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From: tan@ihlpg.UUCP (Bill Tanenbaum)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: "Secular Humanism" banned in the US Schools.
Message-ID: <1262@ihlpg.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 16-Sep-85 19:18:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihlpg.1262
Posted: Mon Sep 16 19:18:56 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 17-Sep-85 06:17:39 EDT
References: <1072@ulysses.UUCP> <607@hou2g.UUCP> <11384@rochester.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 37

> [Tom Albrecht] 
> Mediocrity [in public schools] is only a symptom
> of a much deeper problem.  The problem is the egalitarian mindset of public
						 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> educators.  Equality is an excuse for laziness.  If a teacher has thirty
> students in his or her classroom, the easiest way to get through the day is
> to assume they are all on the same academic, social, and physical level, rather
				^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> than trying to treat each child as an individual. They don't understand that 
> each child is special and unique in some way.  In public schools we have the
> worst form of segregation; academic segregation.  Put the fast learners
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> with other fast learners so they can relate.  Group the slower children
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> together so they can all limp along at their own pace, never being
> challenged to become better, just survivors.  They're almost treated as if 
> they were born that way and there is nothing the poor teacher can do about it.
> "Let's just make do with what we have and get through the school year."  That 
> seems to be the moto of most school systems.  (I hope those caring teachers 
> will forgive me for my sweeping generalizations.)
--------
I'm confused.  Your criticisms here seem to me to be self-contradictory.
First you complain about the "egalitarian mindset" which treats all children
alike.  Then you complain about academic tracking, which separates children
by ability.
The only way these two criticisms make sense together is if you favor having
children of widely different abilities in the same class together, but have
the teacher teach them differently.  This is actually done in some public
schools.  However, given the class sizes in many public schools, and the
unwillingness of taxpayers to pay for more teachers and smaller classes,
this is very difficult to implement in poorer school districts.  Have you
ever tried to teach 35 children of widely different abilities in math in the
same classroom at once, teaching each at his/her own level?  I haven't either,
but I know some who have tried.  They have wound up going crazy.  With a
class size of 20, it becomes almost feasible.
-- 
Bill Tanenbaum - AT&T Bell Labs - Naperville IL  ihnp4!ihlpg!tan


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