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thoughts on school
Dec. 7th, 2010 01:13 pmCompetence is not a straight line.
I have no particular reason to post about this right now. But it's something I've thought about a lot before, and it's in my head today, so...
My first primary school seemed to think that competence was a point. (Which they were wrong about, by the way.)
They had a list of Stuff That Grade 2 Kids Can Do, and they assumed that all the kids in Grade 2 were at the same level. Hence my mother having to fight tooth and nail to get them to realise that WE COULD ALREADY READ. NO REALLY. STOP TRYING TO TEACH MY KIDS THE ALPHABET, AND LET THEM READ NOVELS.
My second school was much better: they thought that competence was a line. (Which was an improvement over school 1 - but they were still wrong.)
In the middle of the line are all the average kids, who are at the standard level for their age group.
On one end are the stupid kids, who need remedial help.
On the other end are the clever kids, who need extension activities.
I was a clever kid. I needed extension activities. And my school, being helpful, provided me with plenty of extension activities, extra-tricky maths, extra-awesome reading, and so forth.
What they didn't realise was that I needed remedial help.
I was a clever kid. I was at the top end of the line; clearly I couldn't be at the bottom end too.
So very logical. So very blind.
This is how I got through 13 years of school without a single teacher realising that I didn't know how to do homework, or how to do assignments, or how to study. Not one teacher realised that competency is not a straight line, and that it is perfectly possible to be very very clever and also in desperate need of remedial help.
I'm still rather annoyed about that.
I have no particular reason to post about this right now. But it's something I've thought about a lot before, and it's in my head today, so...
My first primary school seemed to think that competence was a point. (Which they were wrong about, by the way.)
They had a list of Stuff That Grade 2 Kids Can Do, and they assumed that all the kids in Grade 2 were at the same level. Hence my mother having to fight tooth and nail to get them to realise that WE COULD ALREADY READ. NO REALLY. STOP TRYING TO TEACH MY KIDS THE ALPHABET, AND LET THEM READ NOVELS.
My second school was much better: they thought that competence was a line. (Which was an improvement over school 1 - but they were still wrong.)
In the middle of the line are all the average kids, who are at the standard level for their age group.
On one end are the stupid kids, who need remedial help.
On the other end are the clever kids, who need extension activities.
I was a clever kid. I needed extension activities. And my school, being helpful, provided me with plenty of extension activities, extra-tricky maths, extra-awesome reading, and so forth.
What they didn't realise was that I needed remedial help.
I was a clever kid. I was at the top end of the line; clearly I couldn't be at the bottom end too.
So very logical. So very blind.
This is how I got through 13 years of school without a single teacher realising that I didn't know how to do homework, or how to do assignments, or how to study. Not one teacher realised that competency is not a straight line, and that it is perfectly possible to be very very clever and also in desperate need of remedial help.
I'm still rather annoyed about that.