Talking Points #6

Author:
Tracking: Why Schools Need to Take Another Route

Author's Argument:
Jeanine Oakes argues that students should not be grouped together according to learning abilities or physical capabilities. If disadvantages students are placed separately from the advantaged students then when confronted by one another, awkwardness and ignorance will come into play...

Quote #1:
"...tracking leads to substantial differences in the day-today learning experiences students have at school."
One thing is for sure, if students are grouped according to abilities and disabilities then obviously the students whom are disabled will have a less "rich" schooling experience. This means that because I was in a wheelchair I would be placed with students that might be autistic or students with down syndrome just because my legs do not work... That means if my teacher could not handle all his or her students, I would miss out on my academics because she or he was busy disciplining the students.

Quote #2:
"In low- abilities classes, for example, teachers seem to be less encouraging and more punitive, placing more emphasis on discipline and behavior and less on academic learning."
I just finished saying how teachers in a "low-ability" classes focus more on disciplining their children rather than teaching them about let us say... math, proper English and so on and so forth. Teachers in a "high-ability" classroom will focus more on their students performance academic wise. How well their students are doing academically.
Quote #3:
"If students of all abilities are to benefit from being taught together, classrooms will probably need to be organized far differently, providing a diversity of tasks of interactions with few "public" comparisons of students' ability."
This is not entirely true. The only thing that might need to be altered is the pace that the teacher teaches. Math can still be taught regularly so can English and Science and what not.

Questions/Comments:
Tracking is ridiculous. I totally agree with Oakes on this. However, this is also like is the segregation does not stop the smart will continue to get smarter and the less educated will remain less educated... Good one!