Oh the joys of the new school year!
Despite a good first two days of school, there were many tears this morning. Andrew put his finger on what's going on. Every year, a kid like Joel has to think about what will or might happen when he is 'found out' by his teacher and new classmates. Will he get laughed at when people discover that he can't read that well? Will everyone think he's stupid? Will he get put in the bottom group for everything?
Today things were compounded by the fact that he has swimming. Joel swims well. But he has a broken toe (no plaster or bandage or anything and it doesn't make him limp - it just hurts!) which slows him down. He can't kick properly at the moment. So he's worried about also being thought a bad swimmer.
Who'd be a kid again?
I think it is very complex and thus we cop it at home, this will be me in a week!
ReplyDeleteI strongly disagree with streaming kids (i.e. putting them into obvious ability groups)in the classroom. They even stream across year levels at my children's school - which means that a year six child can end up in a group with year three students. As a supply teacher I have had many occasions where a child has told me, "I'm in the dumb group" or " I'm in the top/best reading/maths group" - and educators are left wondering why kids' progress is slow and motivation is low.
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