This question is for teachers?
Favorite Answer
Anyways, I think the very simple answer to your question is the reverse of what everyone else is saying. I don’t think there are any higher level concepts (math, science, philosophy, writing) that can’t be learned by the majority of people. For instance, you probably can’t pull out a 1st grader and say, there’s no way this kid can learn quantum mechanical analysis of oscillating harmonic functions.
With that said, there probably are some students with severe disabilities that have slim to none chance, and as you get older the number of kids able to realize that ability will shrink due to laziness/ineffectiveness.
I think a lot of it is just a time factor, it takes time to learn the fundamentals and some kids it doesn’t take as long so they get to the more interesting/relevant topics and go really far. For the kids that struggle with fundamentals they spend so much time on boring education that they don’t get to a higher level.
I teach high school chemistry and I’ve only done it for one year, but I think I have the right answer. So the end result is all students have the same potential limits, but the time factor for them and hence the reality is different per student.
a great amount of work can be put into a student, but that student first can fight against the potential they have. ie. i know a student has a great potential in math, but he is afraid his friends will call him a geek for liking the subject, therefore he refuses to rise to his potential even though he knows he can succeed.
NOT ALL STUDENTS CAN BE PUSHED!
Children are very unique and not all can be coerced to study.
A four year old has already developed most of their learning habits already.
Very few 4 year olds could “study” 4-6 hours per day. PLAY is there field of study.
BUT, all students deserve the opportunity to achieve to their individually true potential. They also should be given the chance to overachieve through hard work and determination. As for pushing students, I’d rather pull them – then walk along side them as we both grow.
As one teacher told me, scientifically, a bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly. It’s just that he hasn’t been told it yet.
I tell my students they can’t say, “No, I can’t.”
What they learn to say is, “No, I can’t – yet!”
Maybe not 4-6 hours a day, that will get them burnt out from school at an early age. However, I do believe we should teach children at a young age how to challenge their minds and expand their ways of thinking.
But the school authorities must think dat it is the responsibility of the school to devleop the confidence of the children by considering that there are individual differences and they must chalk out their curriculum according to the children and parents must expose the child to different learning situations