Widening the Gap

First of all- thank you to Kim Marshall for the the saracastic sense of humor embedded in the article "A How-to Plan for Widening the Gap". Not only did this make for a refreshing read, but it blatantly pointed out how ineffective the U.S. education system is currently. Out of the 15 "How-tos" listed, 11 were familiar to my past educational experiences. Congratulations American Public Schools- some of you are passing with a mere 27%!

I thought Marshall did a good job of not only stating what the problem was, but also of stating possible solutions to overcome these problems. The one that stuck out to me the most was the suggestion of reteaching a subject or topic if not successful the first time around. Well, this may seem obvious but unfortunately it is not done very often in schools. Sometimes it's not the teachers fault either- but rather an arguably impossible timed curricula to cover over the course of the academic year. How do students benefit if they don't really learn a subject but instead can say that at one point in their education they were taught it? Simple answer: they don't. How does one actually learn if their misunderstandings on a certain subject matter are skipped over? Now the tricky part is "finding the balance" (if I had a nickle for everytime I heard that phrase...) of moving the class at a pace that the students who are understanding the material do not get bored but also so the students who do not get it the first time explained have a chance at getting it when explained another way. I liked how Kim Marshall pointed out that in order to reach those students who didn't learn it originally a teacher does not necessarily have to go slower. Instead it means more of a teach the same thing in different ways approach to reach students who learn differently. In my opinion this would be one of the most difficult skills to acquire but is also what separates the bad teachers from the good teachers from the great teachers.