There are kids who come to school to learn, and those who come to school because they have to be there.
There are kids who are fascinated by science or math, who find history interesting, and enjoy creating metaphors. There are other kids who are thoroughly bored with anything that can’t be eaten, drunk, played with, or screwed.
The bright kids will be tossing up their hands, “Call on me!”"I know the answer!” The dunce will be sleeping with their eyes open, and if called on reply as if it is a joke or with anger.
Keeping these kids apart is vital if one is interested in educating children. Mixing them will teach the bright kid how to be stupid.
At one school, children placed in special advanced classes became the beating stick for those in what would politically incorrectly be called ‘Dunce Class.’ For protection some of the brighter kids began acting out, while others suddenly stopped working and had to be removed from the special program.
When questioned, the kids responded in a version of the title of this essay. Why read three chapters and do a book report when they can sit back while a teacher drones and do virtually nothing to pass?
Why run from Spanish to Math to Biology when they can saunter from English to Social Studies on either side of a ‘study break?’
Why gain the animosity of the disinterested kids, who are bigger and more violent, when by virtually vegetating they can be ‘accepted’?
So kids who were doing 7th and 8th grade work in class 7-14 could flunk out, be transferred to 7-5 where they already covered the work, then into 8-5 which was slow enough for them to coast to finals insured of a passing grade?
When you put bright children among stupid ones, you teach them sloth. You teach them to do as little as possible to get by. Which should not be the purpose of education.