"F"rustrated

I, as well as the other English teachers in our humble hallway, have gone into state-testing mode. We've been drilling and drilling the students for months now.


"What's a gerund?!? Why, it's only a noun pretending to be a verb in 'ing' form and often serving as either the subject or direct object!"

"How do you identify a metaphor, you say? Well, just see if two unlike things are being compared to one another without the use of words such as 'like' and 'as'!"

"When do you know for sure if a sentence is complete? Check for subjects and verbs! Then check for clauses and phrases!"

I'm sure it's driving the students crazy, but it's one of those evils from which core subjects cannot escape. Not to mention the fact that some of these things are actually helpful in the future. Anyone writing a resume soon? Editing a scholarship application? Reading a really good book? Then you might want to know how to apply some of these things I'm supposedly "wasting your time" with. Sorry to blow up...it;s just that I assigned a simple two-page rough draft over the weekend (with twenty minutes on Friday to begin) to 115 students, and ten turned something in. That's less than 10%. How are we going to get through research papers when they won't even do a simple rough draft? I'm frustrated and upset and tired and desperately in need of Spring Break.