Speaking as an elementary teacher...
When you have classes this large, with students at various levels, something has to give. It's not unusual to have students' ability levels span 3 or 4 years. I might have a 1st grade class with some students on a K reading level, and others on a 3rd grade reading level. The math levels don't seem to have a range quite as large, but again a 3 year span would not be at all unusual. Now let's make it more challenging - throw in some kids with LDs and a gifted kid or two. It gets really difficult to plan engaging lessons to meet the academic needs of all these kids. I mean sure, I can run off some different worksheets, but I'm talking about planning deep lessons that have excitement and challenge for each kid.
But this is only looking at the academic aspect. What about the social-emotional needs of 30 students? I've got students who are painfully introverted, students who are ridicuously outgoing, students who are being bullied, students who are bullying, students who are shuffled between various homes due to divorce, probably at least one student who is neglected or abused, and likely a student or two coming to terms with an LD diagnosis. This is the stuff that keeps you up at night. How can I help Sarah make friends? How can I convince Jack that he really is smart? How can I get Henry's divorced parents to stop fighting and get him an evaluation for dyslexia? Should I call DHS for Sally?
There's no teacher that can do it all for this many kids. At least not in the average American classroom. Maybe if you could hand-pick the kids so there are no outliers... but outliers by what measure? Academic? Social? Emotional? Family situations? It's impossible. And frankly, I wouldn't want to teach in a school like that. It would be terribly boring if all kids were round pegs.
If you've made it this far, please forgive my disjointed rantings!
