The time that they took to actually write the paper, the information they presented in the paper, everything about the paper just tells me that they took their time in revising their drafts until they came to the version they submitted to me. Effort is often seen in the final product. Slowing down during the revision process, so they can actually avoid any grade reducing errors or, mistaken information, becomes evident in the work produced. There are so many grade beneficial reasons to slow down when the student has already reached his draft revising process. The problem is that most students these days no longer care for the quality of their work. They just want to come up with some sort of paper and submit it, just to get it out of the way. They fail to realize the importance of a properly completed revision.

re: college admission is contingent on academic honesty?

Jun 19, 2023

From what i have gathered reading the web these days, academic honesty is something universities and colleges are finally willing to overlook. These academic venues are having problems retaining their students and also, inviting freshmen in. So, while they may find out about the academic problems or violations of a student, they tend to give the student a chance if his record looks like he could benefit from the education of the school. They do not even offer conditional acceptance anymore as they used to with incoming freshmen who have a record. I guess they figured that they run a business first and foremost so, the best thing they can do is overlook certain violations from students, who then have a clean slate to start on during their college learning. Now, if the student chooses to violate the rules and gets caught in the process, then that is another story. For now, it is all about increasing the head count at these schools and collecting the tuition fees from these students. Who cares about their academic integrity?

re: possible writer blackmail: is it still worth it to hire them?

Jun 19, 2023

If you have not worked with a paid writer before, then I do not suggest you start doing it now. If you have gotten by doing your own work, but are aiming for a higher grade, I am telling you to learn to be satisfied with your own intellectual and writing capacity. There is no sense in delving into the academic writer hiring scenario at this point. Not with the way all of these scammers are proliferating the web and even trying to directly contact students on social media just to con them. Think of the academic repercussions if you are caught. If that happens, blackmail will be the least of your problems. While more blackmail cons can easily be avoided, it is not something that you should be fearing when you hire a writer. If you have that fear, then simply do not do it. Listen to your instincts. It may not be worth it for you. Do not invite trouble.

re: schools: indoctrination or teaching channels? -

Jun 18, 2023

I fear that schools of the US and Canada are becoming exactly what they claim the Russians and other socialist / communists do with their children / students. They are indoctrinating our kids into a new belief system. A new society and social order that are unknown to us as their parents. That is the main reason why they are trying to keep us out of the educational system these days. They know that parents will balk at the way that students are being made to believe that new beliefs should be normalized while old beliefs and cultures should be shunned and shamed out of existence. This is where I believe the educational system has failed out children. Schools are too busy indoctrinating, they have forgotten how to educate our children. Instead, we are left to find them educational help through other sources. Sources that are more attuned to our beliefs as parents and do not indoctrinate our kids for any reason.

re: do-over grades?

Jun 17, 2023

Let's remember that generations of students passed through all their academic levels without having a chance at a do-over. It is all part of preparing them for adulthood and giving them lessons in responsibility. They should get only one chance to prove they know their lesson, like everyone else before them did. Look, do-overs only exist in the movies and video games. There are no resets in real life. That is what schools should be teaching the kids. That you only get one chance to get things done right. Do it wrong and there are consequences. You fail your task grade, you repeat a grade, you get thrown out of school. Those are the realities of academic life that have professional and real life counterparts. There is no sense in sugar coating anything for them since that will give them a false perspective of how to handle situations. So if they do not do the work properly, give them the failing grade or low grade that they deserve. They better learn about the harsh realities now than when they get to work. Enough of these do-over and safe spaces. It doesn't help the students.

re: college admission is contingent on academic honesty? -

Jun 7, 2023

I do not believe that an incoming college student should be judged by the actions he has taken in the past. It is not fair to deny him entry into his chosen college just because of a previous action that only proves a youthful lack of judgement on his part. Why should he have to pay with his educational future for something that he has surely learned a lesson from and will not repeat in the future? Academic acceptance should not be based on a judgemental consideration. Everyone deserves a second chance. In this case, why not interview the student and ask what made him do it? While he will never admit if he plans to do it again, it is important to understand what fueled his decision so that he can be made conscious that he should not do it again. Give him conditional acceptance for the duration of his stay at the college. Make this the main reason he could be dismissed in the future, but allow him to attend the university. There is no sense in a double punishment at this point.

re: should college students be admitted based on trauma essays?

Jun 3, 2023

are you prepared to share that experience with others?

Sharing your most traumatic experiences will not assure you of being admitted into your first, second, or third choice university. The trauma based essays only serve as gossip for admissions officers who do not really care about what we have experienced in life. They are just looking to fill their diversity quota at the university through the sob stories they force us to tell. That is why some of the applicants lie about their traumas in these essays. They know that they need to have a soap opera story to tell if they want to even be considered for a student slot. Yes, i know I sound bitter. I was a victim of the trauma essay trap. I shared my story with the reviewers, I got personal and put everything out there and yet, I did not get into my top 3 choice universities. Someone had a sadder and more traumatic story than I did every time. So I ended up on community college. I guess my real traumatic story could not hold up against the made up stories of the other candidates.

re: should i use writing bots for college admission essays

Jun 2, 2023

The writing bot can only show you how to write the essay. It cannot write the essay for you. Consider that these college application essays are a personal plea based upon emotions and insights. A writing bot cannot write in such an in-depth manner for you. It can only write emotionless essays based upon information fed into it. In fact, admissions officers have cautioned students against using AI tools for their essays because they can spot these sorts of essays almost immediately. Then the AI developed essay becomes the reason why the student is eliminated from consideration. Do not rely on AI writing tools for any reason. Just because the tool is there to make the work easier, does not mean you should allow the tool to take over the task completely. It still requires human intervention for any work it produces to be usable in the real world. Sure, there are reasons to use it, but then again, there are many more reasons to not use it for college admission purposes.

re: do-over grades?

Jun 1, 2023

Let's not be too hard on the students. They are after all, still in the learning process. Some learn more slowly than others, and some, do not write as well as others. So why deny them the chance to improve their work whenever they can? It isn't like there is a profession involved at this point that would be affected by their repeating their written work. Since a teacher's job is to help a student learn, a teacher should consider the do-over as a part of the learning process. Allowing him to improve his work is actually teaching him more about the subject than he did in the classroom. Since we all know that the time allottment per class is not enough to actually ensure that a student has properly learned the lesson, allowing them a do-over would give them the opportunity to learn more than they would have in class. Nobody was every harmed by a do-over, don't knock it.

re: should i use writing bots for college admission essays

May 25, 2023

I do not see anything wrong with using a writing bot to help you develop your application essays. The only people who would have a problem with that are old school people who do not understand the benefit of using AI technology when writing these days. Soemtimes, all it takes for a person to write a killer essay is the inspiration to do so. AI sites do exactly that. We input the information, the suggestion as to how to write it is given, we either take the suggestion or disregard it. Most of us will choose to accept the recommendation with revisions. The bot will do half the job for us. All we have to do is make the essay our own by adding personal touches that will eliminate the chatbot tone from the writing. It simplifies the writing process and eliminates the need to spend needlessly on a writer who will end up endlessly revising your paper anyway. Use the chatbot.

re: should college students be admitted based on trauma essays? r

May 25, 2023

Maybe there should be some room to admit students based on trauma based essays. Everyone has gone through something sad in their lives. Everyone has an unforgettable story to be told. These life experiences have helped them become who they are today. How else can the admissions officer learn about the background of a student if he does not ask the correct probing questions that would bring that information to light? Consider that the students are not allowed to come in for personal interviews all the time and their only option is to gain the attention of the admissions officers through the trauma based essays. Now, I am not saying student should lie and claim a trauma when they have none. Rather, they should learn to write introspectively so that they will realize that there is no perfect life and that they too have a trauma to speak of if they just think about it. Everyone has a hidden trauma. The question is, are you prepared to share that experience with others?

re: schools: indoctrination or teaching channels?

May 25, 2023

Schools will continue to exist and evolve based on existing technology. Human teachers might become obsolete in the future as AI and human like robots become more and more trained in the field of education. People will always be limited in the amount of information we can be taught to retain, which is a drawback of physical teachers. AI run classrooms will not be limited in the manner that human run classrooms are today. Education is about to get fast tracked into evolving. We see its early beginnings already. We just refuse to acknowledge it. Schools becoming obsolete is just a dream. The proponets of whom are people who succeeded in life without getting a formal education. They may think that because everything came easy to them in terms of learning. That is not the case for everyone else. People will still need to attend school because they need to be educated in a proper manner and be taught to discover what their interests are.

re: the case for ending the pass or fail grades

May 25, 2023

I still want to receive actual grades for my efforts in school. It gives me a sense of merit and importance to know that my teachers acknowledge the knowledge I have gained from them. It is not always about memory work anyway, that is just one of the important things we have to learn in school. I learned about more than just my interestes while in classes that are mandatory for each level. I developed a personal interest in other subjects that I would not have come across had I just relied on the internet and my self interests in certain topics. Learning is about a combination of information and experiences, it is not just about letter grades and what those represent. Those grades are just assurances that I am doing a good job of learning and that I am not wasting my time while I am at school. I am actually being given a grade to let me know that I am learning, which is the whole point of going to school.

re: labor based grading creates more responsible students

May 25, 2023

I am a student who has always thrived on responsibility. That is why when I learned that my school was shifting to Labor Based Grading, I was ecstactic. I mean, how else would I get the chance to learn at my own pace, submit the best possible work that I could to my teachers, and also participate in my own grading considerations? Labor based grading is meant for students who love to learn and love to discuss with others. Teachers and students benefit from the system because learning becomes the responsibility of both sides. As such, my teachers need to be on their toes when I am in their classes. I have become an even more responsible student these days and my teachers, they have shown a big improvement in their teaching styles and know how as well. No doubt because the new learning system openly encourages us to question their teachings and debate their opinions. I just love it.

student disengagement

May 25, 2023

I am finding it difficult to handle my students in class these days. They seem to have taken a raincheck on attending classes. In a class of 30, I am lucky to get 9 students in my class. These are college students by the way. I am at my wits end trying to get these kids into the classroom so that they will learn something. I know they are on campus. I see them in the halls, in the quad, school gym, basically anywhere but my classroom. Does anybody have any suggestions as to how I might be able to get these kids back into the classroom? Their disinterest is a disservice to them and their parents who are paying their tuition fees. I have tried emailing them, messaging them, even calling their phones to beg them to come to class. I would hate to fail them so they would have to retake the class during the summer. Does anybody know why students are just so disengaged from their learning needs these days?

standards based grading?

May 25, 2023

I do not see the logic in changing the letter based grading system to a numerical ranking as if the students are just being asked for an opinion on something. Changing to a grading system of 1-5 does not clarify anything if you ask me. It just further confuses an already confusing grading system. Asking students to participate in their grading is also self serving if you ask me. Of course students will over rate themselves when you ask them how well they think they did. They all think they are the best in their class these days anyway. So the change in the grading system will only make things harder for the teachers and professors. What is the basis for the new ranking? How does one judge the way the student performs in class? There are too many unknown factors for students to actually benefit from this grading system. Why should be reinvent the wheel in this case?

should i use writing bots for college admission essays?

May 25, 2023

I was trying to get the services of a reputed independent academic writer (not at this forum) but I felt that charging me $2500 for writing several college essays for me was too much. It felt more like a money grab more than anything else. So, I tried to write the essays myself. I was not very good at it. Then I tried having an AI write a response essay based on my personal information. I was pretty satisfied with the outcome of the essay, but my educational adviser said the essay was weak. The problem is, I am not a very skilled writer and I do not have the chops to write original essays for each university I apply to. Do I really need to hire an actual writer for this or can I just go with whatever the writing AI comes up with, with a little polishing or improvements coming from me?I really do not want to overspend on application essays if I do not have to.

do - over grades?

May 25, 2023

I am not sure we are doing our students a good service by allowing them to do-over their papers whenever they come to us saying they do not appreciate the grade that their paper got. Shouldn't their first effort at writing the opinion paper or research be the only chance they get to get a graded outcome for it? I hate that the school I am currently teaching at has forced all their teachers, regardless of subject, to allow students to do over their homework, papers, and even tests, just to make sure that the students pass the class at the end of the semester or academic year. There are no do-overs in real life and students need to learn that. Even if it means they have to accept a failing mark of a low score here and there sometimes. Schools are the training ground for the adults they have to be in the future. Misleading them into believing that they can get a do-over anytime is not preparing them for the realities of the workplace.

why slow down with revisions?

May 25, 2023

Am I the only one guilty of writing so fast, the essay seems completely done before I even notice it? I tend to write so fast, everything coming out from the top of my head, that essay writing feels almost natural to me. I do not take more than 10 minutes to write an essay, which I deem ready for submission. The problem, is that my teachers often send the paper back to me with a request that I revise the content. Not that my paper was wrong, just that they believe I should be focused more on developing my explanatiosn rather than just giving basic and simple answers to their questions. They keep telling me to slow down and revise the essay for improvement. What is there to improve if I am confortable with everything that I have written? Is it really important that I review and revise my content each time? Isn't my first writing always the best one?

re: should students write their own recommendation letter?

May 25, 2023

Educators need to do the right thing and write the recommendation letters for the students that ask for it. It is not difficult to do. Most of these letters are just character references anyway. The problem, is that the teachers no longer take the time to get to know their students beyond the controlled classroom setting. That is why they do not want to write the recommendation letters. They know their students by face and first name. They know nothing beyond that, which is why they pass the recommendation letter writing on to the actual student. The problem is that students in High School have no idea how a teacher writes and what the recommendation letter should contain. It would not be a problem for the students to write these letters and just have the teachers sign it if they had any idea what they were doing with the letter. Maybe the high schools should have recommendation letter writing classes so that students can write the letter and maybe sign for it too.

re: college admission is contingent on academic honesty?

May 25, 2023

As someone who has assisted students with their college applications, I have to say that students who have academic dishonesty problems, or any sort of record on their student record need to know that they basically cancelled themselves out of admission to the top universities in the country. Their only hope of getting into a high profile college is if he applies as a legacy student. In which case, the university has no choice but to accept him. For those with serious problems with their student records, they should aim for lesser known universities or unknown universities for admission. Those colleges and universities are not as picky about the students they admit. Party colleges would be your best option. If you did not think about your chances of getting into good colleges and universities before you reached your senior year, then you really do not have a clue about what is required to get into a good college. One of these requirements is to have a good academic record.

re: possible writer blackmail: is it still worth it to hire them? - r

May 25, 2023

The writers here will tell you that you better not be using an AI to write your essays. Nothing beats having an actual person write your paper. That may be true for the most part. Consider though that the writers, who are, whether they admit it or not, losing business to AI bots when it comes to writing, are not in a good position at the moment. The students would rather use an AI first and then go to a writer for polishing, if the student feels it is necessary to do so. Otherwise, they pass the AI essay and take the grade. No expenses, no blackmail threat. Since AI has taken over even the task of handwriting for the students, it would appear that it is only a matter of time before the writers are put out of business. Their work well is drying up. They will blackmail students when they have to. So why take that risk? It isn't worth it.

re: the case for ending the pass or fail grades

May 25, 2023

I would love to see the end of pass or fail grades in all educational levels. It does not seem right to judge students on their learning abilities these days when it has become fairly obvious that the teachers can barely teach and students are learning on their own through the internet. Pass or fail does not indicate the actual learning of the student anymore. That sort if grading is ancient in the sense that it measures the student's intellect based on his ability to memorize text, but not necessarily understand it. Where is the logic in that? If I can memorize facts then I am intelligent? Since when? Nobody should have the right to judge the intelligence of any learner. Not everyone learns at the same pace so it is imperative that the school learning system reflects that individuality. Schools should learn that cookie cutter learning no longer applies and pass or fail grades are obsolete in a world where anybody can learn about anything, without attending school or being told if they are intelligent or not.

re: schools: indoctrination or teaching channels?

May 23, 2023

I am not sure if I understand the question being posed. Isn't all schooling about education through indoctrination? I mean, there are religious schools of all sorts, using education to keep their flock in check and spread their beliefs. There are schools that cater to specific mindsets or training like art and performance schools. There seems to be a school for each belief or conviction of a parent for the child. The kid grows up believing what the school has been conditioning them to believe and follow. Which is why schools have missions and objectives which they share with parents whose children might attend or are attending their schools. The same goes for public schools these days. They are all about revisionism and wokeness. Both of which are mind conditioning and therefore, indoctrination. Nobody has stopped them from doing that, so why is it a worrisome topic for people to talk about? If you don't want indoctrination on a mass scale, then indoctrinate your kid through home schooling. That is indoctrination of the cult kind.

re: should college students be admitted based on trauma essays?

May 14, 2023

I hate having to write trauma based essays for my college applications. Not because I do not want to re-live those times, but because I am forced to open up to a complete stranger who can judge me even before actually getting to know me. I do not understand why they want me to share my intimate life experiences, thoughts, and the results of those with them. What do those have to do with my intellect for college? Are we all diversity applicants for some reason? They need to fill in a trauma quota? Of what use is it to the university to know if I come from an abusive background? Unsupportive parents? Financial problems... These do not affect my ability to be a good person or accomplish my academic requirements. Don't they realize that they are further traumatizing the applicants by having them write about these things as if we have all really come to terms with our nightmare pasts?