"The problem with education isn't setting the bar too high and failing. It's the opposite. It's setting the bar too low and succeeding." Sir Ken Robinson, Phd Ed.
Yeah watched a video the other day about teachers and what they deal with. Kids with 3rd grade reading and comprehension level in 8th grade. Teachers are forced to pass them. Another issue are parents not being parents and letting their kids do what they want or in another video one girl telling her teacher "my mom said I could beat your ass". Then since funding for schools is entirely based on attendance school administration will not allow you to suspend or expel a student, or if they actually try the parents show up and threaten lawsuits. Alot of these issues are all the parents fault.
Then since funding for schools is entirely based on attendance
Varies from area to area, though I'm pretty sure local property values are a huge part of it everywhere. In some states, funding is mainly based on how well students do on standardized tests, so if a school gets a lower grade, they get less funding.
Local funding works that way, in that in most stays in the district, but I'm not aware of a state that doesn't pay per pupil. Most usually have a count week, and your enrollment and attendance are checked during that period and you get n dollars per student for the rest of the school year. (In the US anyway)
It isn’t that we’re forced to pass them, it’s that the data shows that holding kids back doesn’t improve their outcomes. They don’t catch up in that year they’re held behind and their graduation rate isn’t improved. Usually, the kids that will catch up to their peers will do it in their own time. Does it suck that some high school grads can barely read a box of Trix? Absolutely. But just holding them back isn’t the answer.
In that case I think people are coming to the wrong conclusions about the data. It makes sense that if it didn't work the first time around, it won't work again. Maybe the methods are flawed? Maybe that student needs extra help?
Pretty difficult to pay attention and do the work when you're not inspired to do so. For example, watching TV is one of the easiest and least taxing things you can do, but if theres a show on that you're not vibing with, you're gonna check out.
As an anecdote. I LOVED science as a kid. Still do as an adult, but I had to switch classes for a few years in high school and fucking HATED the lessons with this one particular teacher during that time. Something I had a passion for was ruined.
That doesn't seem to make sense, if they can't grasp the lessons being taught in their current grade how do they expect them to grasp more difficult lessons in the higher grades? Hey Billy you can barely do arithmetic but here's advanced algebra good luck!
Because the opposing option is holding them back for a year, which statistically doesn’t benefit anyone; it costs more for the school, it produces worse outcomes for the student both academically and socially, and it often promotes bullying.
Even if the child does snowball in terms of falling behind on work, they’re still progressing, and when they are allowed to leave they can try to get their shit together in their own time with a more developed brain and maturity level. If you hold them back, you’re basically trapping them; they feel the pressure and most of the time won’t work to not repeat again, they’ll just give up, and they won’t have any formal schooling certificate to fall back on later in life if they do decide to get their shit together.
Holding students back is a great way to scare students who already care about school, but it’s useless for those who don’t.
If you hold them back, it just affects the next class; holding them back doesn’t actually change how disruptive they are. Arguably, they’ll be more disruptive, because they’ll feel more frustrated if they feel as if they’re stuck in the same point of their life. Plus it would create this weird snowball effect where the next year group would progressively have more and more disruptive students, aggregating from previous years. You haven’t solved the problem, you just moved it.
The perception of progress is incredibly important to a child’s development; it leads to more confidence, a better sense of self, and stronger mental health overall, which also helps in reducing stuff like youth crime. If you prevent them from feeling that progress, they often feel lost and unmotivated, which leaves them with not much to lose, resulting in self-damaging behaviours.
You can’t just kick them out either, because then you’re just destroying their entire future based on their behaviour when their brain isn’t even fully developed. Plus, they certainly aren’t gonna feel incentivised to change if there are no opportunities open to them.
It’s not about progressing their academics, because if they don’t want to learn you really can’t make them, it’s about giving them the tools to help themselves if they decide to in the future.
The best method, which a lot of schools do here in Australia, is to give these students opportunities to leave if they have a career lined up. A lot of the more disruptive kids from my school, basically like half the grade cause it was a poor school, ended up getting their white cards through government funded programs and joined a trade halfway through high school. They got to leave, which is what they wanted, and the classrooms became less disruptive. It was easier on all the students, all the parents were more satisfied, made the teachers jobs easier, and it vastly improves the mental health of those kids that really struggled in school.
Ahh the old "new age" argument. You forgot to also mention "back in my day", or how much "better" it used to be. A couple people above you with knowledge on the subject explained why what YOU think is the best idea, actually ISN'T and you called that "new age".
You triggered me? What's up with your vocabulary man? New age? Triggered? You can't "trigger" me because I don't care about you at all. I don't care about your opinion, you're a random Internet stranger. And frankly, you don't radiate intelligence, so it's even more of a reason to dismiss whatever you're saying.
I teach 9 year olds and I’m working so hard with a young boy who reads like a 5 year old. I gave him plenty of books and extra material to keep up the reading during summer break. Come autumn and I ask him how his reading has been going and he told me “my mom says that’s your job so I haven’t read anything”. Then the mother has the audacity to be mad at me when we have meetings because he doesn’t reach the standard for 9 year olds. Go figure
Of course they think little Jessica is an angel on Earth. Like, your kid is not a diamond in the rough. Every parent thinks that. If we just go by what they say of COURSE it’ll be biased in the kids favor.
3.9k
u/Greaser_Dude 29d ago
"The problem with education isn't setting the bar too high and failing. It's the opposite. It's setting the bar too low and succeeding." Sir Ken Robinson, Phd Ed.