Tracking is, IMO, one of those things that can be used for the great benefit of children, but is more often used, advertently or inadvertently, to their detriment. The basic problem is that our educational system only values a limited subset of skills and abilities in a limited structure, so that those children who "fit in" are rewarded and those who don't are penalized. The whole educational establishment is self-selecting for teachers who are verbal learners, so that rather than having a cross section of intelligences represented in the schools, for the most part anybody who isn't a verbal (or, to some extent, mathematical) learner is sifted out of the process and never makes it into the classroom, however good a teacher they would be. The result is that students who are also verbal learners are tracked as "good" students, and those who are non-verbal are tracked as "bad" learners.
This isn't anything evil; it's just that many teachers approve of students who learn from that teacher's teaching style, and consider students who can't to be somehow deficient. |
