Eric Bohlman wrote: > One has to wonder if that's their real intention. I suspect a lot of the > opposition is really to the notion of teaching kids to think independently, > out of fear that this will result in a loss of control. > > You do have to remember that in the US, the low voter turnout in school- > board elections means that groups with quite peculiar agendas can very > easily take over school boards. If only 5% of the eligible voters actually > vote, a faction that's only supported by 2.6% of the population can easily > win.
I'm not against it, but I have qualms about it for three reasons. First, in practice the mechanisms for detecting bright kids are very biased. Most 'bright' kids are heavily coached, middle class etc. Second, in practice, extra resources for 'bright' kids are always taken from 'less bright' kids. Third, the economic benefits of providing extra resources for 'bright' kids are less than clear cut. (For example, if you want to reduce crime, providing a good basic eduation for all is probably more useful than focussing resources on the best). Of course I come from a country that has a long history of supposedly meritocratic elitism in education. I suspect that the real problems are from situations where the implementation of basic education policy, or the policy itself, is flawed. For example, formal subjects are badly taught in countries where the teaching profession have low status and are poorly paid (because appropriately skilled graduates are hard to recruit into teaching). I also think that crowded curricula can mean that core concepts and skills are swamped by less important things that people think should be taught. Solving the underlying problems could lead to better recruitment of teachers and (in turn) teachers can cope with wider ability ranges (both within and between classes). Thom . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
