Notes from The Heather Vinson School of Teaching

So I was talking to a co-worker this morning about one of the sessions we have to attend for the conference tomorrow. It's called, "The Genius in All of Us: Why Sorting Children Isn’t Just Unfair, It’s Bad Science." First of all, what a ridiculous title. There's not a hidden genius in all of us, sorry to break it to you. I mean, I get it, never tell a kid he's dumb...but seriously.

Tracking is very controversial and always has been. I understand why people hate it. Our school (used to I guess) use it. One of the many problems was that it wasn't always accurate and it sometimes did make children live up the stereotype of whatever class they were in. (Last year you were so smart, what happened?!) They also never listened to teachers about who needed to go where (it was based totally on test scores....and sometimes even then it was just arbitrary assignments) and behavior problems were moved to higher classes so they could be "controlled." And once you do it one year, every year after that kids will think that being in "7-01" means you're smart, but "7-06" means you're dumb. Granted, everything my school touches turns to shit, so maybe other schools have a better handle on tracking.

From my own experience, I did the whole Advanced Diploma College Prep Whatever The Hell You Want To Call It when I was in high school. I guess I was tracked? But you know, it wouldn't have killed me to learn how to take apart a car engine or build a birdhouse. Why can't you have vocational AND college prep classes together for the same kids?

ANYWAY, this co-worker said, "That's crap. I'd be pissed if my smart child was put in a class with a bunch of kids who didn't know how to read."

And I get that too. People say the "smart" kids will help bring the other kids up, but those people are overestimating the niceness and helping nature of middle school children. They'll either get frustrated with them or just let them copy their work. You may have a few (mostly girls) who are willing to help the low achievers, but what benefit are they getting re-doing work they already understand instead of moving on to more complicated subject matter? And frankly, I LIKE my separated kids. I love being able to have an actual debate in my 01 and 02 classes (the others just end up screaming at each other) and I like knowing that for 03 and 04 I'll have to slow it down a little and put in a little more explanation.

Since this is an issue that I can't decide how I feel about it, here at The Heather Vinson School of Teaching, we have a whole new philosophy. We have tracking, but it's not based on academic performance, it's based on MOTIVATION. Do you care about school? Do you try to do your work? You're in 01. Do you miss 20+ days of school, come to school high, write your name on your paper and go to sleep? You're in 06. I'm not saying we'd put our little 06 kids in the corner and forget about them, but CLEARLY they need more help than just a classroom teacher can deal with. And for the middle kids, we could base our instruction around how motivated they are.

My 01 kids would barely hear me talk. I'd give them projects and papers and research issues out the wazoo. I'd put them in groups with varied abilities and let 'em roll because they are MOTIVATED to learn. Those kids don't need me. They need me to get it started and provide the materials, but if they like learning, who am I to say what information and at what pace they should go? The middle kids, they'd need a little bit more guidance, perhaps some short lectures and small one-class period projects and activities. They know why school exists, they know what they SHOULD be doing, they just don't do it. Those kids need me to get them excited about learning and to show them HOW to learn. I got that.

And as for those kids at the bottom, well they are special cases. One of my other co-workers, last year he got really tired of their attitudes and them ruining classes so he put his desks into two groups--the "DOs" and the "DO NOTs". He let the kids decide where to sit. Then he taught the "DOs" and the DO NOTs just sat in the back and slept or talked or whatever. What are you to do when you have almost half a class of students who couldn't care less about school or learning? YOU GET THEM AWAY FROM THE KIDS THAT DO CARE. They are NOT going to be positively affected by the other ones. If anything, the other ones wil be negatively affected by THEM. These kids need counselors and home visits and parent conferences and drug testing and school supplies and basically anything you can think of that a child would need. They need to be taught the importance of education.

What do you think?