The Grade-Level Model

"Expensive and experienced teachers tend to be resistant to new curriculum and teaching methods."

I was on a thread where someone was making the argument that older teachers simply weren't worth keeping around.

As to the expensive part.  Yeah, nowadays I am on the top of the pay scale.  I no longer have the financial stress that I was under for decades.  Starting teacher pay is LOW, and raising a family on it is crazy.  Besides, most professional pay STARTS at what an older teacher makes.  So, I find the first point to be overstated.

But on to the more important 2nd point.  It is not that older teachers are resistant; it's that we rarely see anything that is really new.  What we don't have is that excited puppy dog reaction to the latest whoop-de-doo the district and state switch us over to every few months.  We have a sense of history.  We know that the implementation of procedure or curriculum X has more to do with job security up the line than it does with producing results in the classroom.

It is hard to do something really new in an industry that has been around for 150 years.  Our system grew out of the industrial revolution and was based on a production line model.  It was a massive improvement in a time when K-12 was being taught by a single teacher.

Want new?  I say ditch the grade level system.  Everything in our present model is designed around teaching certain concepts at a certain age.  But kids aren't widgets.  We struggle to gain ground in our system because kids are massively different.  But we keep them all on the same track.

Each year I have 2nd graders who are spread out from Clifford the Big Red Dog to Harry Potter.  I have students who are bored to tears with 2nd grade math while others wrestle with single-digit addition.  I work in a relatively homogeneous school.  Most schools in America are dealing with much wider variances.  For many students in our schools, the grade-level model is moving way too fast or much too slow.  I contend that most of our behavior issues are a result of being in a placement that does not fit.

I get what it is like to be in a place where everthing is moving too fast.  I started theater about 20 years ago in a company that focused on musicals.  I didn't know I could sing and I loved it.  I actually got to do solos!

The problem is, musicals tend to involve choreography.  If physical dyslexia is a thing, I have it.  It takes eveything in me just to remember basic blocking.  Keeping up with dozens of people dancing in a musical number?  Ouch!  I remember during one live show turning left when I was supposed to go right and ending up in a completely different group.  The guy next to me mouthed, "What are you doing here?"  I sheepishly replied that I had no idea. 🙂

Over the years, I drifted into a company that had more straight play opportunities.  But that is the thing, as an adult I had options.  Students rarely do.