a 2-page abstract for/of? a book. Anyone willing to help?

[presky11]

Are there any people here who would be willing to devote a bit of their free time to correcting my abstract????
I know it`s more than 2 pages so I am not so optimistic... but it will be published so I would really like to avoid leaving any mistakes in it.


Thank you in advance

Presky


The Text:


FAREWELL TO SCHOOL
A retired teacher`s look back.
This publication is the culmination of a survey announced by the Polish Pedagogical Society in the year 2000, in which they asked retired teachers to share their experiences and achievements in teaching and educational work, as well as failures and mistakes that accompanied it.
100 teachers responded to the survey. The answers of 66 authors (15 men and 51 women) were qualified for publishing. The respondents are retirees of different ages, the oldest teachers began their teaching jobs before the war, the youngest ones retired in the late nineties. The largest group consists of teachers working actively from the fifties to the eighties of the last century, so their experiences relate to the times of the Polish People`s Republic. The vast majority of them have higher education or vocational degree (BA or MA degrees), obtained mainly in the extramural system, according to the legal norms existing at that time.
Among those who responded to the survey, there were mainly primary school teachers, secondary school teachers, technical college teachers, vocational school teachers and kindergarten teachers. There were also academics, teachers - methodologists, people working for a certain period of time in the provincial and county education authorities, cultural institutions, or acting in the Polish Teachers' Union, the Polish Scouting Association and other organizations within the existing educational institutions. Many of the teachers were head teachers or deputy head teachers during their working lives.
The authors of the memories highly appreciate the process learning and developing their professional skills. They recall with nostalgia the authority enjoyed by teachers, especially in rural areas. Secondary school teachers feel an intense dislike for the activities of the Union of Polish Youth, a very unpopular paidocratic organization, which often spied on teachers and colleagues, going as far as to inform on people with different political views, and demanding undeserved privileges for its members at the same time, thus making them claim more and behave opportunistically. The respondents, especially primary school teachers, often point to the satisfaction they got from teaching – in spite of difficult living conditions and meagre emoluments. An important source of this satisfaction is the gratitude shown by their former students, both those who are university graduates and those who are primary school leavers. These people always remember that their learning process was – from the very beginning - accompanied by their teachers' labour and effort. Teachers treat their students` achievements as their own, so they are especially hurt when their former students – who have succeeded in adult life - turn their backs on them.
The memories of retired teachers are filled with Davidic ' love of souls. Their reflections, experiences and pieces of advice are useful and interesting. For example, they advise their inexperienced colleagues, taking their first steps in the teaching profession, to be fond of their students, to care for their own personal culture and authority, to improve their skills all the time, reaching beyond their own specialization and deepening general culture, to be always prepared for their lessons, to be objective and fair in the assessment of their students` progress and behaviour, to take care of their own dignity without hurting their students` dignity, and finally to try to learn at least a minimum of artistic skills, which helps considerably in making classes more attractive. The respondents write critically about the liberal cultural patterns of education imposed on young people by television and other mass media, about the catastrophic collapse of the authority of the teacher and the school, about the educational function of the school, which is dying out.
Please note that the memories of retired teachers – are retrospective reminiscences, written after years, so in some way tainted with the inaccuracy and fallibility of memory. And at the same time they relate to their authors` youth, and the past bathed in the youth usually seems more beautiful in the memory of elderly people.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction 11
1. Teaching and educational work 15
2.Did you get satisfaction from your teaching and educational work? 91
3. What do you consider to be your greatest teaching or educational achievement? 115
4. What do you think are your most interesting pedagogic events? 137
5. What kind of errors and failures in working with young people did you fail to avoid? 151
6. Which of your personal experiences would you like to pass on to your successors? 163
7. Other matters connected with the school, such as working outside the formal school education, cooperation with parents and community, political repression and police 195
Summary 213
Zusamenfassung215
List of abbreviations 217
About the authors 219
Appendix 225

[Dormouse559]

Here are my corrections. Red marks what should be deleted, green marks what should be added, and orange marks optional corrections or things I'm not sure about.

FAREWELL TO SCHOOL
A retired teacher`s look back.
This publication is the culmination of a survey announced by the Polish Pedagogical Society in the year 2000, in which they asked retired teachers to share their experiences and achievements in teaching and educational work, as well as failures and mistakes that accompanied it them.
100 teachers responded to the survey. The answers of 66 authors (15 men and 51 women) were qualified for publishing. The respondents are retirees of different ages, the oldest teachers began their teaching jobs before the war, the youngest ones retired in the late nineties. The largest group consists of teachers working actively from the fifties to the eighties of the last century, so their experiences relate to the times of the Polish People`s Republic. The vast majority of them have higher education or vocational degrees (BA or MA degrees), obtained mainly in the extramural system, according to the legal norms existing at that time.
Among those who responded to the survey, there were mainly primary school teachers, secondary school teachers, technical college teachers, vocational school teachers and kindergarten teachers. There were also academics, teachers - methodologists, people working for a certain period of time in the provincial and county education authorities, cultural institutions, or acting in the Polish Teachers' Union, the Polish Scouting Association and other organizations within the existing educational institutions. Many of the teachers were head teachers or deputy head teachers during their working lives.
The authors of the memories highly appreciate the process of learning and developing their professional skills. They recall with nostalgia the authority enjoyed by teachers, especially in rural areas. Secondary school teachers feel an intense dislike for the activities of the Union of Polish Youth, a very unpopular paidocratic organization, which often spied on teachers and colleagues, going as far as to inform on people with different political views, and demanding undeserved privileges for its members at the same time, thus making them claim more and behave opportunistically. The respondents, especially primary school teachers, often point to the satisfaction they got from teaching – in spite of difficult living conditions and meagre emoluments compensation. An important source of this satisfaction is the gratitude shown by their former students, both those who are university graduates and those who are primary school leavers (dropouts?). These people always remember that their learning process was – from the very beginning - accompanied by their teachers' labour and effort. Teachers treat their students` achievements as their own, so they are especially hurt when their former students – who have succeeded in adult life - turn their backs on them.
The memories of retired teachers are filled with a Davidic ' love of souls. Their reflections, experiences and pieces of advice are useful and interesting. For example, they advise their inexperienced colleagues, taking their first steps in the teaching profession, to be fond of their students, to care for their own personal culture and authority, to improve their skills all the time, reaching beyond their own specialization and deepening general culture, to be always prepared for their lessons, to be objective and fair in the assessment of their students` progress and behaviour, to take care of their own dignity without hurting their students` dignity, and finally to try to learn at least a minimum of artistic skills, which helps considerably in making classes more attractive. The respondents write critically about the liberal cultural patterns of education imposed on young people by television and other mass media, about the catastrophic collapse of the authority of the teacher and the school, about the educational function of the school, which is dying out.
Please note that the memories of retired teachers – are retrospective reminiscences, written after years after the fact, and so are in some way tainted with the inaccuracy and fallibility of memory. And at the same time they relate to their authors` youth, and the past bathed in the youth usually seems more beautiful in the memory of elderly people.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction 11
1. Teaching and educational work 15
2. Did you get satisfaction from your teaching and educational work? 91
3. What do you consider to be your greatest teaching or educational achievement? 115
4. What do you think are your most interesting pedagogic events (experiences)? 137
5. What kind of errors and failures in working with young people did you fail to avoid? 151
6. Which of your personal experiences would you like to pass on to your successors? 163
7. Other matters connected with the school, such as working outside the formal school education, cooperation with parents and community, political repression and police 195
Summary 213
Zusamenfassung215
List of abbreviations 217
About the authors 219
Appendix 225

"There were also academics, teachers - methodologists, people ..." This list gets rather muddled. First, remember that the final element of the list must be preceded by "and". Also, is "methodologists" part of the list? If so, then it should be preceded by a comma (or "and" if it's the final element) and not a dash. If it is in fact modifying "teachers", then "teachers" should be preceded by "and", and the dash can stay.

"paidocratic" I've never heard of this word before, though internet searches tell me it means "ruled/dominated by children". "Youth-led" is probably a better choice if children played a role in running the organization. If the organization simply concentrated a lot on children, "child-centered" or "youth-centered" would be good choices.

"claim more" What did the teachers claim more? Did they claim more pay/resources? Is this referencing how the Union informed on teachers with different ideologies?

"leavers" If by this you mean people who left primary school without finishing, then "dropout" is the right word. If not, could you explain this a bit more?

"retrospective reminiscences" I feel like this should be modified (it seems redundant), but I'm at a loss as to how to go about that. Perhaps it could simply be deleted, leaving "Please note that the memories of retired teachers are written years after the fact ..."

"events" You don't need to change "events" to "experiences", but I feel that "experiences" works better in this context.


I hope these corrections help.

[presky11]

Thanks a lot for your help.
By writing : thus making them claim more , I meant here that these people by getting more and more priviledges are spoilt and that is why they claim for still additional benefits.


The term: school leavers I`ve found in an english course book. By school leaver we mean ( as far as I understand it) a graduate.


Regards

Presky

[Dormouse559]

By writing : thus making them claim more , I meant here that these people by getting more and more priviledges are spoilt and that is why they claim for still additional benefits.

"Thus making them demand more benefits" would be a good way to say that.

The term: school leavers I`ve found in an english course book. By school leaver we mean ( as far as I understand it) a graduate.

It does appear to be a correct term, just not commonly used in American English, so no correction is needed.

Oh, and remember to use an apostrophe (') and not a grave accent (`) for possession and contractions (i.e. "John's hat" instead of "John`s hat")

[Ciarán12]

The term: school leavers I`ve found in an english course book. By school leaver we mean ( as far as I understand it) a graduate.

It does appear to be a correct term, just not commonly used in American English, so no correction is needed.

It's a very normal term here. It means 'graduates', especially recent graduates.