This is one of those issues that I can't understand the opposing argument. It's just an issue I find so objectionable that I cannot understand why anyone would be imposing this. Literally holding kids back.
The only defense I hear is that kids don't really benefit from advanced classes and they'll be fine anyway. But gifted children will not necessarily be fine. Most of the smartest people I know struggled in school just, but most were fortunately saved by advanced placement classes that put them in classes where they can learn at a faster pace than the rest of the children. Were they forced to stay in what to them amounted to remedial classes, they would grow to resent education and actually underperform.
The utter disregard the people pushing these policies have for children is appalling. Hopefully this is just a weird time in our countries history where that we'll look back on and think how absurd the policies were.
In what I'm sure is a complete coincidence, the proportion of "very intelligent" or "disharmonic intelligence profile" or "savant syndrome" kids in youth services/youth care has gone up significantly. They now outnumber kids that committed crimes.
They're replacing advanced placement classes ... with straightjackets.
The argument is that African American students perform poorly in these subjects on average, and it impacts their grades and thus impacts their college admissions.
So the only way to even the playing field is to eliminate difficult subjects in high school, so that everyone gets near-perfect grades.
And that's a completely racist argument. The irony in the people pushing these ideas is astounding. They've basically taken an easy political out and instead of doing the hard work and realizing that African Americans can meet the same standards they've basically just said "nah they're too stupid so we'll lower our standards to make their grades look better."
This is absolutely what will happen. The state is forcing people to teach their kids at home and the children who don't have that support structure are going to get left behind. It almost seems like it will become common for students to skip grades.
It would be great if skipping grades became more commonly acceptable, especially for the sake of children whose parents don’t have the wherewithal to get them advanced instruction (either through own knowledge or money). I would have liked to skip a grade in elementary or middle school, but instead ended up in the back with an algebra book - from which I taught myself the parts I was interested in, but glossed over the parts I didn’t like. If I’d been able to skip a grade, I would have been forced to sit through all of it, and that would have been a good thing.
Are there still public summer school programs for gifted students on advanced topics? There were in my day. And I assume those programs nowadays would teach students how to use online resources to advance even farther in math in their spare time than the summer school. Maybe extend those options to a broader range of students.
Yeah, home schooling may also get a big boost, with a stronger use of online resources that allow students to advance at their own pace. Maybe partial home schooling for math and science?
Motivated gifted kids with access to the Internet at home, and a stable home environment, aren’t going to have a problem. But they will need to pick up the ball that the public schools will be dropping. Gifted students in public schools are used to working around those sorts of issues.
Skipping grades would be problematic in my experience. Socialization and broadened perspectives have to be gotten somehow. Crash-and-burns are pretty common.
> You're not supposed to understand "the opposing argument", because it's fake. The real goal of this change is to increase the gap between kids whose family situation will give them an opportunity to learn actual math before college, and those whose family situation will keep them permanently locked out of college. This will ensure that the demographics of the next generation are even more skewed toward social instability and opportunities to replace "the current system".
There's no evidence of conspiracy and the history of public education is filled with fads, manias, and ill-conceived attempts at reform. Why would this be any different?
This is a weird ass conspiracy theory. Non-woke people have had no difficulty in immiserating black people and dismantling public education, and it hasn't somehow sabotaged them politically.
edit: No, this is definitely a thing where you think a shady globalist cabal is trying to overthrow/takeover the government to put you into a concentration camp.
Please don't take HN threads further into flamewar, regardless of how wrong or provocative another comment is or you feel it is. And please don't use HN for ideological battle in your own right. That's not what this site is for, and it destroys what it is for.
I don't know about 'woke' but when people make generic comments like "you're not supposed to understand" and "the real goal is", followed by something dark and sinister, you're certainly not contributing substantively to the thread. That is flamebait and therefore off topic here.
Edit: since your account has unfortunately been using HN primarily for ideological battle, and you've ignored our many requests to stop, I've banned it. That's not allowed here, regardless of what you're battling for, because it destroys what this site is supposed to be for.* If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. But please don't create accounts to break HN's rules with.
* HN is supposed to be for curious conversation, not smiting enemies.
Everything except the first sentence is "woke". You're literally suggesting the people who are doing this are doing it to perpetuate (professional/technical) class;'
"The real goal of this change is to increase the gap between kids whose family situation will give them an opportunity to learn actual math before college, and those whose family situation will keep them permanently locked out of college"
The alternative is that the people doing it are complete imbeciles. Which is it? Do you think they're so mentally deficient they don't understand what they're doing? Or are they doing it for a malevolent reason?
I happen to think it's the latter. It may just be as simple as wanting to stay in office or to bump their numbers up and appear to be doing more than they are. I refuse believe there are this many clueless individuals in high ranking positions.
The only defense I hear is that kids don't really benefit from advanced classes and they'll be fine anyway. But gifted children will not necessarily be fine. Most of the smartest people I know struggled in school just, but most were fortunately saved by advanced placement classes that put them in classes where they can learn at a faster pace than the rest of the children. Were they forced to stay in what to them amounted to remedial classes, they would grow to resent education and actually underperform.
The utter disregard the people pushing these policies have for children is appalling. Hopefully this is just a weird time in our countries history where that we'll look back on and think how absurd the policies were.