Reply to FFX vs Arlington County Schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]To the Arlington parents who are so opposed to Fairfax, what do you think of AAP classes, honors classes, etc? Is differentiation only allowed at the high school level or do you just prefer that kids be taught at different levels in their own classroom? Not sure what your concern is with Fairfax.[/quote]

I do think that differentiation is more appropriate at the high school level. I think differences in children's maturity levels and preparedness are much broader in the early years, and elementary school teachers are accustomed to dealing with a broad range of skills and abilities in their classrooms. Also, children change and grow--an unexceptional 6-year-old can catch up to her peers, while very precocious 8-year-olds can turn out to be just garden variety snowflakes by age 12.

But really my concern is this: in a world of scarce resources, I would rather see special education funding devoted to children who really NEED special services because they can't be adequately served in a regular classroom. This means truly gifted children and children with learning problems, not your typical smart cookie. And if we are not talking about children who need special services (which we decidedly are not when it comes to FCPS AAP), then what we are talking about is special services that can probably be great for kids at all levels, so why save them only for the smart cookies? Why not share that wealth with the kids of more average intelligence? And if the AAP special services are really just more work, more homework, moving faster, then I admit that I don't really see the benefit of that, either. But then, I have never seen a study that shows any long-term benefit of elementary school homework.

I cannot see the real, long-term benefit of separating the smart cookies from the average cookies, and I think doing so may be do the average and below-average cookies a grave disservice. I think the real, measurable benefits for the smart cookies are far smaller than the potential costs for the others.[/quote]

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