> examples, etc. in the course of the year.  I could
 > never cover the topics in the 4th, 5th, or 6th grade
 > math books in a regular school year.
I have often wondered, both as a teacher and as a parent, if it would be 
possible to cover all those topics in the texts if we would do the following 
in our elementary schools:
    * Go back to homogenous groupings. This would allow the really bright 
kids to learn faster, and relieve them from boredom. My kids' school has this 
"to a degree": all the GATE (Gifted/Talented) kids are in the same classroom, 
and those that border it are usually in the same room as well. The 
slower-to-learn students would then not be forced to try to keep up with the 
brighter ones.  Now, most administrators in the US are led to believe that 
heterogenous groupings are better for kids because "the top students can help 
the lower students"....but do you really see that happening in today's 
schools? I don't.
    * Start using classroom time more responsibly. I am NOT (repeat NOT) 
blaming teachers for this. I blame administration, for the most part. In 
schools I have subbed in, I have been asked to take classroom time for 
non-educational purposes, and this *really* bugs me. One waste of time in my 
kids' school were "RAD Reading Assemblies". They would bring kids to the 
multi-purpose room once a month for 40+ minutes (plus the time it takes to 
get 32 kids there and back) just to say "congrats!" and "you did it!" This 
could be done a lot faster in the classroom, and an article in the newspaper 
gives recognition. Other pull outs are spirit assemblies (yes, in lower 
elementary school!), walk-a-thons, safety patrol, etc. How much time is lost 
to the classroom teacher for these things? Too much!
 > A child educated in Mexico, before the current packed
 > class levels occurred, would always be 1 to 1 1/2
 > years ahead of us when they transferred in a U.S.
 > school.
However, you forgot one thing, Carl. Some children *aren't* educated in 
Mexico. I taught in a community that got lots of immigrant children (legal 
and otherwise), and quite a few came to our school at age 8,9, etc., and had 
*never* been to school in Mexico. My mom, a retired teacher from Arizona, 
also taught in a community close to the Mexican border for 25 years and had 
the same problem. Many of the kids she got from Mexico had never seen the 
inside of a school, nor had they been educated at home (mostly because their 
parents were also illiterate).
                                 -donna
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