Should we encourage/enforce competition? I say yes. I'm just looking at how much of current public school system would have to change and my excitement at the idea dwindles.
Yes, "Billy" is smart because he's always been smart, so he should get A's just for doing the required amount of work. It doesn't matter if it was just standard, he did it all.
I have had more talks with parents about how yes your son/daughter did all the work, but they did it half-assed, so they got a C on the project. An A is supposed to be "exceeds expectations". More students who get A's should, in reality (or my opinion), get C's, but that is our current educational system!
I'm going to attempt to be as brief as possible with this one. If you want to discuss education in depth, livejournal replies aren't where you do it. ;-)
In our current system, we cannot grade kids on a standard bell curve - you get an A if you meet A criteria, regardless of what you or the class are capable of. The primary reason for this is that the rest of the system depends on those grades meaning something. If you attend a high school with bell curve grades, you could be an incredibly bright, hard-working student and come away with a B average. B's won't get you into Harvard.
I'm not saying where I would weigh in if we had a perfect system, but I do know bell curves can't work in our current system.
I always thought that the Bell curve was more for the benefit of the teachers than anything else. I noticed that teachers here at the community college either use them because they don't have an accurate gage of their own teaching ability or they doubt the students intelligence. At least here at the community college. ...... I'll shut up now.
I think collaboration is more appropriate than competition, because that's the way the world of work is shifting. You work on some project with a group of people, not by yourself.
That said, I really think we need to pick one. Either every child is valuable and talented in some way, or some of you are more valuable than others, the end, get used to it ya whiners. Remember being small and one minute the teacher is talking about multiple intelligences and how everyone has something to contribute, and the next you're playing a competitive game where the winner gets a prize and everyone else is a LOSER? I sure do. Let's just have our education one way or the other. The split personality thing is weird.
I'm not sure that would be the best idea. Competition, does drive many to excel and I would hate to see the children that benefit from such a structure be denied the opportunity. Depending on the learning style, many people learn better in a group and they shouldn't be excluded from their best method of learning. Yes, people often work in groups but there is still plenty of reasons to aim to display individual merit. How else would one legitimately aim for a promotion than to go out of their way to display their merits through striving for success. As long as it doesn't involve foul play or focus on the differences between the winners an losers (obviously the word user would not be used), I don't see anything wrong with some healthy competition.
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I'm just looking at how much of current public school system would have to change and my excitement at the idea dwindles.
Yes, "Billy" is smart because he's always been smart, so he should get A's just for doing the required amount of work. It doesn't matter if it was just standard, he did it all.
I have had more talks with parents about how yes your son/daughter did all the work, but they did it half-assed, so they got a C on the project. An A is supposed to be "exceeds expectations". More students who get A's should, in reality (or my opinion), get C's, but that is our current educational system!
Woot! I'm so glad to be a teacher right now :/
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In our current system, we cannot grade kids on a standard bell curve - you get an A if you meet A criteria, regardless of what you or the class are capable of. The primary reason for this is that the rest of the system depends on those grades meaning something. If you attend a high school with bell curve grades, you could be an incredibly bright, hard-working student and come away with a B average. B's won't get you into Harvard.
I'm not saying where I would weigh in if we had a perfect system, but I do know bell curves can't work in our current system.
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That said, I really think we need to pick one. Either every child is valuable and talented in some way, or some of you are more valuable than others, the end, get used to it ya whiners. Remember being small and one minute the teacher is talking about multiple intelligences and how everyone has something to contribute, and the next you're playing a competitive game where the winner gets a prize and everyone else is a LOSER? I sure do. Let's just have our education one way or the other. The split personality thing is weird.
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I'm not sure that would be the best idea. Competition, does drive many to excel and I would hate to see the children that benefit from such a structure be denied the opportunity. Depending on the learning style, many people learn better in a group and they shouldn't be excluded from their best method of learning. Yes, people often work in groups but there is still plenty of reasons to aim to display individual merit. How else would one legitimately aim for a promotion than to go out of their way to display their merits through striving for success. As long as it doesn't involve foul play or focus on the differences between the winners an losers (obviously the word user would not be used), I don't see anything wrong with some healthy competition.
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