jaylar
Imagine a bright kid leaving primary school, (grades 1 – 6) attending a junior high (or middle school) which has special classes for especially bright kids.
Unfortunately, instead of keeping the bright kids away from the dunce, the ‘mingle’ is enforced. Hence, although the classes are defined; 7.1 to 7.3 [dunce] 7.4 to 7.9 [average] 7.10 to 7.13 [bright] 7.14 – 7.16 [very bright], they pass in the hallways, mixed classes go to gym together, the grade goes to auditorium together, and has mixed lunch hours together.
The bright kids carry ‘luggage’; that is a lot of books and materials. The dunce kids have a spiral notebook and maybe one book.
The bright kids have two hours of homework a night; in history; “Was America’s War of Independence more of a Civil war?” discuss. In Math; “read chapter 4 and answers all questions” and in English, “memorise a soliloquy and be prepared to recite.”
The dunce kids have history; “Read chapter one and answer questions 1,2 and 3” in Math; “solve problem one” and in English; ‘read chapter one’.
Now bright kids are bright. Some may have no life so that they don’t know there is a street in front of their house. But some have interests.
How long does it take a bright kid to appreciate that if s/he can get tossed in dunce or average class, they would cut their homework to being completed during the lunch break and have a whole lot of life when they go home?
I think that balance is the key. As a teacher I have to be concerned about screen time as well.
When children are all at a particular level, it is easier for the teacher to proceed. When these four are bright, those six are dunce that means the 4 are bored, the 6 need everything repeated and the class suffers.
interesting post.
You are welcome
Thank you for sharing this post.
You are very welcome
There should be no streaming in schools. Mixed ability teaching works and produces good results for all children – and it stops people using words like “dunce” to stigmatize children!
That is the exact reason why the population has been so dumbed down. Why so many people race their children into private schools, and the syllabus today for High School is on par with that of a 6th Grade class in the 1960s.
The dunce child will always pull down the bright child.
Anyway, I’ll write an article on this for it happens to be a subject I know a bit about.
I’m sorry, but that’s simply not true. The notion of “dunce children” belongs in the 19th century, not the 21st!
There may be countries in the world that do not understand how to make mixed ability teaching work, but the United Kingdom is certainly not one of them. We do not believe in writing children off at a young age, but instead do everything in our power to give ALL children a proper education. Of course there are special needs children – who have particular problems due to medical conditions, etc, but the vast majority can and should be educated together, which benefits children across the ability range.
The idea of creaming children off the top and giving them special attention is abhorrent to the vast majority of members of the teaching profession in the UK, which is why we don’t do it, why we don’t stream at a young age, and why we have comprehensive secondary schools in most places.
Of course it is today. The point is to dumb down the population so that only the very rich, those who can afford private schools and tutors can attend University and lead society.
The egalitarian days when some one could work his or her way up from no where is over.
In the US possibly – not in the UK!
I agree that money can buy you advancement in the British system, and the “old boy network” based on having been to the top fee-paying schools does exist, but this only applies to the very top of certain professions, such as the law.
However, it is perfectly possibly to do well at school, get good exam results and attend a prestigious university without being rich.
On the political front, you do not have to come from a privileged background to get to the top in the UK, and of recent Prime Ministers there is only one (David Cameron) who could be said to have benefitted from family wealth.
I will be interested to see your defence of school streaming – maybe we can continue this debate when that appears!
As you know, a class can only move as fast as the slowest child. Hence, the brighter children who get it are bored, and ‘disrupt’ and are punished for being bright.
As America is next door, it is so easy to see that in the 60s and 70s how they protested the war in Viet Nam, and today, they don’t even think about the war in Afghanistan. Now what is the point of Afghanistan? Yet, the people are so dumbed down they don’t understand, they only think about what the media tells them to think about, and get their opinions pre packed.
I was doing my 1st degree in NY when America invaded Cambodia and lied about it.
This was the Kent State/Jackson State murders of students by the National Guard, this was the shutting down of campuses across America.
Doesn’t happen any more. Why?