My Thoughts on the Current State of Education

**This post originally written September 4, 2014**

This is going to be a wildly unpopular post, but I feel strongly this message needs to be said.  The education system in this country as it currently stands is terribly broken.  The bigger problem, however, is that nobody agrees on how best to fix it.

When I was a child, the kids in each grade were separated into smaller groups according to their innate abilities.  Those who struggled more were put in one group for reading and math.  There was another group who was considered "on grade," a third group who was about 1/2 a year "ahead," and a fourth group who were considered "advanced."  In my school, I was in all of the advanced groups but most of my closest friends....the ones I chose to play with and eat lunch with and sat next to in specials....were in the remedial groups.  I don't ever remember thinking they were stupid.  On the contrary, they were incredibly smart...they just struggled with learning certain things.  Overall, however, when I look at those friends today, they show the hallmarks of having had a good education.  They are literate.  They have good jobs.  They are making a difference in society (moreso than I am).  They have basic problem-solving skills.  And they work well in teams.

In contrast, I look at the majority of the kids entering college these days and they are woefully underprepared.  I believe this goes back to the earliest levels of education and how the system is broken.  Now, a student in any grade isn't grouped according to his or her innate abilities to learn.  Everyone is supposed to be the same.  I've heard this is because of several studies which supposedly proved that kids who are struggling at the bottom of the class do better on assessments when they're educated along side their peers for whom learning comes more easily. This has coincided with the mainstreaming of kids in special education.  What I've seen anecdotally is that this approach is failing dismally.

I have a unique perspective in that I have a child who has special needs yet is intelligent and when in the right atmosphere, learns quickly.   Here's the problem in our particular circumstance:

My son is autistic.  He struggles in large groups.  He gets easily excited and OVERexcited. Circle time (which is kind of a hallmark of traditional early learning) is torture for him.  Emotionally, he's immature compared to his peers.  Intellectually, however, he is years ahead.  He taught himself how to read before he could even communicate effectively.  He understands basic concepts quickly and is a sponge wanting to learn more advanced information.  In the current system, he is mainstreamed in Kindergarten and here's the problem with that.  The system is set up for him to fail.  And when he fails, he drags the other kids in his class down into his emotional hurricane.

Imagine being expected to learn in the middle of a rock concert.  That's essentially what a regular classroom is like for my son.  Now, take a child who is eager to learn and is naturally curious, stick them in that rock concert, and then drill them over and over and OVER on the same information they've been "taught" for the last three years.  Information that they already knew before coming to this hell.  What do you think is going to happen...particularly to a child who is emotionally immature for a 5-year-old?  Behavior problems.  Sometimes to escape the chaos.  Sometimes to escape the boredom.  In my son's case, I mean escape in the literal sense. 

Sunshine has been in Kindergarten for a total of 6 days now and in that time he has run out of his class a minimum of 3 times.  Each time his teacher has to stop what she's doing to chase after him.  This means disrupting another teacher to watch over her class while she does so.  Not only is this disruptive to two entire classes, but I fail to see how this is benefiting my child either.  You have a kid who has trouble regulating his emotions, put him in a stressful situation, and when he struggles or fails he gets to do so in front of all of his peers.  This adds to his stress.  I'm already seeing signs of depression in my Kindergartener.  How is this the best course of action for him?  For the others?

I have more, but Mommy duties call.  Until next time....