TSR Sharing your infomation!

[jssimone]

It is kinda like the mailroom girl of a big company that is sinking running around trying to save the place while the top guys drink martinis on the beach getting what monies they can before the whole thing crashes and burns.

I never quite realized how much Dot & Maxoid Drea have in common until this very second...

[Paleoanth]

Maybe I am completely off base here, but I seem to remember that DOT was one of Thomas's favorites before Atwa came along. If this is accurate, perhaps she is trying to regain her position. I am sure Thomas asked her to do this photoshopping expose.  And by expose, I mean a stupid, inept attempt at discrediting coconut. 

[neriana]

I can see that.  When I was made SA at TSR, I felt like I was being vindicated for the art teacher that held up my work to the class and made everyone laugh at it and laugh at me, because I couldn't draw a horse with my right hand (I was five and left handed, which pissed that teacher off to no end.  Left handedness was not to be tolerated.)  I felt finally like God had given me justification for hating that teacher, that she was WRONG and I DID HAVE ART TALENT!

Your kindergarten teacher hated you too? Mine made fun of me because my desk was messy and I used too much glue in projects. Never mind that I was reading at a 7th grade level.

I think DOT is proving that FAs don't just drink the Kool-Aid, they make it too. She knows the screenshots aren't fake, because she posted in those threads, she can see those fora. But here she is, trying to con TSR subscribers in her own very inept way.

[justso]

When I was four I made a witch on a broomstick (fork). My teacher told me it was pathetic, it sounded like a nice word,  I was so proud of it.   I found out when I was five, at primary school, what it meant and I was devastated.  I suffered delayed hate for my art teacher, lol.

[ChaosInAMinor]

What the hell kind of person can say that to a four year old? You're not SUPPOSED to be freakin' Van Gogh at four. I babysat this kid regularly in high school, and all we would do when I was there was color and draw. Her dogs rarely resembled anything that could possibly be alive, and her people had arms twice the length of their body, but damnit I found something nice to say. "Oh, is that your brother? I could tell." "I really like your purple cat."

[justso]

Well at least at the time I didn't know any better.  I remember being 8 and having to memorise multiplication tables the teacher would be banging on your desk and firing questions, the answers had to be fired back instantly.  I used to always buckle half way through, the punishment was table tennis bat across the backside.

[CatOfWar]

I remember being 8 and having to memorise multiplication tables the teacher would be banging on your desk and firing questions, the answers had to be fired back instantly.  I used to always buckle half way through, the punishment was table tennis bat across the backside.

Was this teacher's goal to make children hate math?  Did any kid ever get a gold star or a kind word, or was it all just learn math to avoid punishment?  I'm guessing no effort was made to make the subject even remotely interesting so kids would actually want to learn it.  Did this teacher at least explain why math is useful?  Or would the first kid to ask "When are we ever going to use this?" get hit across the backside?  Were questions in general discouraged?  Did this teacher live under a bridge and demand a toll, then eat those who didn't pay?  Sorry justso, not trying to give you bad flashbacks, I'm just morbidly curious.  You make me feel fortunate that I had human beings for teachers.

[Darqstar]

Your kindergarten teacher hated you too? Mine made fun of me because my desk was messy and I used too much glue in projects. Never mind that I was reading at a 7th grade level.

Mine was a complete and utter bitch.  I don't know what would happen to her if she was around today. But when I was growing up, adults, any adult, was the ultimate authority, you just didn't backtalk or question. 

This woman used to tie my left hand behind my back to get me to stop.  She made me wear a sign that said something along the lines of  I AM BAD, because the moment she would leave that left hand free, I would use it, it just came naturally to me.  But every time I did, this woman would flip her shit over it.  One time she slammed a stapler down on my left hand and screamed, I mean SCREAMED like a banshee, "NEVER USE THAT HAND AGAIN!  DO I HAVE TO CUT IT OFF?"  I believed she'd do it too.   My parents never knew the abuse, I was afraid if I told them, they'd get mad at me for disobeying the teacher.  But, they did put a stop to the trying to train me to be right handed.  But that was almost worse.  I got sent to school with special left handed snub nose scissors and note.  Teacher read the note, then pulls me to the front of the room and gave this lecture about how I was such a spoiled baby that I couldn't learn to use the "right hand" the "Hand God wants us to write with," that nooo, I had to be allowed to use my left hand. 

When I read the Thorn Birds later, and I got to the part where Maggie's teacher talked about how left handed children were the spawn of the devil, especially if they had red hair, I could so relate to how Maggie must have felt.   I was never called the Spawn of the Devil, but I did have red hair, and yeah, the teacher was convinced that God only wanted people to be right handed, that to be left handed was somehow a sin, right up there with fornicating with furry little woodland creatures. 

Oddly, she was supposedly a very good teacher.  This was an exclusive private kindergarten, and the staff was supposed to be top notch in every way.  And all the other kids loved this woman.  I must have reminded her of someone or something, because she just went batshit insane over everything I did. 

[justso]

Was this teacher's goal to make children hate math?  Did any kid ever get a gold star or a kind word, or was it all just learn math to avoid punishment?  I'm guessing no effort was made to make the subject even remotely interesting so kids would actually want to learn it.

I think all schools taught like this then.  It wasn't a case of liking subjects, you learned them end of.  Teachers weren't and didn't try to be your friend.  Discussion in the classroom wasn't allowed.  You could raise your hand and request help if you were really stuck, otherwise you didn't speak until you were spoken too.  Gold stars weren't easy to come by, so if you got one you really deserved one.  I don't have flashbacks I didn't find this way of learning traumatic, I don't think anyone did. 

[neriana]

One of my best friends also went to a private school, and I remember her telling me that they wouldn't let her use her left hand, and how weird I thought that was. I went to a public school and thought her school was basically run by evil child-haters. She pretty much agreed . She did end up ambidextrous, though.

[CatOfWar]

It wasn't a case of liking subjects, you learned them end of.  Teachers weren't and didn't try to be your friend.  Discussion in the classroom wasn't allowed.  You could raise your hand and request help if you were really stuck, otherwise you didn't speak until you were spoken too.  Gold stars weren't easy to come by, so if you got one you really deserved one.  I don't have flashbacks I didn't find this way of learning traumatic, I don't think anyone did. 

I'm not saying teachers should be kids friends, of course not, just saying that praise, when deserved, is a much better motivator than punishment.  I'm not suggesting we make all kids feel "special" or build up their "self esteem", I'm saying when kids learn well, lets encourage that with praise.  Questions and discussion should be encouraged.  Of course some things should be learned by rote, but rote memorization shouldn't be the only teaching method for any subject.  The point isn't to make the kids like the teacher, but to engage their minds, their interest, so they learn more.  Children are naturally inquisitive, so let's use that instead of squashing it. 

The reason I brought up "When are we ever going to use this?" is because of what's happening in my husband's department.  He teaches computer science.  There's lots of women in the lower division classes.  They get A's, they get the concepts.  Then they drop out.  Professors ask them "Why?" and those students say it's because they see no use for computer science.  These students want to DO something, solve problems, apply what they've learned, but the applications of CS aren't really discussed, so they drop out of the program.  I think many school children feel that way about learning math.

Of course we can force them to learn.  We can say do it because we say so, or else, and they'll learn.  It's a proven, workable teaching strategy.  I just don't think it's the best one.  When do we learn more?  When we're interested and we care, or when we're being forced?  Of course education should be compulsory, not something the kids only do if they feel like it.  However, it should also be interesting, engaging, and relevant because some kids will get much more out of school that way.

[Skoria_Bay]

If I ever did decide to teach, by gum I'd tell the kids why they have to learn certain things. I know certainly I respected the teachers who did that for me. And no the answer isn't "because the school board says so."

And Darqstar, they did the same thing to my grandfather when he was in school. He would have been naturally left handed, but he was trained to write with his right hand. But then he went to school around the turn of the last century so go figure. Poppa was very creative and made some of the neatest things. He made little windmills out of wood, toys for me and my cousins, my dollhouse, porch swings (I wish I had one of those) and repaired lawn mowers. He had the largest heart of anyone I ever knew and loved us all deeply. He died in 1990 at the age of 94.

And I think you are very talented and have made a lot of really wonderful things for the game. Oh, and write wonderful and funny stories too.

[Paden]

My sister and I were both abused by our kindergarten teachers due to using the left hand. We're both right handers now, but have a strong bias towards the left for most things. Hell, the bitch used to wear those massive turquoise rings and she'd walk up behind me and just clonk my skull with it because I needed to use the rest room and had been sitting there for five minutes with my hand up. Other times, she would dig those talons that she called fingernails into my earlobe and gouge it until blood flowed. And yes, she was the type that would tie your hand behind your back so you couldn't use it.

[Anouk]

Your kindergarten teacher hated you too? Mine made fun of me because my desk was messy and I used too much glue in projects. Never mind that I was reading at a 7th grade level.

Mine was a complete and utter bitch.  I don't know what would happen to her if she was around today. But when I was growing up, adults, any adult, was the ultimate authority, you just didn't backtalk or question. 

This woman used to tie my left hand behind my back to get me to stop.  She made me wear a sign that said something along the lines of  I AM BAD, because the moment she would leave that left hand free, I would use it, it just came naturally to me.  But every time I did, this woman would flip her shit over it.  One time she slammed a stapler down on my left hand and screamed, I mean SCREAMED like a banshee, "NEVER USE THAT HAND AGAIN!  DO I HAVE TO CUT IT OFF?"  I believed she'd do it too.   My parents never knew the abuse, I was afraid if I told them, they'd get mad at me for disobeying the teacher.  But, they did put a stop to the trying to train me to be right handed.  But that was almost worse.  I got sent to school with special left handed snub nose scissors and note.  Teacher read the note, then pulls me to the front of the room and gave this lecture about how I was such a spoiled baby that I couldn't learn to use the "right hand" the "Hand God wants us to write with," that nooo, I had to be allowed to use my left hand. 

When I read the Thorn Birds later, and I got to the part where Maggie's teacher talked about how left handed children were the spawn of the devil, especially if they had red hair, I could so relate to how Maggie must have felt.   I was never called the Spawn of the Devil, but I did have red hair, and yeah, the teacher was convinced that God only wanted people to be right handed, that to be left handed was somehow a sin, right up there with fornicating with furry little woodland creatures. 

Oddly, she was supposedly a very good teacher.  This was an exclusive private kindergarten, and the staff was supposed to be top notch in every way.  And all the other kids loved this woman.  I must have reminded her of someone or something, because she just went batshit insane over everything I did. 

What the flip... I feel like strangling her for you 

[Pooki]

I am left handed and was lucky enough to never have had the any of my teachers treat me like that.  I just had an awful 4th grade teacher.  She was pissed at my parents because they got her in trouble over my brother and she took it out on me.  My brother had a learning disability and epilepsy and she made his life miserable. My parents tried hard to keep me out of her class but the principal wouldn't allow it.  So 4th grade was the worst year of my elementary school for me.  Any chance she had to make fun of me in front of the class she would take.  I guess I should feel better that I wasn't the only one she did it to. 

I went back to that school after I graduated to work for an after school program and she was still the bane of the kids.  I had children that I took care of in the program come to me in tears about how she would scream at them and degrade them. I made sure to let the parents know.   Horrible woman.