I'm going to be a senior in high school next year and this is all definitely true.
I was homeschooled for the first few years of elementary, and my reading level was far ahead of everyone else when I started going to school. The first few years I went to a private school and everything was fine (the teacher was good, she cared about her students, and she actually taught us things), but when I transferred to a public school for fifth grade, things went down hill.
There was something in place that was supposed to help high achievers. It was called GATE, for Gifted and Talented Education. Clever, huh? The only problem is that you had to test for in in (I believe) third gradel, so I was shit out of luck. I was stuck with the rest of the other students who didn't really give a damn.
That problem followed for the first year of junior high. For the first year (at my school) they apparently see if you were GATE in elementary and, if you were, they enroll you in the high achievement classes for junior high, too. Since I wasn't in GATE, I was stuck in regular classes.
When 7th grade came around, I was finally put into "advanced" classes. This is all well and good, but if the teacher is still crap then there's no difference. I was "lucky" to even have two great teachers that year who taught well, cared about their students, and didn't just focus on test scores.
That brings me to test scores. The state I live in, Texas, has a mandatory state-wide test called the TAKS (I know other states have similar tests). I won't get into the many problems with the TAKS, though I assure you there are many. You just need to know that teachers are evaluated on how many of their students pass TAKS.
Surprisingly (for me), my teachers (besides the aforementioned two) focused on simply passing the TAKS! They didn't care about actually teaching us anything! These are teachers of the "advanced" classes, mind you.
Eighth grade was like that, but worse. I didn't have ANY good teachers. Instead, all my teachers focused on TAKS scores for the whole year. One of my teachers was actually bad as a human being as well as a teacher, for reasons I won't get into. But it was bad enough that my parents withdrew me from school early (I didn't miss anything!) and enrolled in a private school for the next year. It was actually the same one I attended in elementary.
Here comes the first year of high school. And at a Christian private school, no less (which wasn't fun for me). Most of the teachers there were awful, but I won't say too much about this because I'm sort of focusing on public schools. Let's just say ninth grade was bad enough that I was able to convince my parents to let me go to a public high school.
10th grade was a lot like a toned-down version of seventh grade. I had some great teachers, but I also had some terrible ones (all for advanced courses) who, once again, focused only on the TAKS.
11th grade was a lot better. I had an overwhelming amount of GOOD teachers who challenged their students in a variety of ways.
What I've found from my personal experience is that even if there aren't mentally retarded students in the classroom, if the teacher doesn't care about actually teaching there will still be problems.
A final note about "equality" and fairness: At my high school's graduation there is traditionally special recognition for the top 10% students. They get their diplomas before everyone else. The administration wants to change that so other people won't feel "left out" and "less smart".
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I'm going to be a senior in high school next year and this is all definitely true.
I was homeschooled for the first few years of elementary, and my reading level was far ahead of everyone else when I started going to school. The first few years I went to a private school and everything was fine (the teacher was good, she cared about her students, and she actually taught us things), but when I transferred to a public school for fifth grade, things went down hill.
There was something in place that was supposed to help high achievers. It was called GATE, for Gifted and Talented Education. Clever, huh? The only problem is that you had to test for in in (I believe) third gradel, so I was shit out of luck. I was stuck with the rest of the other students who didn't really give a damn.
That problem followed for the first year of junior high. For the first year (at my school) they apparently see if you were GATE in elementary and, if you were, they enroll you in the high achievement classes for junior high, too. Since I wasn't in GATE, I was stuck in regular classes.
When 7th grade came around, I was finally put into "advanced" classes. This is all well and good, but if the teacher is still crap then there's no difference. I was "lucky" to even have two great teachers that year who taught well, cared about their students, and didn't just focus on test scores.
That brings me to test scores. The state I live in, Texas, has a mandatory state-wide test called the TAKS (I know other states have similar tests). I won't get into the many problems with the TAKS, though I assure you there are many. You just need to know that teachers are evaluated on how many of their students pass TAKS.
Surprisingly (for me), my teachers (besides the aforementioned two) focused on simply passing the TAKS! They didn't care about actually teaching us anything! These are teachers of the "advanced" classes, mind you.
Eighth grade was like that, but worse. I didn't have ANY good teachers. Instead, all my teachers focused on TAKS scores for the whole year. One of my teachers was actually bad as a human being as well as a teacher, for reasons I won't get into. But it was bad enough that my parents withdrew me from school early (I didn't miss anything!) and enrolled in a private school for the next year. It was actually the same one I attended in elementary.
Here comes the first year of high school. And at a Christian private school, no less (which wasn't fun for me). Most of the teachers there were awful, but I won't say too much about this because I'm sort of focusing on public schools. Let's just say ninth grade was bad enough that I was able to convince my parents to let me go to a public high school.
10th grade was a lot like a toned-down version of seventh grade. I had some great teachers, but I also had some terrible ones (all for advanced courses) who, once again, focused only on the TAKS.
11th grade was a lot better. I had an overwhelming amount of GOOD teachers who challenged their students in a variety of ways.
What I've found from my personal experience is that even if there aren't mentally retarded students in the classroom, if the teacher doesn't care about actually teaching there will still be problems.
A final note about "equality" and fairness: At my high school's graduation there is traditionally special recognition for the top 10% students. They get their diplomas before everyone else. The administration wants to change that so other people won't feel "left out" and "less smart".
(Who the hell actually reads all this?)
*Insert popular Slashdot meme here*