101–110 of 142 posts
It seems to me that the us education system rearranges the deck chairs while the ignoring the titanic problem that the schools are designed for the staff, not the kids. I think our school system is approaching a local maxima where the idea that learning sucks and should be avoided is embedded in as many young brains as possible.
Interesting, I've also heard of benefits from multi-grade classrooms; I wonder if there's a connection there. (I don't have a source for that on hand, that's mostly from discussion with relatives who teach.)
In general I think they provide different functions, though: stability of environment from the looping teacher, and diversity of information sources/instructors from the other student age groups.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That one student should be able to switch to a different group. If all want to switch then there's a problem with the instructor. Let's look at the opposite end of the spectrum. Student loves an instructor but is needlessly switched to someone new. My point though is that the flexibility to change or stay in the same group should exist.
In U.S. public schools, this will not be allowed. Schools already do everything they can to discourage and deny teacher switching requests. Why? Because there is a large difference in quality between teachers, and everyone knows which teachers are best, but administrators aren't allowed to fire a teacher with low enrollment because of switching requests, and face class size limits in the case of the good teachers.
Article was interesting, my comment pertains to the "electric schoolbus" paragraph lower on the page :) When I commuted between the South End and Cambridge MA for work right after college my roommates and I would make bets as to who would end up being late to work because the Cambridge Public High School electric schoolbus would break down, blocking a major road. For those who don't know, there's no great way with pu…
Looping for at least 3-4 years seems the standard in most countries. Strange to see it discussed as something "strange" or "novel" without recognizing this basic fact.
I noticed this most often on topics about education, transport and housing.
Looping for at least 3-4 years seems the standard in most countries. Strange to see it discussed as something "strange" or "novel" without recognizing this basic fact.
Yes I'm always amazed by these topics coming up on HN where something which is commonly done in lots of countries is brought up and you see lots of posts talking about how this can never work, or is an absolutely terrible idea which will lead to incredible damage to children, society... For some reason or the other. I noticed this most often on topics about education, transport and housing.
This is certainly a good idea (but only if the teachers are great). Nevertheless I recommend everyone to read "I would never send my kids to school" by Piotr Wozniak: https://supermemo.guru/wiki/I_would_never_send_my_kids_to_sc... Something is fundamentally wrong with the educational system and it's holding humanity(/your children) back big time.
This book very much comes off as someone who works with the top 10% of kids and has a plan that will work wonderfully for them. But it’s not even remotely realistic for the bottom 10% of kids who would play video games all day on their phone if their study was self guided and insufficiently accountable. Pretending that slice of the population doesn’t exist will do a lot of harm to them.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have no doubt administrators have a large role to play in this but "test scores" and "cost per student" seem like perfectly fine metrics by which to judge schools, no?
"I literally don't have the time to cover the Indian Wars or Jim Crow south while still covering what I need to cover so my students can pass the state standardized test" -A teacher I was talking to last week Point is, test scores aren't perfect.
Just opinion but I think kids benefit from different teachers teaching styles and personality.
And in case you get a bad teacher or a teacher who is not a fit, then the problem is resolved by passage of time within 12 months.
In fact my boy did get a bad teacher in primary school and exactly this line of thinking played out.
I'd never send my child to a school that did this.
Slightly off topic but I also don't think it is a good idea for kids to go to the same primary school and high school (i.e. some schools have kids all the way from prep to year 12). I think its good for them to have a different set of peers, teachers and environment after primary school. 13 years of the same is enough to make anyone sick of all of those things.
This seems like a practice that would work for some students and hurt others. Some students may not do well with a particular teacher. Being stuck for years with that teacher is a disservice to the student.
We need to figure out how to enact school practices in a way that different people get different practices; ideally lined up with what works for those people.
Obviously, if the school is small enough that it's one teacher per grade level, you can't have some kids in the grade loop and others not.