Originally posted by: return_to_hades
I think it needs to be said on a public platform. The teacher is not criticizing the students. They were actually critiquing the education system and parents.
Failing or being held back a grade is almost unheard of in the United States. It is only if a child has severe learning disabilities and low performance that a school will fail someone. But being held back isn't a bad thing. Children learn at different paces. Some children need more time on material than others. Sometimes, children held back in elementary or middle can catch up by the time they hit high school.
It first started with 'No Child Left Behind.' If a child did poorly, it was considered the school and teachers were bad, and funding was correlated to children's performance. So schools started inflating grades and passing students. While bad teachers do lead to bad grades - the policy completely ignored factors like family environment, income levels, school facilities, etc. Typically, schools with low-performing children need more funding.
But now the problem is exacerbated by helicopter parents who coddle their kids. Parents are throwing a fit if teachers recommend students for remedial classes. My child will feel left out if all their friends get to play in the yard while they have to take extra math lessons which is why you need to magically make my child better at math in a chaotic classroom because that's what you are supposed to do. Teachers don't get paid enough to deal with that shit and push children through to the next grade.
So that's what the teacher is rightly calling out. A broken system and helicopter parents which have resulted in kids in middle school having elementary school-level skills.
One of my friends brags about how good her child is at math and reading. And her child is ahead of the class. But I am like beesh, at that age even the slowest child in my classroom in India would have read a chapter while your kid reads a page. And I was in an SSC school. We would be duffers compared to CBSE and ICSE.
Really? 😳
I thought that education system was better in developed countries as compared to other developing countries because people immigrate for want of better life, job, education, etc
Anupamaa
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