Why do some children struggle in school?
Yes, I know this is vague. I’d just like a variety of reasons that children (specifically young children – pre-highschool) might have trouble getting decent or passing grades.
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31 Answers
Our educational system caters to the lowest common denominator and, as such, it doesn’t meet the needs of all children. Secondly, our educational system isn’t mostly concerned with children as it’s mostly concerned with results and how the school can get funding.
Some are genuinely intellectually incapable of grasping the material. This is more common in the early years since not all of us develop at the same rate; just because I could read at age 3, that doesn’t mean that those who don’t learn until they are 6 are stupid.
Some are dyslexic.
Some are inattentive.
Some have bad teachers. I’ve had a couple of those before.
There are other reasons, but those are merely the first ones to come to mind.
Sometimes (I have no idea how common this is), the expectations are actually too high (like English teachers needing an essay to be publishable before handing out an A), so there’s a whole ‘demanding they run before their taught to crawl’ thing.
Or, expectations being set too low, and punishing those who do well. Like giving those who use more complicated sentence structures and writing styles failing grades because they didn’t show they could use the more rudimentary structures and styles.
Mostly these days I think it is because of laziness and a lack of motivation.
Parents are involved in collecting the American dream… They work themselves to death, they are stressed out and the economy sucks and it reflects in the way the child reacts.
If they are unmotivated I would say that the culprit is electronic babysitting devices?
Nothing makes a kid less interested in actually doing anything more than video games.
I have to say, I am guilty of it myself. We are a very distanced and compartmentalized household at this point, it wasn’t always like that, it just sort of happened.
We were kind of thrown for a loop after my divorce and I haven’t recovered from it emotionally or mentally and my kids don’t know what’s going on in our lives, or how to make better sense of it, it’s kind of stressful, so instead of always doing things together *Which we do sometimes have lots of fun…This is mostly a fun house and we talk and learn and that’s important. I actually teach them things and we speak alot so… But not as much as I would like.
But sometimes we keep to ourselves and that isn’t always good for self motivation when it’s just easier to cop out and lay on the couch and watch television or play on the laptop because sometimes my world sucks and it’s hard for me to take them anywhere *Personal issue NOT of my making or fault. It’s a long story and it’s OTHER people that do it to us.
But I think if it is a learning dissability? *I have no point of reference for that because my kids are okay in that department thank God. It might be no help at home, no discipline or something chemical or developmental?
It could be all sorts of different things. I think the best tool a teacher has is parent teacher conferences?
@Aethelflaed Also consider that when I was a kid, they didn’t want to let me into Kindergarten because I was only four, yet today people are sending their 2-year-olds to pre-pre-pre-school :p
@jerv My oldest had to go to pre-K because I worked 10 hour days, he also went to before and after care when he was older, again because I worked 10 hour days. That’s the way it goes and he wasn’t happy about it but he was kind of born smart so he did okay.
I think one of the biggest problems when it comes to kids who should be doing at least ok in school is that teacher expectations are all over the place, and usually are not clearly articulated. What may be an A in one teacher’s classroom could very easily be an F in another teacher’s classroom who’s teaching the exact same class. And most teachers don’t really clearly articulate what they’re looking for in answers (especially essay/short answer stuff, less so with multiple choice), or how important spelling/grammar/structure is, or how much detail their looking for on each point, so every test, quiz, essay, etc in every class becomes a huge guessing game.
Problem with schools in my opinion, is that they don’t go on an individual basis, and they prolly should. Not everyone learns the same, or at the same rate. Sure, it’s better than when my dad was in school and got the ruler for not knowing his multiplication table by heart, but fear and discipline I don’t really think is the key. It ain’t like that now, and ruling out mentally retarded children doesn’t mean everyone else who doesn’t suffer from an unfortunate brain deficiency can learn at the click of some fingers.
Also, what @Simone_De_Beauvoir said. You jess fulla good answers the night. :)
I don’t know if schools necessarily cater to “the lowest common denominator” but it is built into the system to to try to accommodate the needs of the many while slighting, very often, the needs of the few. You can’t really build a “one size fits all” education system. Unless we, as a society, want to create schools that meet each individual child’s needs and strengths and talents, the school system will always shortchange either the child who needs more hands on, remedial education, or the child who needs a greater challenge or the child who just need a different challenge. Each child has his or her own talents and strengths, his or her own temperament.
Albert Einstein said “Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” I think we need to somehow design our schools so the we don’t force the fish to learn how to climb trees and fail them if they don’t or can’t. We need to design our schools so the fish can learn to be the best fish they can be and the kids who aren’t can learn to be the best whatever they are.
And in some ways. I think the whole nature of school, as it is designed, is kind of “anti-child.” Yes children need to learn discipline and to focus, but they are by nature, creatures “with ants in their pants.” In some ways, I think it is unnatural to expect very young children at least, even some older children, to sit still and focus as long as they are required to so, generally, in schools.
Just my two cents.
@Symbeline It helps when you are flirting with cute boys in PM
@Symbeline It’s okay, they’ll bring the canes. I’ve brought theirs out, cough…nah, it’s not that intense, just friendly stuff.
@Simone_De_Beauvoir A witty reply should probbaly be at hand for this, but all I can say is lmao. XD
Speaking of which, ever seen a movie called Cracks? It doesn’t have any canes, but it more or less ventures into the field of the joke you made, at least I hope it was a joke. :D
@Symbeline It was and I haven’t. I’m still watching the Boys Beware ‘no homo’ video Astrochuck linked somewhere on the q we came from.
Sometimes it’s an issue of maturity, too. Poor impulse control, easily distracted, etc. Especially so for very bright children. If they get bored, watch out.
@Simone_De_Beauvoir Well when you’re done, watch Cracks. Also what no homo video lol? I think I missed something.
It is pretty hard to do well in school when things are all kinda fucked up at home. It was pretty common for me to go to school without breakfast and lunch was a slab of cheese between some Wonder bread. And then when I got home I knew dad was going to be drunk and would hit mom. This is why I sleep with my shoes on. You never know when you have to get the fuck out in a hurry.
The child is bored.
The teacher is lousy and is not teaching in a way that makes it interesting for the child, or is unrealistic and expects too much of the child, giving him/her too much homework or assigning lessons that are beyond the child’s grasp.
Each child develops at a different pace, so maybe the kid is just slower to pick up on things and needs more time to learn the material.
Class sizes are too large, so those children who need the extra attention get overlooked.
The school system (its curriculum and teaching methods) may be to blame too. The material is boring, useless, and uninspiring, and some teachers cling to ineffective methods of teaching and disciplining.
I think the materials are too boring. Honestly, I am so happy to not be in elementary. Often times I think of all the good memories I had growing up, but truthfully I think to myself, “Oh my goodness, these kids have no idea what the next step is.” I mean they probably have an idea, but they have got so much boring material they will cover again even through college freshmen year! I like the Canadien system. From what I’ve heard kids get to choose their high school and each school specializes in a different category, for instance a school just for art, music, sciences. I think we have them here in the U.S. but not in as much abundance. That’s probably why our youth seem to always be groggy about society no one gets to do what they want.
I was inattentive, and put on ritalin, but that didn’t work, so I just got some extra attention. But I’m not stupid!
I did fine in middle school and high school, but before that, I had some real attention problems.
I have a bilingual kid who is leaps and bounds ahead of his classmates in reading and math and his grasp of abstract concepts. Socially, he is way behind. We’ve had him looked at for Autism (his older half brother is autistic) and they’re sure it isn’t that, but I think we’ll find later, as he grows, that he has Aspergers. His father probably has a form of Aspergers too, and he started going to clinic for testing, but he’s stopped and I can’t seem to motivate him to go back again. All three of ‘my boys’ are or have been bullied horribly at school. My little guy has attention problems and his teacher grows tired of him often and leaves him to it, and, instead, sends home his work for me to get him to do.
Kids with undiagnosed learning problems that have nothing to do with their intellectual ability, but more to with being on the Autism spectrum or perhaps dyslexia get ignored because they’re ‘too much trouble’ to deal with, or they’re given up on and then give up on themselves.
Institutional schools stick 20 kids with one teacher.
These 20 kids have different strengths and different weaknesses, as well as different home lives. Some kids have parents that teach at home, others have parents who are too busy to help with homework. Some have parents who are so concerned with letter grades they do homework and projects for their kids. Still others have parents who couldn’t care less either way.
For every kid who’s having trouble grasping the basics of phonics, there’s another who’s three grade levels ahead and is bored out of his skull hovering over “Hop on Pop” for the nine-thousandth time. That same great reader may need remedial maths help, whereas the non-reader is a whiz at fractions. Still other kids might have physical or mental differences that may require extra assistance. These differences might go unnoticed (or be outright ignored and explained away) by parents (Certainly my perfect child doesn’t have dyslexia!)
That one teacher has neither the time nor the ability to cater to every individual child on their own individual level.
The way this is generally handled is by giving the kids who are “ahead” a wide berth (or, more accurately, ignoring them), and giving the lion’s share of attention to the kids who are struggling.
When one adds in the struggle for funding, many times the curricula itself will take a hit in order to make it look like a greater proportion of the class is thriving at grade level. Which, of course, is an even greater insult to those kids who were bored to tears by the actually grade level work. Bored kids are kids who no longer care whether they pass or not. After all, it’s not like the letter means you’re learning anything.
@cazzie That is why I stopped caring pretty early on. Then again, I knew almost everything High School academia had to teach me by 8th grade :/
There are many reasons. One that many are not aware of is eager parents undermining the authority of teachers and being negative about them in front of their children.
Fact from fiction, truth from diction. I believe the reason why some kids just can’t seem to learn is because the method of teaching is nebulous and makes no sense or reason. When I was a child, math made no sense because I could not see any practical reason for it. A boring subject to a child will be that much more boring if it to have no good reason at all. Asking me if I had 1⅔ apples and five friends came over how much apple are each of us going to have is ludicrous. If I had five friends over we are not going to be trying to divide no stupid apple, we will be having sandwiches or pizza. Fractions only started to make sense when I took a wood shop class and had to use the ruler.
Aside from how the lessons are taught, I think it is the resources not used, more so this day, than when I was a child. If I had use of the Internet there is no way I would have not pulled in solid Bs or better. It is better than having 5 sets of encyclopedia of Britannica. There is hardly NOTHING you can’t learn by way of the computer if you know how to look for it. It is like having a 24/7 teacher that is an expert on nearly everything.
I would say the last part is the way education is perceived, on one hand dumb people are the butt of jokes; even all over the media. Like wise smart brainy kids are shown to be unpopular, socially inept geeks or nerds who no popular kid want to be like or associate with. The emphasis seemed to be on being popular, and trendy and not highly educated. It is almost as if you are really smart, you see it as a detriment, because it is better to be dumb and accepted. Add in the fact the media tried to paint teachers as ogres out to ruin the fun and dash the spirits of kids, the only natural order, or the one played up most, is that teachers are the enemies of students, and students are suppose to do all they can to get over on teachers and the school.
@Hypocrisy_Central Good points, and let me add on one by one.
1) Aside from geometry, most of my knowledge of and interest in math comes from physics. Numbers are not fun, but some of the things that being good with numbers allows me to do are. Those who are bad with fractions can’t properly mix the ingredients to make meth, so even the delinquents need some math skills!
2) I remember spending a few years at a site that seemed to have at least two kids a day ask “Doo U no ne gud proxee sitez? Mi sk00l wont let me yooz mi FB on der compyooterz!!!111”. Not only does that show that literacy standards have slipped substantially, it also shows that many kids would rather use resources another way. I remember when I was in high school in the Mac Plus, pre-internet days, I would constantly be asked how to hide copies of games on our LAN or or a copy of some game I had. They didn’t want to learn; they wanted to play around even then.
3) This
3a) The counterpoint
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