By Promoting Are We Hindering?
Just last week I talked to some adults about one of our students that had decided to run track rather than play baseball. This came as quite a shock to me as he was always a “baseball” player. One of the adults shared how this student was frustrated because he had been pulled up to varsity as a freshman, and, not being ready for the speed of the game at this new level, as the season progressed saw his number of errors rise and his playing time decrease. I feel for this student. I still remember being “brought up” to play basketball on varsity during my sophomore year. It was rough! But beyond sports, this got me thinking about the implications to our promoting students early in school, especially in the subject of mathematics. There are two situations I’ve seen a rise in lately that as a former math teacher give me cause for concern. The first situation is the trend to have students in middle school take Algebra and even sometimes Geometry. Now admittedly, there are some stu...