4 ms·

I don't have any data to back this up aside from personal anecdote, but it seems that while many students would benefit from more rigorous courses, the ones who

by jonlucc 10y ago

I don't have any data to back this up aside from personal anecdote, but it seems that while many students would benefit from more rigorous courses, the ones who don't keep up are very expensive. They'd need almost twice as many classes, and as someone who was on the TaG (Talented and Gifted), AP, and IB track at my school, I am always nervous about further separation from other classmates.

maxerickson 10y ago
Classroom time doesn't need to be the primary social time for kids. A lot of the problems that people squawk about for mixed ages are only problems because they are tacitly tolerated. Discard social promotion and you don't need to worry about age group separation.
- jessaustin 10y ago
  You've identified yet another social dysfunction for which we can blame the automobile: Americans think children ought to be stuck in their homes when unsupervised. The kids simply must socialize in school, since there's no way we could allow them to ride bikes a few miles to visit friends after school. This may be less of an issue now, with social media. In third grade, I was in a mixed third/fourth grade classroom. It may have been the least boring year I spent in elementary school, although frankly that isn't a high bar to clear.
  - r00fus 10y ago
    Why would the helicopter-parent syndrome be less of an issue with social media?
    - emp_zealoth 10y ago
      At least the kids can talk to some other human beings instead being locked in solitary confinement
  - dsfyu404ed 10y ago
    I'd blame that squarely on overprotective parents. If it was the cars fault "uphill both ways in the snow" stories would have died off about two generations ago. It's no longer socially acceptable for a parent to allow their kid(s) much freedom of movement ("no you can't ride your bike to your friend's house because crossing the street is too dangerous") and social media steps in to fill the void.
    - jessaustin 10y ago
      We're looking at different aspects of the same process. Americans are afraid of life for many reasons, but one of those is that so many of us tool around in our own private climate-controlled boxes rather than inhabiting the street as pedestrians, equestrians, or cyclists. The phrase "afraid of life" certainly includes "afraid of ridiculous innumerate peer opprobrium with respect to clearly superior parenting choices", and automobiles are as much to blame for that as anything else.
    - serge2k 10y ago
      A guy at work was complaining a few days ago because they don't have a bus for his son. The school is 500' away. Now, his son is too young to just walk on his own, but that's a couple of minutes to get him to school. When I was in high school (early 00s) my school was 1.7 miles, had to walk further than 500' to get to the city bus stop (or just walk/bike).
bradleyjg 10y ago
The larger the pool of people being drawn from the better tailoring that can be done. If you have 24 kids total in the district, then maybe you put them all in one classroom regardless of age and teach that way. If you have 300 kids in the school district now you can do separate classes for each age. If you have 900 kids, now each grade can have 3 classes and maybe one of them in each grade can be set aside for advanced students and one for slower students. If you have 25,000 kids in the district, now you can start doing things like an entire G&T school, and/or a school for the students interested in performing arts, and/or a specialized vocational high school. Unfortunately, the trend in the US is towards micro-catchment areas mostly as a legacy of racial segregation efforts and because of the continuing desire to have socio-economic segregation.

by jonlucc 10y ago

maxerickson 10y ago

Classroom time doesn't need to be the primary social time for kids. A lot of the problems that people squawk about for mixed ages are only problems because they are tacitly tolerated. Discard social promotion and you don't need to worry about age group separation.

jessaustin 10y ago
You've identified yet another social dysfunction for which we can blame the automobile: Americans think children ought to be stuck in their homes when unsupervised. The kids simply must socialize in school, since there's no way we could allow them to ride bikes a few miles to visit friends after school. This may be less of an issue now, with social media. In third grade, I was in a mixed third/fourth grade classroom. It may have been the least boring year I spent in elementary school, although frankly that isn't a high bar to clear.
- r00fus 10y ago
  Why would the helicopter-parent syndrome be less of an issue with social media?
  - emp_zealoth 10y ago
    At least the kids can talk to some other human beings instead being locked in solitary confinement
- dsfyu404ed 10y ago
  I'd blame that squarely on overprotective parents. If it was the cars fault "uphill both ways in the snow" stories would have died off about two generations ago. It's no longer socially acceptable for a parent to allow their kid(s) much freedom of movement ("no you can't ride your bike to your friend's house because crossing the street is too dangerous") and social media steps in to fill the void.
  - jessaustin 10y ago
    We're looking at different aspects of the same process. Americans are afraid of life for many reasons, but one of those is that so many of us tool around in our own private climate-controlled boxes rather than inhabiting the street as pedestrians, equestrians, or cyclists. The phrase "afraid of life" certainly includes "afraid of ridiculous innumerate peer opprobrium with respect to clearly superior parenting choices", and automobiles are as much to blame for that as anything else.
  - serge2k 10y ago
    A guy at work was complaining a few days ago because they don't have a bus for his son. The school is 500' away. Now, his son is too young to just walk on his own, but that's a couple of minutes to get him to school. When I was in high school (early 00s) my school was 1.7 miles, had to walk further than 500' to get to the city bus stop (or just walk/bike).

bradleyjg 10y ago

The larger the pool of people being drawn from the better tailoring that can be done. If you have 24 kids total in the district, then maybe you put them all in one classroom regardless of age and teach that way. If you have 300 kids in the school district now you can do separate classes for each age. If you have 900 kids, now each grade can have 3 classes and maybe one of them in each grade can be set aside for advanced students and one for slower students. If you have 25,000 kids in the district, now you can start doing things like an entire G&T school, and/or a school for the students interested in performing arts, and/or a specialized vocational high school. Unfortunately, the trend in the US is towards micro-catchment areas mostly as a legacy of racial segregation efforts and because of the continuing desire to have socio-economic segregation.