I think my head has exploded at the thought!

That's been done to death Marylin, imagine trying to teach a class, where the average intelligence is so extreme that your worst student is trying to set you on fire and your best student is happily playing grade 8 piano at the age of 5.

let me know how you get on.

 

Nail on the head - there isn't a great deal of point in trying to teach kids who can barely read subjects that require literacy skills to learn...

 

RE: perhaps a series of grunts and facial twitches could be devised to make it even simpler for them

Very funny!

 

Exactly

But the key part is their standards when they enter the system. Classes of 30+ do not cater for this, but this is the system we have, it works in most cases, doesn't in others.

But parents shouldn't send their kids to school with relatively no prior teaching and then blame the system for their kids failing.

 

RE: Exactly

The thing is, class sizes don't make that much of a difference when you're teaching intelligent, confident kids - a class of thirty such kids is much easier to teach than a dozen / fifteen pupils who struggle to read and lack the confidence to try. Throw in other issues such as behavioural and emotional problems and the difference really shows!

 

You better teach me!

How are those 2 phrases contradictory?

 

well yes, I must agree there, but

and maybe apologise for snapping back with the oxymoron quote.The system I was brought up on had streaming, the elevenplus, grammar scholl etc.Some said it was unfair and made some kids feel inadequate and not as gifted .Wellhello they were not, its no shame though.If we want to get better then the streaming system should be re-applied.that way kids of similar IQ are together and learn/achieve together.Its not snobbery its not one upmanship as some would have us believe,its bloody common sense. You do not enter a Donkey in the grand national do you.My partner has backed a few mind.

 

RE: Exactly

I believe those clases are a bit thin on the ground

You also mention confidence, good point. Where does that come from?

Some people think that should be on the curriculum also.

 

The problem with that system is that people treated it like elitism, people who went onto grammar schools decided they were better then those who went to the technical colleges or whereever they went and created a stigma which understandably grated.

Funnily enough, those who went the technical route are probably pulling in more money now then many of the grammar school boys, due to the new system creating such a shortage over the last couple of decades.

Personally, I think minds work in different ways and you need systems that brings out the best in them. technical or academic?, but that is over simplifying things again.

anyway it's all bolox.

 

RE: Exactly

Precisely, yet another daft idea - happiness lessons. The thing is, all these ideas about teachers praising kids and teaching them "emotional intelligence" we do already and, although you have some success, many of the problems persist.

Patronised by the government and blamed (not in all cases, I must add, however) by parents when, for the most part, the problems we face are a little more fundamental and a teeny bit beyond our scope...

 

beyond your scope?......now you're just being lazy innit.

What teachers need to be doing is turning up on maternity wards. If they cared they would obviously..........and stop worrying about stab proof vests.

 

Sh*t, you've sussed me out. You're quite right, I only entered the profession for the short hours and cups of tea. Plus, the opportunity to sell stab-proof vests on the black market...

 

She should change her sirname to Bel if she believes in what she preaches.