Week 1, Discussion 1

[DMiller]

GR, I do think you're right about that. In my classes I do everything I can to assist students who have trouble with the material and there are plenty of opportunities for the students at a higher level to work on higher-level material. The problem is that my classes are electives and students can drop them if it is too challenging for them. Core classes are not optional because of state and federal requirements. When I was in high school the ACT was only taken by students planning to go to college, but a few years ago it became a requirement for ALL high school juniors in Illinois, which is why we run into the situation you talked about where we are trying to cram algebra into a student who can't handle basic math. I would love it if high school was more specialized and was mainly a collection of electives. The first couple of years the students could get a taste of a wide range of different subjects and then they could talk to a counselor about what they were interested in and take the classes that would benefit them from there. There needs to be a total overhaul of the education system for this to even be possible, but in a perfect world it's what I would like to see.