Comments on: Monday Teeny Poll

By: Phyllis

Phyllis — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:45:25 +0000

Ah, I’m late to the party on this one. But here’s another take: unlike most developed nations, the US does not really have national academic standards. Curriculum development, teaching standards, teacher pay and educational policy are almost 100% locally managed with the exception of standardized testing mandates, and even this is a state issue not a federal issue. So this is really an apple and oranges debate.

My kids go to a one of the best public school systems in Massachusetts. Our town does not have a gifted program, but the general level of academic achievement is really high across the board. My kids have friends who go to public school in a gifted program in one of the poorest cities in the state.

For all I know, their gifted program might be the same thing as my town’s regular curriculum.

There is just no way to measure this given the political nature of educational policy in the US.

By: Tk

Tk — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:23:55 +0000

I was always an academic minded child, who by rights should have been a straight A student. But the system was so dumbed down that I realized I was an A student whether or not I did any work or challenged myself at all. (And I was in all honors/AP classes at a well regarded over-achieving school - it’s much worse in areas with less support and fewer neurotic type-A parents.) It wasn’t until the later part of college that I had to learn to push through anything that didn’t come fairly naturally. The drive to make All Children A-Students harms both students who learn easily and students who struggle with the material or the presentation. And don’t get me started about the affects of mainstreaming special needs children.

By: TeleriB

TeleriB — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:17:25 +0000

This has had me chasing my tail all day and night. It appears to set up a paradox if you answer it “yes.”

If all children have the potential to be “A students” (whatever that means - it’s not like grade-appropriate curriculums have been handed down from On High), then potentially, you could have a class full of full-potential-realized A students. Right? If everyone in these children’s lives, the children included, did everything “right” and we answered “yes” to the question, then they could all be A students.

If your entire class is getting As on its homework and tests, your entire class is not being challenged. This is true whether you have “dumbed down” your tests or your kids are all brilliant. If they are all A students, all the time, they aren’t stretching themselves.

So, the teacher teaches at a more advanced level, until not everyone is an A student anymore.

Which contradicts answering the question “yes.”

Or am I just way overthinking this?

By: buttercup

buttercup — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:39:17 +0000

I think it depends on the subject. Schools encourage children to be well-rounded these days, but we all have subjects we’re just naturals at. The most important thing is that the child is interested in his studies and is developing his intellect for college (even from a young age.)

By: raincoaster

raincoaster — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:26:55 +0000

@ raincoaster “Kids’s,” dumbass.

By: raincoaster

raincoaster — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:25:21 +0000

I’m 100% with Jennie on this. All children have the potential to be better than average. Average is what an ordinary person is when they’re not trying. However, grade inflation means that today the AVERAGE grade in the US is a B+. This renders academic excellence meaningless in what is supposed to be an academic context. In the UK, University Firsts (ie a top grade) have doubled in a decade, and I don’t think it’s because students are that much brighter.

We need to stop looking to schools as kids’ only source of self-worth, and I say that as someone who never excelled at anything BUT school until I was 30. Kids should be in clubs, in play groups, in Scouts and Brownies and lessons and whatever else they like and can handle. That way, kids who excel in things school doesn’t teach can still excel and be seen to excel.

By: JaneC

JaneC — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:03:59 +0000

Not all children are A students in school–some children are A students at something else. My husband, for instance, is a very bright man and a talented musician, but he only learns new things when he feels like it…which didn’t always coincide with when his teachers and professors thought he should learn something new. He’s got the brains, but the school environment didn’t suit his learning style.

I’m fully prepared for at least one of our children to be like him in that respect, for a child of mine not to get A grades. As long as that child is happy and learning something, I’m fine with B’s and C’s on the report card and will not assume that the child isn’t doing his best.

By: Caitlin

Caitlin — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:21:48 +0000

I think an unpleasant notion for many parents is that not every kid is equipped to be the best and brightest.

By: Jennie

Jennie — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:17:53 +0000

This is what we are trying to do now. The dumbing down of the American school system rarely challenges the gifted children and panders to some “testing” percentage instead. The C grade shouldn’t be considered shameful, it should be what it is meant to be, average, i.e. what is expected for that student. All children have the capability to give what is expected. A and B grades should be given based on extra effort over and above the expected for that child.

By: dgm

dgm — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:29:26 +0000

Kids should concentrate on becoming the best version of themselves. No one else is better situated to do that.