On 6/30/09, Bobcat, part the third... wrote:
> I'm going to go back to my english comparison again. No one asks
> kids to start over learning the alphabet in a high school english
> class, or how to read. Yet, we teach, and I mean teach, systems of
> equations every year from algebra through pre-calculus. When do we
> expect kids to actually have learned (and by my definition,
> remember) a topic that they have been taught? I also think that
> what one district is trying here makes a lot of sense (although I
> fear the implementation), and that is getting rid of grade levels,
> and putting kids in the appropriate class. I hate to think of our
> pre-algebra kids in the same class as 5th graders.

My biggest problem with the system is that there is very little
intrinsic motivation to do well in school. When a student here in
Colorado fails every subject in 5th grade, do you know what happens to
him the following year? He gets put in 6th grade!

"The research says that holding students back a grade doesn't help."
I've heard this phrase a few times, but I still don't buy it. When a
student that doesn't understand is held back a year, they KNOW that
their friends have all moved on, and it is a powerful motivator to spend
a little more time and effort understanding school.

Some students are ready for Algebra in 4th grade. Some, not until 9th.
It would seem to me that if the math class I was in was appropriate for
ME, and not just people who are the same age as me, that would be a good
thing.

Please tell me what I'm missing, Bobcat.

Pragmatic

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