What's your response to Mr. Harvey?
Mr. Harvey seems to be a tough mean guy and sounds like he does not want to be there. On the other hand Mr. Harvey could be giving tough love to help push the kids to learn "Standard English" to get that job. As the chapter goes on you see how Lovey is graded for what she writes, which does not leave Mr Harvey with much. You see that Lovey wants to write more but never does and she can only be graded on what is shown, making Mr. Harvey look like harsh grader. While Jerry does not write much more than Lovey gets slightly higher grades.
By the end of the chapter Mr. Harvey looks to me like a person who does not like where he is. When he ask the kids to write about what they would do if their parents die in a train crash with a vivid description. To me that does not seem like the best way for kids to learn. I know that I would not learn well in that kind of environment. In the end my response to Mr. Harvey is not all that great, to me he does not seem like a great teacher.
Hello, I agree with your opinion on Mr. Harvey. His teacher skills seem to be bad, but fair. I know If I were in his class it would be difficult to learn.
ReplyDeleteI mean who assigns the student to respond, what would they do if their parents would die in a train crash. This question seems too personally to answer, and it would be sad to respond to it. I think Mr. Harvey has a hard time understand people and their feelings. He should be put inside these kids shoes and know what it feels. I guess Mr. Harvey is a bad influence on the kids, and doesn't;t seem to act fairly to jerry or lovey. I like hearing what you had to write!
Thanks, Lesley
Haruki,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you say Mr. Harvey seems to be a mean, tough guy. I also agree that Mr. Harvey must be misserable being a teacher. I believe he is unhappy with his job, therefor, he takes is out on the kids. You are right, I wouldn't learn well in all that negative environment. He should probably look at finding something he will be happy with so the people around him won't be misserable as well.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Dina
I agree with you that Mr. Harvey does not seem to enjoy teaching the children. I had a teacher like that when I was a freshman. I hated her class and would often slack off in her class. That was the only class I ever failed. I know that Mr. Harvey had the best interest of his students in mind, trying to get them to speak and write Standard English, but I think that his teaching method was wrong and that the students would not really learn in that environment. I think that the students would instead loathe learning in his class and would not benefit from his teaching.
ReplyDeleteHaruki,
ReplyDeleteyour idea of Mr.Harvey is on point. He does seem to be a pretty harsh instructor. His teaching skills consist of a lot of criticism. Asking students what would they do if their parents died in a train crash is like a wake up slap on the face. His tone doesn't show his teaching has patients, more like by force. You cannot force teaching when students need areas to work on, such as their language accents and skills.
Haruki,
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you too! Mr. Harvey seems to harsh of a teacher and it definitely would be hard to learn with him as a teacher. How in the world would he come up with a harsh question as "what would you do if your parents died in a train crash?" Thats a tough question and I think most people would find it hard to answer because who would even pretend that their parents are dead just to answer the question? Maybe Mr. Harvey just threw the question in there just because he's negative.
Xochilt =)
I appreciate you making me think about Mr. Harvey giving tough love to the students. I did not think of it like that. I was not ok with his style of teaching and how rude he is. I think that he should find a different way speaking to the kids.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, I don't think he liked being a teacher and he didn't want to be there. If I was in his class I know that I wouldn't learn anything from him. It's hard to learn in a negitive environment. On top of that asking a student to write what they'd do if their parents died in a train crash, isn't a good way to make them enjoy writing. I think the best way to teach writing is to have students write about what they like, so that they can learn to enjoy writing.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteWhile reading this story, the further along I got into it, the more I realized it was taking place in a different time period. I think it might be in the 1940's, especially from the references about the sugar cane mills. When I got to reading about Mr Harvey, I was appalled, because a parent, or even a student today would never allow a teacher to treat them so. But I think because of the era, there was a more tolerant attitude towards teachers, as they were looked at as an authority figure. But I secretly think that Mr Harvey was sadistic, and enjoyed berating his students.
Thanks