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Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

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Re: Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

#91

“There’s evidence that Black boys are more likely to be suspended for the same behaviors as other children, right?” This feels like a statement that needs some serious backing up, since the implication is that most teachers are racist. Assuming it true, then it’s pretty surprising how we can simultaneously call teachers heroes and racists without much debate.

> This feels like a statement that needs some serious backing up, since the implication is that most teachers are racist.

Actually the implication is that some teachers and/or administrators are racist. If even one teacher is racist, then that would skew the numbers a tiny bit.

"Some members of X profession are racist" is almost certainly true for any X.

Re: Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

#92
post #81
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that schools are run for the convenience of administrators, who want metrics based performance to look at like butts in seats, test scores, cost per student, etc

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?

Metrics are meaningless without context, useful only for snap judgements by peanut galleries. Judging by metric is an pernicious antipattern that sounds good but the public and politicians rarely have the time for the contextualization necessary to make truly “data-driven decisions”. This is true outside of school management as well.

Re: Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

#93
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this scenario switching is not just getting a different teacher, but an entirely new set of classmates as well, meaning the child is willingly walking away from all their friends and acquaintances they've made possibly over years. I suspect the vast majority of students will choose to stay with the current teacher, even if a very poor fit for them, because of that.

> In this scenario switching is not just getting a different teacher, but an entirely new set of classmates as well, meaning the child is willingly walking away from all their friends and acquaintances they've made possibly over years. Do they (correct me if I am wrong)? What I have seen in the USA, children indeed would switch classes, but relationships are continued on, especially middle and high schools where free…

It's a matter of perception, not reality. They no longer will see them all day like they are used to, and instead just at specific times.

To someone such as myself that didn't share a lot of classes with my good friends that doesn't seem like a big deal. To someone that may have already spent a couple years with these people all day long? That is likely a very scary thing to consider at a young age.

Re: Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

#94
post #3

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.

But that's life though. Even when you get a job there are people that you don't get along with, but you still find a way to make it work. If you would just move that student to a teacher that they preferred, might instill wrong perceptions of reality in the kid.

They're both humans. Humans can talk and reason, why not use that to try and solve the issues?

Edit: Feel free to down vote, but I'm of the opinion that adversity builds character and even more, it makes you into a person that people can rely on in tough situations. I know that parents these days want to make the lives of theirs kids so smooth that they'll never see a 90° degree angle in their life, but that's just not how the world work. At least the majority, I don't know how it's in US and huge cities. I'm from a village where everyone knows everyone.

Re: Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

#95
post #3

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.

But that's life though. Even when you get a job there are people that you don't get along with, but you still find a way to make it work. If you would just move that student to a teacher that they preferred, might instill wrong perceptions of reality in the kid. They're both humans. Humans can talk and reason, why not use that to try and solve the issues? Edit: Feel free to down vote, but I'm of the opinion that adve…

Children aren’t full humans yet, that’s the whole point of doing stuff differently for them…

Re: Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

#96
post #3

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.

But that's life though. Even when you get a job there are people that you don't get along with, but you still find a way to make it work. If you would just move that student to a teacher that they preferred, might instill wrong perceptions of reality in the kid. They're both humans. Humans can talk and reason, why not use that to try and solve the issues? Edit: Feel free to down vote, but I'm of the opinion that adve…

People with jobs are free to seek out new jobs. Yoking a student to a bad teacher for 2+ years is the opposite of a real-life situation.

Re: Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

#97
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The less I interacted with teachers, the better I did. Children can differ so much in how they learn best.

I would say that's more of a reflection of your teachers then unless you have a really exceptional style of learning.

You may have a point in there, but not one that can counter the comment you are replying to.

Some bullet points:

- Many kids “learn the same”. From the perspective of schools, it’s true that differences in children can sometimes actually be differences in teachers

- In some school systems (such as Western public school) the teachers are all railroaded in to teaching the same and having the same attitudes in class. In that way, it’s also possible that a student who has issues with a particular teacher would have issues with many teachers throughout school

- Even among the kids who “learn the same”, there are massive differences internally. What we don’t see are the kids who work twice as hard and think that’s the amount of work everyone is doing, or the kids who are auditory learners but learn to read the words aloud in their head in order to remember them, or thousands upon thousands of ways that “non-typical” kids learn to mask their differences while thinking that it’s just what everyone does

- Objectively a lot of kids learn differently. We’re at the stage where teachers are taught this as a normal thing. On one hand the school system screens for all sorts of differences that might cause learning issues (like dyslexia), and on the other hand teachers are bringing different teaching styles in to classrooms so that all the “typical” kids can learn in their own style.

Re: Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

#98
post #48

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.

My experience is that they make exceptions to this when a teacher loops, for exactly the reason parent describes.

Re: Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

#99
post #81
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that schools are run for the convenience of administrators, who want metrics based performance to look at like butts in seats, test scores, cost per student, etc

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.

Re: Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

#100

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.

Ah see but in America we learn everything by brute force so we can claim we discovered it.
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