dkotschessaa said:
Actually it is worse than this. Teachers are strongly discouraged from failing students no matter how bad they are doing.
When I went through they had zero problems in doing just that, as well as diagnosing the reason why way beyond their competence level.
What happened in my time is if you failed you got shoved in the no-hoper's lot.
I well remember, because I was disengaged from English, I failed it. But because I was engaged did well in math and science. This came to a head in grade 10 when I was asked to write a humorous story. I based it on an award winning story about a giant radio and remember the words I used, straight from the actual story, it had variable capacitors like bread slicers - knowing what a variable capacitor looks like knew it was quite humorous. Well it went down with my English teacher not so well. To cut a long story short they wanted to put me in the no-hoper's lot or go to a special remedial school. My math and science teachers rebelled knowing I was better than this. They even sent me to a guidance counselor who asked me to read a passage from something or another - I did - she said their is definite eye movement then said that's all - it turned out later she was in the group that wanted to send me to a remedial school - amazing. Well my parents were called in and told I was dyslexic or had some other learning difficulty and needed special education - they were shocked - they knew I read all the time - but technical stuff - not literature. I had even taught myself calculus. If I had trouble reading I could not have done that. Finally my parents took me to our family doctor who it just happened was moving on to be a psychiatrist and had just finished his training. He put me through a battery of tests and wrote a letter saying, basically, you have zero idea what you were talking about - Bill is just disengaged from literature and stuff you did in English class. Engage him more.
Well I remember their engagement. We were reading Animal Farm and I was asked for my take on the ending where the horses led the revolt against the pigs. I said maybe the horses will go the same way as the pigs. Well the teacher gave me an open filthy look and dismissed what I said out of hand. My engagement levels dropped to zero.
That was in grade 10 - I failed it in 11 and 12 but couldn't care less. To this day I think English is a pile of the proverbial although I now read a wide range of books - not just technical ones - I particularly like autobiographies. Also equally strangely I liked English at uni where two subjects were compulsory - written communication and oral communication but it was a much more open environment than high school and you were given a lot more freedom in what you read and wrote.
I nearly puked when the current Premier of where I live in Queensland said English will now be a compulsory subject in 11 and 12 because of its vital importance. Based on my experience the teaching quality needs to improve dramatically. But then again my experience was 50 years ago so heaven knows what its like today - hopefully a lot better.
What I don't understand is this idea you can specify what a young adult must study. Templestowe college that I gave a link to previously has a foundation year where you must demonstrate basic competence in English, math, science etc. You are not promoted from that year until you do, even if it takes two or more years - most do it in one. Then you study what you feel like.
They then base university entrance on teachers recommendations and a portfolio of what you have done:
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/school-dumps-cutthroat-vce-ranking-20160226-gn4gk0.html
You go when you are ready. Its a much more rational approach IMHO.
Thanks
Bill