John1234

I can agree with this.
Except that the focus should be placed on accelerating students, and not on deciding which students to hold back.

We're already behind many countries on Education.
We need to figure out how to push them forward as a solution.
Not backwards.

WI Crippler

Well I am not advocating we slow anybody down. In fact I am thinking quite the opposite. I am trying to keep the kids that are way ahead of their peers, from being slowed down.

The others can still learn at acceptable rates. It takes a different approach for teaching them than it does the gifted. You can't use the same approach for everybody.

__________________
"Fatigue makes cowards of us all" - Vincent T. Lombardi.

Lightdemon

Actually I also heard about these studies, that in primary schools, children tend to learn better when their in non-coed classrooms.

It's not that boys do better than girls, or that girls do better than boys, but the fact that the group is homogenized and presents somewhat of a neutral ground for students. I don't think rate of brain development is really that much more important than what the learning environment is like. However, that's only in primary schools. In secondary schools, these same studies didn't show any conclusive results.

Not that I would actually support something like this, but there is actually some research done on this.

__________________

John1234

This is the part that is significant here.
They are wanting to hold back all boys an additional year.
And this is ludicrous.

They should be trying to determine how to accelerate both boys and girls by several years to catch us up to the modernized world.

It makes no difference to me about coed or non coed.
What matters here is that they want to retard the learning of an entire sex.

Lightdemon

In education, this process is called "tracking," and is also quite controversial.

In recent studies, the students who are separated from high achieving students do worse because

1) They know they're in the "dumb" class. Students can read the writing on the walls. It's kind of like holding back a student for another year in the same grade. It's humiliating for the student, and consequently the student may have serious self esteem issues.

2) If the high achievers are not in their class, then among thier peers, who should they look up to? Who should they study with? Because lets face it, the teacher isn't the only person that the students are learning from.

A study called the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 found that tracking, that is placing students in AP or Honors courses had no clear benefits in learning compared to students not in AP or Honors courses. However, those who were placed in the "low-achieving" classes had gotten worse than before. In short, tracking didn't benefit any students, and made things worst for the low-achieving students.

National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS 88) - Overview

The link above is an overview of what the study is about. It doesn't go over the study in detail. But you may request a copy of that study thru that link, you just need to call somebody.

Edify_Always_In_All_Ways

In my gifted classes at school, there were never enough boys to make up a single class, whereas the girls would have needed at least two. Keeping us coed made more sense for class sizes, and helped increase the number of perspectives we would get on a problem or writing project.

__________________
1) Thou shalt not be the fool
2) Thou shalt not suffer the fool
3) Thou shalt not pity the fool

Kitten_130

I live in Buffalo and many schools don't offer as many AP's as they should and yes we are behind many countries in education and i notice that many kids like me are bored to death in class and as a result they skip classes and some even drop out and just get there GED I think schools should have different classroom for kids that are more mentally prepared than others. But no one really does anything i was thinking of writting a letter to the board of education but i don't think they will do anything if i don't have a whole bunch of people signing it and i don't know that many students in my school that actully care about this.

Kelzie

Ah to be young again. I remember when I too tried the whole "It's not my fault I don't pay attention and get bad grades! It's boring! I'm soooo much smarter than everyone else!"

Then I got a job. And realized my boss doesn't give two ****es if I'm bored or not. He wants the job done. A word to the wise, deal with boredom now, while it's free. It is NOT an excuse to slack off.

__________________
be humble for you are made of earth; be noble for you are made of stars

Serbian proverb

Bodhisattva

Cognitive versus Intelligence.
Big difference.
Your parents were below average in both I take it?
Sorry!

I assume that you own the paint business now?

Lack of motivation is nobodies fault but your own.
Own it.

I think that, as an above poster mentioned, students should be catagorized by level of ability and that should transcend sex. In the end though, if a kid is smart AND if they have the proper support, the kid will elevate their game and excel so that they have more choices instead of fewer.

__________________

Bodhisattva

I agree. I did the same. Floundered a bit after getting my four-year. Bartending. Great money. Surfing...etc. Then I met my old lady and realized that this was not going to cut it. Got a better job. went back to school for higher education and the rest is history! Tough work. Kids and wife and work AND schooling! Talk about figuring out what motivation is all about.

Getting a job, especially a professional one, is an education all of its own.

I always tell people that more is better at a younger age. More options that is, and a better education allows just that... more options. Interest is not even that important. I degree in something you hate is better than no degree at all.