Saying No to Advanced Pacing Education in the Christian School System!
I can remember while I was thinking about the time when it was thought that an advanced pacing education system was good, however later studies showed it was bad. While a genius can be certainly qualified, however note that most people are not geniuses. The theory behind the advanced pacing education is this, "Early intervention creates the potential genius." However this theory is really very, very wrong because for one, a child's mind may be fertile but it cannot easily accommodate something that is beyond its level. So here's how it may work with the K + 12 system:
- Nursury 1-2- Children are studying a Kindergarten Book
- Kindergarten 1-2- Children are studying some Grade School level 1-2 curriculum.
- Grade School can be like this:
- Grade 4- Studying a first year Middle School curriculum
- Grade 5- Studying a second year Middle School curriculum
- Grade 6- Studying a third year Middle School curriculum.
That is just a brief preview. What I am really angry with this kind of system is that based on what I have observed, the child can be overly pressured and be forced to enter cram schools in order to "achieve the potential genius" when not everyone can become a genius. People have different mastery over different subjects and in a workout program, the reason why levels are assigned because intellect and strength are to be built up in a moderate pace, not too fast nor too slow. The problem with this advanced pacing education system is like forcing a wimp to already use maximum strength in the gym when he or she should start with smaller weights first. The result can be disastrous to injure the wimpy trainee. A wimpy trainee who slowly but surely follows a step by step program will get better strength. In short, the program is rushing the child to grow up.
In fact thinking about how education goes, here's an example of what I thought of proving the system wrong with the example of the subject of Mathematics to which I am pretty weak at - In Math, you must first learn the basics before you can do Calculus. I mean, the person must learn to count then learn to add, subtract, multiply and divide. When all the everyday Mathematics is done, they can start with fractions, decimals, conversions of units, basic geometry then the next diet of Mathematics is introduced to the student. Then the student learns another intermediate field then the advanced field building the student's Mathematics skills, though he or she may not be qualified for engineering but he or she has a better pace with learning the skills Mathematics has to teach. The problem with the advanced pacing education system can result in having Math teachers who are tormentors , not mentors.
The second example would be the field of sciences. I remembered my competent science teacher, I hope she's saved now who had argued against the advanced pacing education in contrast to that sadistic sciencie teacher of mine who rightfully got fired due to her immensely cruel attitude towards the weaker students. For science in general, introducing middle school science subjects or even high school science subjects to the elementary student is foolish. Just for instance before one can digest chemistry or physics for an entire year, they must be introduced to it slowly in the field of general science during the elementary days. Like for example, nobody can really understand chemistry if they don't understand the basics with atoms, chemical properties and the like and the same goes for physics like understanding the laws of motion. In fact, they are also introduced to the formulas. In fact, the advanced pacing education system may be treating Isaac Newton and every great scientist as if they were born into the world as adults as well.