Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Children as teachers in public education?

My DD has been both used as a teacher's aide and been in a full inclusion classroom with kids who had more serious issues. She loved it and got something out of it. A child who never spoke started speaking with DD, and both girls benefited from the relationship.

My complaint is that this went at the expense of my child having some time during the school day to be taught to her own level. Academically advanced kids also need to be challenged to their level academically to develop appropriately. Little children also shouldn't be used as a teacher's aide for a child with impulsive physical issues, such as the more severely autistic boy in her class that lunged at his classmates...as it is the job of the adult aide to keep all the children safe and protected.

The problem of this model, like many things, is that it strays from the theory and when not implemented properly, some team members benefit while others lose.

I wonder how I feel about this practice. I know it's the most common. I don't think I mind my son volunteering for part of the school day but I don't want that to be his only accommodation for being advanced. Some thoughts I entertain are actually sending work to school with him to keep him busy learning in his seat once he's finished the classwork. If he has enough time to teach another reading group then he has enough time to sit with another class and learn how to do classwork for part of the day too then I would be ok with that. Ideally I would want him to have to sit and pay attention during the day like the other kids if I had my druthers.

I think that my DD9 would love it if she got to do this. She would probably be thrilled to run the entire classroom by herself.

I should probably wait and see what it's like when ds 4.6 starts school. A few people have said, "he'll be teaching the class by the time he starts school." I remember doing just that when I was in school so I think it's more than just a compliment. I was partially homeschooled when I was a kid. I've noticed a few people here say they're considering it for next year. I plan on "letting" him go to school as long as he behaves himself and as long as he likes going. That's fine I'm all for the right to homeschool but I know the three I've seen say so would rather send their kid to school to get an education. They can socialize and be taught new stuff at the same time.

I'm with bzylzy. My DD10 loves to help her classmates in math. I think it helps her solidify her skills....you really need to understand something to teach it to a 4th grader!

But she gets no math instruction at her own level. At school that is. I'm doing math with her at home. On the bright side, her (team) teachers do realize they are not challenging her and she is not required to do the work the other kids do. She does that work when she wants a review and does the work from home the rest of the time. She keeps a math log for them as a way of being accountable.

The teachers wanted to send her to the 5th grade teacher for math, but the principal believes that you can challenge a kid by going deeper. I pointed out to him that that's what 5th grade math IS, 4th grade math, only deeper. Fell on deaf ears.

I would ask him for examples. "Can you please give me an example of "deeper" methods in fourth grade math?

Failing that, maybe the 4th grade teachers could start giving her 5th grade stuff.

I'm not sure where I fall on this issue, probably a little on both sides. (Although these discussions always make me thankful for our school district, which has its faults but also tries to do right.)

I do think there's something to be said that teaching someone else skills can truly solidify your own skills. You have to understand something completely and thoroughly to be able to teach it, IMO. So I see the benefit, but not at the cost of not having equal time being taught new skills, which can clearly be the negative side effect of this type of grouping.

I'm happy to say that our principal recently brought up (at a parent forum, no less) the reality that it's the most advanced kids that are making the least progress each year. And that he, and the school district as a whole, are working on fixing that. That the gifted kids shouldn't be short-changed just because they achieve "Advanced" on the tests. We'll see how that plays out, given that our gifted support program is really a pull-out enrichment program with no acceleration piece to it. But, I do think his comments were one of the reasons that the math specialist no longer only works with low-skill kids but also has pull-outs for the high-achieving kids as well.

As someone who was forced to teach other kids but never taught HOW to teach the other kids, I'm concerned that this is more of a form of babysitting. I used to get fed up with the other kids and tell them the answers because our brains just didn't work the same way. I didn't understand until much later in life that some people need every single step spelled out for them and that they often had no idea what I was talking about.

My DD9's school use this as a method of stretching her (with our agreement) and it is working really well.

However it is not all the time (once a week at the moment) and she has one to one time with the teacher to discuss what she wants to teach the class, how she will approach it, what her plans are for particular children in her class with learning difficulties etc.. The teacher is obviously present at the back throughout the lesson, then they debrief after on how it went.

It makes DD think about things in more depth and have better appreciation and understanding of how her peers think.

The other kids also like it as she puts lots of effort into being creative (and often lessons seem to involve chocolate!) and sometimes it is easier for them to understand something from someone who has only recently learnt about it themselves, plus they will ask her in the playground to teach them more!

Admittedly she does not learn much more about the particular topic, but she learns an awful lot about people and communication and the process of learning itself which I feel is more valuable to her.

G

My DD was asked to do this in kindergarten and it was not a big success.

One particular concern I have with this is that I think it is often tried with gifted girls, on the theory that they like to "help." Here we go, reinforcing that that is the way girls are supposed to be (pat on the head, what a good girl) and meanwhile, their own intellectual gifts can go ahead and wither on the vine. Or, alternatively, if they are NOT good at it, as DD was not (she is not the mother hen type), then there may be an unsaid, but still present message of "What is your problem that you don't know how to do this thing? Why CAN'T you mother-hen like a good girl should?"

It's true that teaching others is a great way to reinforce skills. However, there are other ways to have them do this. I am very interested in closing the education gap, but this particular method is a little too much social engineering for me.