How do people feel about teaching kids beyond school

The challenge of a class is not an issue. AP classes are really not that more advanced. The difference is the coddling of the students and the expectations.

The general trouble with our education system is that we place the students on a bell curve, generally speaking. A goal is set and everyone is expected to meet that goal at the pace provided, which is usually based on an annual expectation.
We should do away with the grade, middle and high school. We should do away with annual promotions. There should be a knowledge expectation of the basic subjects, such as math, read and writing, with each subject broken up in small 4-8 week advancement levels. If a student fails one, they repeat it until they get it right, even if they are 14 and hanging out with 8 year olds. As the student completes the "credits", they start to expand on their strengths and branching out in their interests.

 

I agree with your second paragraph but your first statement is flat out wrong.

I was in "regular" courses in my freshman year in HS. I had a class where the exams were to copy a page word for word from the textbook. You may be a bit older but the gap between the basic, regular, and AP course rigor is significant and increasing. My wife's a teacher and the curriculum isn't even similar between the different levels. A lot of the kids outside of AP are learning absolutely nothing.

What I'm getting at is - there will always be people who perform poorly, average, and excel in any given group. If standards were higher across the board students would adjust. There may be other adjustments to make but that one step would better prepare students for adult life.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06565zm

Found this interesting...the results were pretty shocking.

In a unique experiment, five teachers from China take over the education of fifty teenagers in a Hampshire school to see whether the high-ranking Chinese education system can teach us a lesson.

 

Are you an idiot or are you trolling me?

 

Agreed, when I was in high school the difference between AP and regular classes were night and day.

 

I am not stating that there is very little difference between AP and regular, just that AP is not really advanced. Regular was more like remedial and AP was on par for what I would expect an average student to pass.

 

Those taught by the Chinese beat the regulars by a wide margin (at least 25% points in all categories...even greater margin for their English grades.)

The British teachers were stupefied & embarrassed when the results were read...they had been mocking the Chinese teachers' techniques all semester "Rote copying & memorisation crap" "Ridiculous to attempt to teach that big a class size" "Not engaging students as individuals...tsk tsk tsk"

Ended up with egg on their face.

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