What kind of students falls on the top priority list when teachers plan for teaching? What is our primary goal for teaching students? In the highest priority, do we want to produce the high-caliber super smart students, attend to the needs of the majority average students, or help the slower students to catch up or keep up with the majority students?
If you are a teacher, with limited time and resources to support 20 some children in your class, would you first attend to the needs of the slower students, the average majority, or the smart ones? That is a good question.
Anyway, teaching in general is quite different from the training imposed on a football team, where coaches intend to develop the best players to perform highly to win. In education, there is a mission to serve all students with the free and appropriate public education (FAPE). By mentioning the word “appropriate”, the general public education really focuses on the average education. Although some teachers like to pick their favorite students to teach or tend to be ambitious to develop the top best students, the teachers’ priority should be the majority average students.
Although American schools spends plenty of funds and resources to help students with special needs to receive adequately needed education, there is a very clear rule to guide the process about being “appropriate.” To illustrate this, let’s examine the case of Amy Rowley.
Amy Rowley was a deaf student in New York. When she began first grade, she was able to perform above average. Her parents would hope to maximize her potential to achieve higher and asked the school to provide a qualified sign-language interpreter in her classes. The school refused on the grounds that Amy was achieving “educationally, academically, and socially” without such assistance. Amy’s parents appealed to the U.S. District Court and the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court denied Amy Rowley’s parents’ request for a sign-language interpreter. The Court determined that Amy was receiving an “adequate” education, with personalized instruction and related services that met her educational needs.
This is the reality,if parents want their child to be outstanding, they may have to invest and maybe pay for the development out of their own pocket. Another choice might be the private schools.
