
Why are American schools slowing down so many bright children? - tokenadult
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/why-do-schools-slow-down-so-many-bright-children/2015/06/21/39992086-14a4-11e5-9518-f9e0a8959f32_story.html
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argumentum
As someone who skipped kindergarten and 1st grade, and later tested through
some math classes, I am dubious about the ability of the existing public
school system to accommodate such acceleration without harming students.

Being younger than everyone was fine until 7th grade (i.e. until puberty).
From that point on I had to deal with a lot of bullying through 11th grade
(when I finally grew taller & stronger) and never felt like I fit in until
college. It was quite traumatic, and I would def have preferred being
"normal".

People mature at different rates in different respects. While intellectually
many kids are ahead of their age, they may or may not be so emotionally or
physically. Rather than trying to fit square pegs into round holes, an ideal
system would permit "bright" children to advance at their own pace
academically within an environment of social peers.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Home Schooling can do that. I know, everybody associates it with kooky
religious people. But the policies and mechanisms are in place, so that
ordinary folks can take advantage for their own children.

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bediger4000
It's not that hard. Public Schools were designed in two phases, for two
different reasons: 1. grade school. Get enough reading so as to be able to
read The Bible, and get enough math so as not to let the city slickers cheat
you when you get your cattle/pigs/grain to market. 2. High school. Get
everyone ready to work in a factory. Arrive on time, move when and where
you're scheduled to move. Take short breaks on command in boring environments,
and don't talk back.

Public education is for flyover people on the farm, or people who will work in
factories. Public schools aren't supposed to accommodate anyone at the "smart"
end of the scale, and they're supposed to shuck off any one lying at the
"dumb" end of the scale. You can verify this by looking at the curriculum for
contentious subjects ("social studies", and biology), which is exceptionally
weak, and emphasizes Andrew Jackson and ignores evolution.

Yes, I'm bitter.

~~~
WalterSear
You implicitly imply it's an American problem. I assure you, it's not.

~~~
bediger4000
The article was about American schools, and I only have experience with
American public schools. I cannot speak truthfully about anything else, but
your assurance is valuable.

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paulhauggis
Maybe because there are no winners and losers and everyone gets a trophy? We
have taken away the ability for many to get ahead all in the name of political
correctness.

This mentality has now started entering our workforce. All of the articles on
how to 'manage millennials' show examples of this behavior.

The only thing it has done is make us less competitive in the global
marketplace.

~~~
csbrooks
Do you have any evidence that this is the case, besides your gut feeling?

I'm a gen-X'er, and people used to say this about us. But I don't think it was
ever really true; every generation just wants to believe the next generation
has it easy, for some reason.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
Isn't it true though? Hot running water > vaccines > smartphones. Even the
'poor' in this country (Australia) have smartphones, drive a car, smoke and
drink.

Doesn't everyone want a better world for their kids? And then complains about
the younger generation having it easy. Ironic I suppose.

Has there ever been a time in the past when life was _easier_ for young
people? I mean generally speaking, in the developed world, despite all it's
problems.

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matt_s
A major reason is the standardized testing (common core) where teachers are
being measured on averages on these tests. When they have kids that are
advanced and above average they aren't incented to spend any extra time with
them because they are focused on the ones below average. They sure don't want
them out of their class either since that would bring the average lower.

Now sure there are teachers that are really good at pushing kids ahead but the
entire system isn't geared towards that.

~~~
dragonwriter
> A major reason is the standardized testing (common core) where teachers are
> being measured on averages on these tests.

Common core has nothing to do with that (except perhaps that they different
phenomena that share some very distant degree of common causation); you may be
confusing Common Core (which is a set of curriculum standards) with No Child
Left Behind (which is a national policy that, among its accountability
provisions, includes testing with incentives similar to those you describe.)

~~~
matt_s
It does since there are (in NY at least) state tests to measure progress of
the students and those results are never released to students or parents but
used in "grading" teachers.

It seems very closely tied with the Common Core rollout. I get that employers
(state governments) want to measure teacher performance but how do you do that
realistically? Will it change anything if a teacher has poor performance? They
are under union contracts these days anyhow and some are tenured.

~~~
dragonwriter
State tests to grade schools are an accountability measure from NCLB. Most
likely, tests to grade teachers are driven by that. Common core adoption may
also be driven by the results of NCLB driven tests, if it's percieved as more
effective in bringing the bottom up as NCLB focuses on.

But I don't see a casual relationship from Common Core to teacher-grading
tests. Where's the link, beyond a temporal association.

~~~
matt_s
All of the grading teachers tests started with Common Core, here in NY state
at least which was an early adopter. Each state is probably implementing it
differently.

These aren't tests to grade schools, these are testing the kids against Common
Core curriculum that they haven't been taught yet to grade teachers on how
they are doing.

It has nothing to do with NCLB. There is direct linkage to Common Core
curriculum and rollout. I have teachers in my family and kids in the schools
that this is happening in, do you actually have kids in school?

