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The Daily Troll. | by nin_man | 2002-06-07 06:41:30 |
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political correctness begone | by ma petite | 2002-06-07 06:53:44 |
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I agree | by pecosdave | 2002-06-07 07:09:26 |
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I agree with you! haha | by Llyr | 2002-06-07 07:19:50 |
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We don't go to Mexico | by hyzenthlay | 2002-06-07 07:34:58 |
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There is a worse side effect. | by Didactylos | 2002-06-07 07:45:22 |
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Well, | by hyzenthlay | 2002-06-07 07:50:57 |
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I happen to be a victim | by Llyr | 2002-06-07 07:59:44 |
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I guess I'm one of the lucky ones | by SnArL | 2002-06-07 10:08:01 |
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Phoenix is pretty well funded though isn't it | by hyzenthlay | 2002-06-07 10:28:38 |
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by SnArL |
2002-06-07 14:06:47 |
I was actually quite surprised at the number of "mismanagement of funds" problems in the various school districts when I moved out of Phoenix. I don't recall hearing about any problems when I was there...
As for gifted programs, I think the major problem is the paradigm of "Here's the curriculum, now everybody learn it" The teachers have a set method for teaching the material, and it is up to the students to adjust to that method in order to learn. If Johnny isn't picking it up the same way the rest of the students are, the teacher is either going to: sit down and take Johnny through it again, but this time slower; take the whole class through it again, but this time slower; Send Johnny home with extra homework and a note to his parents explaining that they need to take him through it slowly; or descide that Johnny would be better off with the other "slow" kids in the "special" class. What if Johnny doesn't get it because it's being presented to him in such a way that he must reprocess the information before he can assimilate it? I have observed that many teachers are very rigid when it comes to teaching techniques. The teacher that I had for 5th and 6th grade was very flexible when it came to presenting the material to the class. She had a unique knack for determining what methods worked best for what students. The most beneficial part was the "independant" time, though. There were various projects that we could work on by ourselves or in small groups. We were allowed to choose the topic of a particular report, which allowed us to grow and develop problem-solving skills that worked best for us.
The other part of the problem lies with the curriculam itself. An excellent example would be my High School math book. The previous math books I had used would teach a concept, have you do problems using what you had just learned, then the next lesson would teach another concept that built off the previous one. The math books I had in High School would teach a concept, and you would be doing problems using that concept for the next 2 months. The next lesson would usually be completely unrelated to anything prior, and the problems would be repetitive to the point of tedium. I did not learn very well from the High School math books, but all of my peers thought that it was great. I still feel that if I had been given math books from the same publisher as the ones I used in Jr. High, I would have done even better than I did (which wasn't too shabby).
Funding does play a major role, however, as underpaid teachers are less likely to want to put the extra effort into altering the way they present material to optimize learning potential. |
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