A student is lazy. A class is lazy. A whole school is lazy. A whole generation is lazy. Teachers are lazy. What lies behind this (Continue Reading)
Pat’s Polemics
On-going brilliance
At what point can we file a complaint?
11/12/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentAccidentlally, believe me, very accidentally, I hit upon a TV talk show called The View. A person named Laura Inghram was speaking. My wife says (Continue Reading)
Thanksgiving rears its ugly head
11/11/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentBunny’s post hit a nerve. She says exactly what I’ve said in the teeth of massive denial on the part of some List members: kids (Continue Reading)
Pat’s Worldview – what it is – Part II
11/08/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentNow that I’ve given a bit of a biographical background so you know “where I’m coming from” (a phrase unknown to me growing up), I (Continue Reading)
Pat Barrett’s Worldview
11/03/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentRecently, several events impinged on my dulling consciousness that jarred me into thought. A panel discussion on Book TV on the closing of the American (Continue Reading)
An English verb in paradigm form
10/29/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentLet’s see what an English verb does. For all the grammar most fl teachers like to teach, I see evidence that they often don’t have (Continue Reading)
How I learn from paradigms
10/28/2007 Pat Barrett Add Comment“Paradigms” is used here to refer to the way a language is analyzed in terms of its structures rather than its usages. So, for example, (Continue Reading)
Where we go wrong in these posts
10/26/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentHere is a statement made by a poster: “It seems terribly elitist to require students to use grammar unique to one country above the grammar (Continue Reading)
Reducing Effects of Big Classes II
10/22/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentSo now we go to the external forces that can hurt kids and teachers when classes are big: colleagues, supervisors, parents, and one’s own self-doubts. (Continue Reading)
Reply to Reducing Effects of Big Classes?
10/22/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentI’ve thought and thought about this. The first image that comes to mind is of my old principal. Why was that? I realize that my (Continue Reading)
Stay safe – don’t talk about sex
10/22/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentA poster wrote, concerning the Sarkozy divorce: “I wanted to check out the latest on the Sarkozy divorce and was surprised that my google query (Continue Reading)
All we want is peace, you jerks
10/22/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentI love this “reply” to the Turks by the Iraqi president, Talabani, who just happens to be a Kurd. “We are looking for peace, not (Continue Reading)
The devil’s loose again…
10/20/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentDear old Watson…. no, not that Watson, the Nobel laureate Watson who has no standing in the sciences relating to intelligence, IQ, and “race”, …. (Continue Reading)
Frank Smith (re hats)
10/20/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentA current thread on a listserv has to do with the behavior of students and how classroom rules can affect that behavior and give something (Continue Reading)
where’s the positive?
10/17/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentRather than list all the irritating things kids do, how about a discussion of what is going on with kids and which kids? All of (Continue Reading)
another post that mirrors Frank Smith
10/17/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentHere’s a post to a language teacher Listserv: “I’ve heard guácala used a lot by our Mexican teenage relatives who come to spend a year (Continue Reading)
The issue, my children, is control
10/15/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentRecently I read a post about tprs where the teacher said he didn’t like the lack of control over what the students were learning using (Continue Reading)
Can complexity be reduced?
10/13/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentAnyone who looks at a REAL grammar of a language knows the complexity we language teachers deal with. A recent comprehensive grammar of English has (Continue Reading)
Where it all starts
10/12/2007 Pat Barrett Add Comment“OMG, they’re coming for us!” The upsurge in discussions of school violence stemming from two incidents in two days reveals the lack of knowledge that (Continue Reading)
The difficulties of cultural stereotypes
10/11/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentWes gave flteach members a website to go to on Amazon. The book is about how to advertise in various cultures based on the author’s (Continue Reading)
Iraqi women need training
10/10/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentThe lovely news from Iraq, always a joy to read esp after the administration cleans it all up for us, includes the story of two (Continue Reading)
Back to basics
10/09/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentRecently a large response was garnered when I offered a list of Latin words with their Romance reflexes. I got balled up in trying to (Continue Reading)
Do flashcards work? If yes, why, if no, why not?
10/08/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentHere is a post from an extremely astute language teacher: I’ve been pondering something. Why is it that we think flash cards are a good (Continue Reading)