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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grainne who wrote (17920)	3/7/1998 9:45:00 AM
From: Rambi	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

My opinion: If a child is incapable of passing an elementary grade within a two year span, then his problems are too severe for him to remain in the regular classroom. Intensive evaluation for specific needs and solutions should be implemented for every child who is held back. Unfortunately, children whose problems seem relatively minor are frequently ignored and promoted until their cumulative effect results in failure. We spend phenomenal amounts of money on special programs for every type of handicap and challenge, many of which provide no more than babysitting provisions, a break for overwhelmed parents. One of the reasons I went back to graduate school a few years ago in Ed. Psych. was because I felt that the gifted child was being slighted in the incredible emphasis to meet needs that I'm not convinced should even fall within the province of the educational system. I made it through one semester before I became disillusioned and discouraged and decided that the public school system philosophy was so far from my own, that I would be miserable in it. I totally agree with you about greatly disparate ages in one class being a problem. By middle school, even children in the same age range are physically at very different levels and the incidence of bullying, teasing and outright cruelty rises dramatically. We have a cookie cutter mentality about education which results in making sure that every child "succeeds" and "feels good" about himself regardless of the realities of his or her capabilities. You have made a couple of allusions to my "oft-voiced feelings about self-esteem" and I'm not clear what you think these are. It is the overuse of the term and the distortion of what I believe true self-esteem means to which I object, not the development of self-respect in a child, which is very important. We do no child a service when self-esteem is really self-delusion.