Quote:
Originally Posted by WilsonFourTwo
Sorry - but that's a pretty lame excuse.
I'll clarify a best practice for you, on behalf of parents, please feel free to share with coworkers:
"If the student is not ready to be promoted to the next grade level, don't allow it to happen"
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Actually, while it might not be written in law, teachers aren't allowed to hold back students these days. It comes down to funding - if a student is held back, the government has to pay for an extra year of their education, and they're refusing to do that, and instituted a policy that no student can be held back. This is the source of a lot of the problems in the education system IMO, since teachers have to spend a lot of time working with students who aren't functioning at anywhere close to their grade level, resulting in less time working with the rest of the class.
On the issue of being able to choose between different types of schools, such as arts schools, sports-oriented schools, etc. - I'm not actually convinced this is a good idea, particularly at the elementary school stage. While choice for parents sounds good, I think we should strive to get each child as well-rounded an education as possible so that they can choose which path they want to take in life when they're older, rather than their parents deciding early on they should be focusing on arts, science or whatever. At the high school level it might be a bit different, when kids can start to decide on their own path.
I'm also not keen on private schools based on particular religions - I think exposing kids to a range of ideas and beliefs is important and religious education should be kept at home. Maybe it is a result of me being a bit of a children's rights advocate; my view is that the long-term good of the child (including being able to make his/her own mind up about what to believe after being exposed to a variety of ideas and being taught to think critically) outweighs the parents' desire to have their kids kept in an environment where they are indoctrinated in a particular world view.