KOMPA! MAGAZINE

[Dr.Mizik]

LJB wrote

Quote:

I don't really want to change the focus of this topic, but am glad I went to school in Haiti. While we are bashing Haiti's schools system - and rightly so, to a certain extent - I was really shocked to see the number of high school students who, after graduating from high school, still couldn't read and write. I was shocked to see so many american kids (born and raised) who were taking the same prep english classes as I was. I will not defend Haiti's school system because I know we have a long way to go. 98% percent of our schools doesn't have a lab, and most students will never make it to a library. But the school system gave me the work ethic that I have now that helped me thrive in the american school system. I was one of the lucky ones to have gone to a somewhat "ok" school. Now, back to the topic C'est a Gène en Italie, Que naquit Sweet Micky....I mean.........Christophe Colomb

jeanVALjean wrote:

Back to your point LJB, believe me when I tell you college professors hold Haitian students (who did the majority of their schooling or completed school in Haiti) in VERY HIGH regards! Heck, I always believed ya'll were better in Math...even though ya'll couldn't pass the English tests for nothing! I don't think anyone in his right mind will dare compare an average American hig.h school senior to an average philo student- It's night and day man...I've always thought of Philo as the first year of American college. Also, Haitian professors would flunk your butt in a NY minute unlike the American school system which has no qualms about passing off the most illiterate students to the next grade level...at least that's how i see it.

I would be a bit more careful with the word average. I don't think those who make it to the state truly represent the average high school student in Haiti. I think there is a selection bias in this view. A very homogenous group of Haitian students from mostly the so-called best schools in Haiti makes it to the state. The socio-economic status of their parents or even the mere fact that they were able to come to the US would be in favor of my argument.

Now, upon arriving here, these students find themselves in different socio-economic classes and are more or less forced to enter some of the "soso" high schools of the US. Their main competitors are none other than the students who deserved a Nobel Prize simply for staying in school. The students with a psychosocial baggage that should hamper proper functioning of brain cells. The students for whom doing well is a luxury or a very rare commodity. Their parents are not "greedy", and are contempt with the fact that their kids are at least in school. They often fall in the category that LJB described. Would you call the product of the "soso" schools in low income areas "the average high school" students of the in US? Maybe they are, I'm not sure.

But I will leave you with this; the average student from some of the best schools of the US will drive you nuts. They are as good, if not better than the average student from any school in Haiti. If you have ever interacted with some of the students who have been in good schools from early childhood on, you know what I’m talking about. Those whose parents are professionals and took the time to teach them how to think critically very early on.

I'm sorry guys, but there is a point where understanding and mastery of the English language will kick brute memorization's butt at every single encounter. Especially once the volume of work becomes more than the mind can handle. We are at a disadvantage once the professors change the questions to directly measure understanding rather than how much you remember from what you study.

You raised a good point with the issue of professors in your argument. I'm not even sure if we are talking about the average professors in the US. And if we are, are we talking about the average from the "SoSo" public schools in the State who are teachers in transit. I mean, teachers until they find a better job as opposed to teachers who truly enjoy their jobs.

In sum, I would be a bit careful with the word average. You may be right in the way you used the word, but I would be careful because the US is HUGE. I think the product of dilapidated "so-so" schools in the states may be no match for those of respected schools of third world countries. But, the average student from decent schools in the US is as good if not better than the average student from any school in Haiti. And, it certainly remains unclear, at least to me, if the average student from the "soso" school truly represents the average US student.

I think I completely left the topic and I wrote way too much, right. I'm sorry

Last edited by Dr.Mizik on Sun Apr 06, 2008 9:38 am; edited 2 times in total

[nustyle11]

Catechism:
Dieu a cree l'homme a son image..heureux et amour avec lui.
Grammaire:
2 verbes se suivrent...Le second se met a l'infinitif.
Bal, cal, carnaval,chacal, festival,nopal and regal don't take aux in plural.
Analyse logique: 1ere proposition........Elle est principal.
.........................2ieme proposition......elle est subordonee relatif a la premiere proposition, complement de...

Analyse grammatical:.......Suzie est reelement belle.
Suzie nom propre de personne, sujest de est.
est verbe etre..3ieme personne du singulier .....(don't remember )
reelement....adverbe de manniere, attribut a suzie.
belle....adjectif qualificatif, se rapport a suzie
Geographie:
La terre est ronde comme une boule, elle a 40,000 kilometres de tour.

Histoire D'Haiti:
En me renversant, on m'a abbatu a St Domingue qoe le tronc des arbres, de la liberte des noirs mais ils reepouseront par des racines parcequ'ils sont profonds et nombreux.
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L'homme propose, Dieu Dispose

[classic 1]

Cookie wrote:

1. L'alphabet francais est l'ensemble des regles a suivre pour parler et ecrire correctement le francais

la grammaire francaise est l'ensemble des regles a suivre pour parler et ecrire correctement le francais

Kazak-lakol wrote:

Conjuguer le verbe aller au present de l'indicatif
j'alle, tu alles, il alle, nous allons , vous allez, ils allent

je vais,tu vas,il va,nous allons ,vous allez, ils vont

[jeanVALjean]

Point well taken Dr. Mizik! Thx
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Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
~Berthold Auerbach

[Machiavel]

Excellent points, Dr. Mizik.
When a kid arrives from Haiti, he speaks no English, so he goes to a regular high school with average or below average high school students. Naturally, that student will feel that he is a lot smarter that the American students.

The ideal thing to do is get tested out of the regular zone school and take an entrance exam for the above average students, where those kids are doing pre-cal and reg cal in their sophomore years.

For those who attended high school in the U.S., and if you did not take a scholastic entrance exam before you got accepted, then you went to a "lekol bolette."

[Sassoune]

No, LBJ I didn't skip the grades per say, I was not in Haiti at the time...

I had a scientific calculator in Haiti, we were required to have a T-86


And I took my SATs in second/rheto. I will admit that it's not the norm. And I'm not syaing that we are smarter than kids raised in the states. I'm just referring to the foundation of our educational system. I still beleive we have a better foundation. As an example in my school, our quaterly exam held more weight than the national one. So si'w pat pase Bacc National en Rheto, but ou te pase Bacc blanc (examin mere'an), ou te monte en philo. Who gives a crap. When they were sending transcript to college, what they sent was their result, nothing to do with the Bacc haitien.

Again I'm talking about REAL school, since now it's the most lucrative business in Haiti. Depi ou beswen fe yon ti kob al ouvri yon lekol. No regulations what so ever. Se lagen'w ki pou rete'w.
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Du balcon de mon intelligence, je refuse de m'abaisser au rez de chaussee de votre ignorance....

[LouisJeanBeauge]

I think Sassoune summned it up pretty well. It's not that students who went to school in Haiti are "better." It's just a different learning process.

Dr. Mizik and Mach, I disagree with you guys on the statement that when a kid arrives from Haiti, he speaks no English, so he goes to a regular high school with average or below average high school students. Naturally, that student will feel that he is a lot smarter that the American students. A lot of students I know that went to school in Haiti and came here to finish high school got bored really quickly in those math and science classes. Those classes were at least a grade or 2 below their level in Haiti.

As an FYI...Pre-Cal and regular calculus are just the norm in Haiti for sophomore, junior and senior students.
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"Mesye bliye chèz la, al nan sena a, oubyen al fè sinema" Beethova Obas.

[PIYO]

Last night I was at a little party in a Hospital Campus organize by a bunch of Haitian residents. All of them did their med school in Haiti and kill the matching.
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Haitian... Why Not!!!

[Machiavel]

LouisJeanBeauge wrote:

I think Sassoune summned it up pretty well. It's not that students who went to school in Haiti are "better." It's just a different learning process. Dr. Mizik and Mach, I disagree with you guys on the statement that when a kid arrives from Haiti, he speaks no English, so he goes to a regular high school with average or below average high school students. Naturally, that student will feel that he is a lot smarter that the American students. A lot of students I know that went to school in Haiti and came here to finish high school got bored really quickly in those math and science classes. Those classes were at least a grade or 2 below their level in Haiti. As an FYI...Pre-Cal and regular calculus are just the norm in Haiti for sophomore, junior and senior students.

They got bored because they went to a zone school.

[LouisJeanBeauge]

who? wrote:

LouisJeanBeauge wrote: I think Sassoune summned it up pretty well. It's not that students who went to school in Haiti are "better." It's just a different learning process. Dr. Mizik and Mach, I disagree with you guys on the statement that when a kid arrives from Haiti, he speaks no English, so he goes to a regular high school with average or below average high school students. Naturally, that student will feel that he is a lot smarter that the American students. A lot of students I know that went to school in Haiti and came here to finish high school got bored really quickly in those math and science classes. Those classes were at least a grade or 2 below their level in Haiti. As an FYI...Pre-Cal and regular calculus are just the norm in Haiti for sophomore, junior and senior students. They got bored because they went to a zone school.

Actually they went to an A-rated school. The best school in one of the best neighborhood in Tampa.
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"Mesye bliye chèz la, al nan sena a, oubyen al fè sinema" Beethova Obas.