Chapter 8 of Reading, Writing, and Rising Up

Tracking is a hot topic both in Christensen's book and in education studies as a whole. English class or math class, tracking happens and there's no getting around it. Christensen makes some great observations in her chapter on tracking and how to deal with teaching "lower- tracked" students and how to teach mixed classes.

When one student said, "Schools are set up like beauty pageants - some of us were set up to fail. They way they treat us, they might as well say, 'you suck, get lost, get out of here.'" it broke my heart! Mostly because I understand and have seen what this student is talking about.

I've noticed lately, especially now that I'm out in the schools pre-interning, that it's not the negative comments that cut more often. Sure, there are teachers who are negative I'm sure, but more often there are teachers who are apathetic. Those apathetic folk who don't give praise or criticism are just as bad as teachers who tell students out loud that they are worthless. Not telling students anything at all, IS telling them they are worthless without saying it out loud.

Spoon-feeding students bits of information, nothing in-depth, is just like silently letting them know that anything more than that would be over their head and they wouldn't be able to handle it. No student fails if they are never given the opportunity to succeed, and I think Christensen recognizes this in this chapter.