Help -- How does my daughter answer this quiz question honestly?

Answer honestly, without flunking out of class, that is.

My daughter just started 7th grade today, and in her World Geography class she got a 10-question take-home questionnaire. She already gave very good answers to the first nine questions, but the last one apparently had her stumped.

Not that I blame her, the question really raised my eyebrows...as you can see why when you look at it:



So, what should she put down? Keep in mind that this is a very rightwing charter school in the middle of a very red state.

:shrug:

As far as that last question, I'd answer like this:

For bravery, for stupidity and for everything that lies between the two.

In her answer, she put "Pluto" in parentheses. :)

Ask any astrologer. ;)

it was best handled the way she answered it. :)

Kudos for having such a well-informed kid!

As for the last question, she could write that some Americans fight and die for their country because that is what they feel called to do in service of their nation. (And other people serve their country in other ways, such as by being a firefighter, doctor, police officer, or teacher.)

'freedom,' simple.

'democracy?' go to dictionary.

The hard one is "why."

To battle with wit and intelligence rather than brute force and violence.

And we take our orders from license plates?

:wtf:

I'm stumped about that part, as well. :shrug:

country before moving on to World Geography. I don't see this as some kind of "trap" but as a way for the teacher to get a handle on what he/she is dealing with.

I am seeing an agenda. YMMV

because soldiers want to serve their country?

"We haven't fought and died for freedom and democracy since WWII. We do a lot of fighting for profit, though."

:scared:

There is no "correct" answer to it; it's graded purely arbitrarily, and a teacher who discriminated based on political creed is a teacher I'd eat alive in front of the school board. :)

The teacher can just say my daughter didn't perform up to expectations. If I raise a stink, the (rightwing controlled) school officials will just blow me off as some nutty radical.

No, this isn't the "hill I want to die on," so to speak...it'd be crazy to make a federal case out of one quiz question. We'll basically play along for now, and if there's a much more meaningful issue ahead, we'll definitely take it on.

It requires a subjective answer. If the teacher marks it wrong, you should ask what the "correct" answer is.

Why we fought and died for freedom and democracy during WWII.

So none of this liberal nonsense like,

"They fight and die to pay for college education, get out of the ghetto/barrio/mom's basement."

They fight and die because "freedom isn't free, democracy is the highest form of government on the planet, and the US is responsible for spreading freedom and democracy across the world."

DO NOT ADD: The US is also responsible for spreading genetically modified seeds, pollution, McDonald's, violence, and slutty children that we call "singers."

Answer with a reference to a specific conflict. I suppose she could also go on to state that each was has come out of different factual circumstances.

BUT, I might write a paragraph about the patriots of the American Revolution and freedom from the tyranny of England and then I might point to the Civil Rights movement...just a thought.

"because too many people are still stupid enough to believe things such as freedom and democracy still exist in this country"

hey, they asked, right? :shrug:

The reason(s) that any American would fight and die for freedom and democracy is unique to each. What one considers worth dying for may not be a valid enough reason for another.

I can only attest to the reasons that would compel me to do so, and then list them.

And go from there.

mostly communists, who fought against Franco in the Spanish Civil War. They were that strongly against fascism. That oughta make a right wing head pressure up a bit. Disclaimer: I have taught World History and currently teach US History and economics in a public high school in Texas.

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/abe-brigade.html

The Lincolns came from all walks of life, all regions of the country, and included seamen, students, the unemployed, miners, fur workers, lumberjacks, teachers, salesmen, athletes, dancers, and artists. They established the first racially integrated military unit in U.S. history and were the first to be led by a black commander. At least 60 percent were members of the Young Communist League or CP. "Wobblies" (members of the Industrial Workers of the World or "IWW"), socialists, and the unaffiliated also joined. The Socialists formed their own Debs Column for Spain, but open recruitment brought on government suppression.

:shrug:

It was always my practice to give my children the right answer and the school answer, and be sure they knew both and when which was to be employed.

MANY fine patriots have in the past, but in recent conflicts it has unfortunately been more about corporate hegemony combined with jingoistic misinformation about the root causes of 9/11.

see how her teacher would take to an answer like that.

Do you want to encourage your daughter to give the "right" answers when appropriate or do you want to spend some time and effort tackling sloppy education? (both are valid choices)

#10 isn't the only problem. There are numerous examples of sloppy/lazy teaching on this quiz.


The first 8 questions:

1) Earth

2) Milky Way

3) There are only 8 planets in our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

4) North America

5) A lot of them.

6) The same place it's always been, unless you moved it. About 6335 miles East of Tokyo.

7) By whom? Some signed on July 4, 1776. Many did not sign until well afterward.

8) Joe Biden

9 & 10 are subjective. There are really no "right" or "wrong" answers.


Additionally, #3 is a request, not a question, and requires a period, not a question mark and the second question in #9 is a sentence fragment.

This is what pisses me off about lazy teachers. They ask questions and want the textbook answers, even if those answers are wrong...and they usually can't even use correct grammar and punctuation when asking their questions.

My son had teachers like this in grade school. I waited until he got answers "wrong" and talked to the teacher. Getting nowhere, I raised hell with the principal. It took a few sessions of me demeaning and threatening him, but the quizzes changed (still not completely correct, but better).

If you want to teach your daughter that there are times when you have to give a factually wrong response to get a question "right", that's a valuable lesson. If you want to lock horns with the idiots who aren't doing their jobs, that's more work...but also a noble choice.

the Constitution and Declaration of Independence."

"What country is south of the United States"?????

How about "Which country shares our southern border?"

There are a LOT of countries "south" of the United States. Questions like this just encourage sloppy thinking.

She should answer "Cuba" or "Venezuela" :evilgrin:

Sid

:eyes:

:evilgrin:

:shrug:

Not too long ago pluto was declassified as a planet and then shortly thereafter classified as a "planetoid" (but distinctly NOT a planet). Unless something has changed again... it's my understanding we only have 8 planets in our solar system.

:shrug: Because they are told to by their superiors. ????

OK -- that probably won't work, but honestly, the quiz should be based on materials covered in class. What did the teacher say in class about this?

Not too long ago pluto was declassified as a planet and then shortly thereafter classified as a "planetoid" (but distinctly NOT a planet). Unless something has changed again... it's my understanding we only have 8 planets in our solar system.

And Americans fight and die on the streets of their cities to defend their rights and those of others.

Besides this squishy question...
What have americans in combat to do with geography?

Maybe you should ask the teacher?

Geography affects a hell of a lot in terms of geopolitics, of which war is only one attribute, stuff like that. Once you get outside of the "find Earth on this map of the Earth" level stuff the subject gets far more interesting than I thought it was at first.

It's above a level I'd normally expect in a seventh grade classroom, but as an example you could suggest that since the US is largely protected by its geography - it's got the Atlantic and Pacific oceans on two sides, and two comparatively harmless allied nations on the two others - it's freer to feel able to use its military for more abstract reasons than defense of national territory.

I might get a little suspicious if I saw that crammed into the answer space on a quiz for a seventh grade geography student these days, but there's definitely possibilities for the question.

i would not send my child to a school that considered that a good questionnaire!!

you might consider part-time homeschooling! or full-time. my two oldest left school after grammar school and both magna and summa cum laude from good schools.....

A table of US casualties is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_casualties_of_war

The larges death toll was the Civil War, when both sides casualties are totaled. Conscription was in effect in the North, and probably in the South as well.

The second largest was WW II. While there were a lot of volunteers in this war also, the draft was also widespread.

Same for WW I, Korean War, and Vietnam.

The class should be about more than memorizing maps. If it doesn't go into the reasons why people have fought and do fight over those borders, what good is it?

If I had to answer it, I can see a few ways of going with it. One would be to acknowledge that the answer is subjective, and state that people who tend to be more conservative might say ___________ while those who are further to the left might say __________. This doesn't require her to compromise her beliefs or even expose them to a hostile teacher.

Another approach would be to go to a primary source. Pose the question on the forums on military.com - ask why people there joined.

Personally, I would be tempted to state that sometimes the government is unsuccessful at convincing people they want to die for "freedom and democracy" - and when that happens, for example during Vietnam, the government resorts to a draft because people on their own chose not to fight in a war if they don't believe it's related to their freedom or democracy. I would also bring up that it's because people won't (in large numbers) do this that we have enlistment bonuses, because people are more likely to enlist if there's something tangible in it for them. We're less likely to enlist for idealistic philosophies and/or believe that's really what we are supporting when we enlist.

Alternative answer:
Because military families get access to socialized medicine.

The real issue is why these are considering 7th grade level and not 3rd or 4th. Holy Crap.

:cry: This is really sad.

This answer is 100% FACT - so if the teacher doesn't like it you can complain.

And work with her to find the reasons given for the wars in the last fifty years by politicians (maybe use "our leaders").

This sidesteps her having to come up with a crap answer that would be acceptable to a right wing teacher, but gets her to research the reasons that have been used as excuses for wars.

Because God tells them so. And so that the media doesn't lie about Sarah Palin.

our diplomatic brain trust stunk to high heaven.

During the last 8 years we lost many freedoms including the freedom from undue search and seizure and habeas corpus. We also lost democracy when elections were stolen and when the Supreme Court ended the counting of ballets in FL in 2000.

thinks the answer is. She's in the seventh grade and hopefully has an opinion about what the answer is. And if she's as smart as you say she is, I think she'll come up with an answer that she's thought about.

Also, why should it matter whether the school is right-wing or not? Didn't you enroll her there to learn?

So many questions.

Of course I'm going to allow her to write her own answer on the quiz. Sorry if that was unclear.

and a real patriot who loves America respects the Constitutional rights of others to peacably disagree with them would rather take a 90 on the test.

Doug D.

careful attribution.

As in "According to President Ronald Reagan, Americans fight because (insert jingoistic phrase here.)"

Follow it with the counter argument: "However, President George Bush thought (insert terra and smoke 'em out quote)."

You could finish big with an FDR quote.

It would be pretty difficult for the teacher to grade it incorrect, your kid's research skills would be honed by finding the quotes, and no one would have to retch afterwards.

answer.

been a very effective way to solve anything, because we're still fighting and dying.

And it looks like we'll be continuing to do so for quite some time.


I'd ask your daughter to write her own answer, regardless of what answer she thinks her teacher is looking for. The question isn't one that is based on fact- it's based on opinion. If the teacher doesn't like her opinion, well then, the teacher doesn't believe much in "freedom or democracy" either.

And good luck to her! (school started already for you??) My son's got another week and a half.

:hi:

... as in 'Why are social studies important?'"

"social studies" in this instance is really a singular noun as applied even though it's comprised of 2 words; much like "differential calculus" which "is" a difficult subject. :D

-Ambrose Bierce

people.

Besides, there must be a hundred answers to that question, that varies between each individual who does it.

I don't know anything about that teacher, but if s/he plans to penalize students for giving an honest answer to that question, s/he shouldn't be teaching.

I'm sorry that I haven't been of much help, but that question # 10 irritates the hell out of me, unless the teacher plans to give credit for honest answers. But I suspect that s/he doesn't.

In any event, the good majority of Americans who have fought and died in wars since WW II have not done so in the cause of freedom and democracy -- whether or not they believed they were doing so.

A great question if s/he'll accept honest answers. A disgusting and hypocritical question if s/he won't.

who arrived with a gun in one hand and the bible in the other"

I am assuming that question does refer to the original Americans.

On which planet do you live?

"Name the nine planets of our solar system" is not a question.

Why ARE social studies important?

Are you really sure this is an actual school? I'd be tempted to grade it and hand it back.

:patriot:

What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?

I learned that Washington never told a lie
I learned that soldiers seldom die
I learnd that everybody's free
And thats what the teacher said to me
And thats what I learned in school today,
thats what I learned in school.

What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?

I learned the policemen are my friends
I learned that justice never ends
I learned that murderers die for their crimes,
Even if we make a mistake sometimes
And thats what I learned in school today,
Thats what I learned in school

What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?

I learned that war is not so bad
I learned about the great ones we had had
We fought in Germany and in France
And some day I might get my chance.
And thats what I learned in school today,
Thats what I learned in school

What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?

I learned our goverment must be strong
It's always right and never wrong!
Our leaders are the finest men
And we elect them again and again
And thats what I learned in school today,
Thats what I learned in school