Sadly, there's nothing new in the attitude. As far back as when I was in high school it was normal to saddle the kids who could do the work with the job of helping those who could not. By the time my daughter was in Talented and Gifted, it was a daily occurrence that she would be given the responsibility of handling the worst kid in the room-as a peer! And the teachers would excuse this as a type of social experiment that would benefit her as well as the miscreant kids she was put in charge of. This is also the type of teacher that mistook more of the same homework for enrichment.
Ellen K is so right on this. In a nutshell, it's the primary reason we homeschool our boys.
Our daughter (in college now) is still doing this, believe it or not. In one of her classes, she has been recruited to help the struggling students. Personally, I think she should get some form of remuneration for this.
Finally, one of my pet peeves with public school is "group projects". There is nothing wrong with learning to work and function as a team. However, I think sports and competitive extra curricular activities (debate club, for example) may be better vehicles for this. In many classes, what happens is that the motivated students shoulder the workload and the slackers are happy to shirk. Even worse, those students who might want to contribute, but are not up to speed, are left to flounder. Unfortunately, I have seen a math curriculum that is organized around this team approach to learning. Not a good idea, especially in a core subject, IMO.
or as NCLB as implemented known as: NCGA-> "No Child Gets Ahead"
ReplyDeleteSadly, there's nothing new in the attitude. As far back as when I was in high school it was normal to saddle the kids who could do the work with the job of helping those who could not. By the time my daughter was in Talented and Gifted, it was a daily occurrence that she would be given the responsibility of handling the worst kid in the room-as a peer! And the teachers would excuse this as a type of social experiment that would benefit her as well as the miscreant kids she was put in charge of. This is also the type of teacher that mistook more of the same homework for enrichment.
ReplyDeleteEllen K is so right on this. In a nutshell, it's the primary reason we homeschool our boys.
ReplyDeleteOur daughter (in college now) is still doing this, believe it or not. In one of her classes, she has been recruited to help the struggling students. Personally, I think she should get some form of remuneration for this.
Finally, one of my pet peeves with public school is "group projects". There is nothing wrong with learning to work and function as a team. However, I think sports and competitive extra curricular activities (debate club, for example) may be better vehicles for this. In many classes, what happens is that the motivated students shoulder the workload and the slackers are happy to shirk. Even worse, those students who might want to contribute, but are not up to speed, are left to flounder. Unfortunately, I have seen a math curriculum that is organized around this team approach to learning. Not a good idea, especially in a core subject, IMO.