How The Other Half Learns“The most common objection to charter schools and publicly financed charter school initiatives is that schools of choice ‘siphon resources away’ from traditional public schools. One such ‘resource’ is engaged and invested parents.”
And, one might add, engaged and invested students. Every classroom culture is shaped not just by teachers and building administration, but by the students in the classroom. Students can have a huge effect on the tone of the classroom–is there a steady pressure to achieve, or is acting smart just not cool? Particularly in high school, students learn about peer effects, about how to lead and how to elevate leaders. .
Most of us have stories. I learned to play trombone in high school in large part from trying to keep pace with the upperclassman who was my section leader. For four years, everyone in my core classes chased the two most intelligent, hardworking women in our grade. As a high school teacher, I saw the same effect over and over again.
But what if those leaders aren’t there? I’ve taught those classes, too. You make your best pitch and the students look around and conclude that nobody else is working all that hard, so they’ll just take it easy, too. It is a huge challenge to light a fire under a room full ofWhen stronger, more committed students leave a school, they leave that school with a bit less student leadership, a bit less positive peer effect.
This is a tension that’s almost impossible to resolve. It is hard to argue that a strong student’s family should keep her in the public school to serve a greater good, yet it seems clear that should she go to a charter, a private school, even a magnet or home school, there is a cost to the students who stay. It’s a personal choice, but it has more than personal consequences, and they are hard to discuss in an age in which we have lost the language of civic obligation.
Again, forcing the bright students to lift up the strugglers. Should be developing the brightest according to their talents and inclinations, not holding them back. DavidsonGifted
Yes! We are leaders and the best leaders know how to empower others. Students are a valuable resource to have in the classroom
I believe ...students are more clever than teachers also..New generation has more capability to adapt.
I suppose it was only a matter of time before the adults ran away completely and the children themselves were obliquely blamed for their learning achievements.