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Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!iuvax!bobmon
From: bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.math,sci.physics
Subject: Re: Student preparedness (you know...)
Message-ID: <15895@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Date: 18 Dec 88 21:50:19 GMT
Reply-To: bobmon@iuvax.UUCP (RAMontante)
Organization: malkaryotic
Lines: 14

>>The way I see it, a teacher simply cannot conduct a course when
>>there are both "geniuses" and "dead weight" in the same classroom.

Without getting too deeply into the current discussion, I think I must
object to the label "dead weight".  They AREN'T "dead weight", they're
the ones who learn the most slowly.  They're the ones who need the
*best* teaching.  The "geniuses" may benefit more from good teaching,
but they don't need it -- they'll learn without being taught, they'll
learn even in the face of active opposition.

The academically weak students may grow up to be societal "dead weight".
Society needs to teach them as well as possible, as young as possible,
precisely to avoid this --  so that they grow up to be useful,
contributing members of society, not written-off "dead weight".