Teaching Children Regardless of Grade

I went to a public school in the late 50s/early 60s with two rooms - one for grades 1-3 and one for grades 4-6. An average of ten students per grade level. I did very well, but I know there were a few "left behind." My teachers didn't approach the classes with a "learn at your own pace" attitude; it was very much "Okay, first-graders, do this math worksheet; second graders, get out your spelling words, and third graders, read the story in your reading book." Not a lot of room for individual attention with 30 kids all over the map in terms of readiness. But this does sound good to me if it's properly implemented.

I think almost every country has few isolated schools trying to do real good work. In developing countries like India (and in some parts of developed countries like USA too) the students from such schools do not do very well in competitive exams and job market, as compared to rot memorization, private tuition, and coaching based education given to kids in cities from affluent families. Gradually such schools lose its sheen among parents, particularly among those parents who can pay to keep it going. Gradually it become schools for less-privileged kids, who have no better option, just like Indian Govt schools. Such schools are run by few benevolent, reasonably honest donors & then rely on government handouts. Dependence on government fund ruin its independence & attract political interference that ultimately destroy its purpose. Such institution dies with the death of the patron, who established the school. Then local mafia, or corrupt businessman, or political leader(s) take over. One such patron in Ia remote island (in Andaman) in India once told me that, "I need to open my own industry to recruit the students of my school". His next statement was more serious, "not many organizations, public or private, prefer to recruit our students. Even the most brilliant & dedicated ones are forced to go away to do petty clerical job, that too if s/he is fortunate." Those students never get any lucrative job in a society where corruption & nepotism rule.

Sounds like a really good sales job. I love the ideals, but as a teacher, I do know that it isn't necessary to purchase their model, and to adhere to it "rigorously". One of the key components to any classroom environment, is the making the delivery fit both the needs of the students, and the needs of the teacher. If the teacher is invigorated, loves what they are teaching, loves watching students improve, and is willing to do whatever is necessary to reach students where they are at, the students usually respond. Forcing a teacher to rigorously adopt a program that doesn't fit, will destroy teachers love for the subject and their chosen path in life. However, this article does point out some really crucial things that "chalk and talk", which by the way happens way to much here in the US, doesn't allow for. Differentiation of instruction is crucial. Hard line pacing charts and curricula often leave students behind, and frustrated. By the time they get to high school, they have often given up. It is crucial that methods meet the needs of the student which in turn leads to one of the most crucial components of bringing struggling students back, Success. Teachers have to be able to show students genuine success by demystifying the things that have historically eluded those students. By teachers bringing the love, showing students genuine success, and making the classroom a fun, engaging and worthwhile place to be, any teacher can turn our system on its head.

Isn’t this what our charter schools are actually supposed to do — experiment and then implement what works, throw out what doesn’t and then roll out successful teaching methods to public schools?? Too bad, I’ve never actually heard of that being done. Maybe US charter schools should be rated on how often they complete this process!!

This is nothing new. It’s called the Montessori method.

Good article, but Maria Montessori introduced child-centered education to India 70 years ago. Her method allows children to "learn at their own pace" and in multi-age groups, rather than at desks with a teacher lecturing the whole class. Is this article an example of "nothing new under the sun" or of educators not talking with, and learning from, each other?

Where can teachers learn this method?

These are the education articles in the Times that drive me absolutely crazy. A freelance journalist travels to rural India and finds magic. Imagine! Mixed age groups. Children teaching other children. Learning through activity. Letting children really enjoy childhood. And it works! Amazing! There are remarkable progressive schools within a few miles of NYT headquarters. The Calhoun School, Little Red/Elizabeth Irwin/City and Country School/Corlears/Manhattan Country/Blue School/Brooklyn Free School/Bank Street and more. These progressive schools and others around the country do all of these things and more, all based on principles of learning that have evolved for several hundred years. Yet the Times and other media pay little attention, and support rote learning in rigid charter schools, many of which don't just take away childhood - they are abusive. Editorial policy at the Times has supported increased testing, accountability, "high" standards and all the reform nonsense that has made education worse over the past decades. But they found a miracle school in rural India and had a momentary epiphany!

India has one of the worst primary education in the world. It came practically in the last among about 75 countries in PISA test few years ago. It's higher education is also becoming more corrupt and highly inefficient for last few decades. Now education (both primary and higher education) is the most corrupt sector, beating even real estate, to generate illegal black money. Now many utter corrupt politicians and businessmen, many Non-Profit or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are also involved in that money making activity using noble effort like education as a musk. Indian education is now mostly controlled by criminals and corrupt businessmen and politicians. They are now exporting that crime and corruption to other more civilized part of the western world. This Indian university (Amity Univ), which is the biggest private Univ there, is owned by a international criminal, Ashok Chauhan. https://goo.gl/MnMXM9 These kids from less privileged background have almost no future as India's social mobility has deteriorated to a very worrying level. Now India is among the worst countries in terms of social and income inequality (only after Russia). There were many honest efforts to reform Indian education before, most notably by Noble Laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore (Visva Bharati Univ). All such efforts ultimately failed due to politicization of education and criminalization of politics.

John Dewey lives.

When I was in 8th grade, my school in California developed a unique plan. Every student had a "home room" where attendance and progress in terms of test-taking were noted. The curriculum was set out with an exam that had to be passed before completion to the next level. The four classrooms comprising the 8th grade math students were separated by folding walls. After attendance was recorded, students could move to one of the 4 classrooms, each attended by one teacher: one class kept a steady schedule for completion of the curriculum by the end of the school year; one class was a week ahead of the standard curriculum; one class was a week behind the standard curriculum; one class was "independent study" where students could move ahead at their own pace, or get individual help if they were having trouble with a topic. For me, it worked brilliantly. I was never bored by slow-moving students nor intimidated by those who moved ahead at a much faster rate. As I've now started tutoring children as a retirement activity, I realise how difficult it is for one teacher to keep children of many different levels learning and motivated. Teaching according to level rather than age seems to be an important step.

In the American past, millions of children were taught in rural one-room schools. My mother, a brilliant natural teacher, began her lifetime career (a career of devotion) in the tiny community of Federal, Wyoming. Later she taught at country schools in Montana and spent her final 30 years of teaching first grade in a small-town community school. One-roomer students went on to successful careers. The one-room outposts of learning still exist, and some historic buildings are being preserved and restored. The importance of rural education and rural America in general deserve much more attention, investment and importance than we give to them. Doug Giebel, Big Sandy, Montana

I just came home from my 2nd morning this week tutoring a nine-year-old girl who lives in poverty, and is enrolled in fourth grade but reads at the kindergarten level. I bring her reading comprehension passages and worksheets - we read them together, answer questions, and then dramatically practice the words in official spelling bee style, complete with "Can you use that in a sentence please?" and "Ding-ding, that's correct!" She takes a copy of that day's passage with its questions home with her to do on her own for repetition. Afterward, we read kindergarten level Brand New Readers books that always have a joke on the last page to keep the reader invested. Tomorrow, I have 3 students with varied skill levels in a group. One is a better reader, but his math is kindergarten level - while another can do addition without counting on her fingers, but has more trouble reading - so they help each other. That minimizes the embarrassment of not knowing something, because they are proud they do have something to offer. I'm thrilled that my students now love learning, but I'm sad that they only have an hour or two of intensive work that they can understand each week outside of a classroom that is years ahead of their comprehension and skill level. The learning ladder hands-on, multi-age approach described in this article could be useful for this subset of children in each school who are years behind in grade level - as a cocoon inside the broader school for them to grow.

As a retired high school English and reading teacher, I support any method that empowers students and involves hands-on learning. I would love to study this model. In Washington we expect primary grade school children to take state tests on computers on which they have no keyboarding skills while analyzing various literary genre all the while hunting and pecking. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment! Good teachers care about kids, but too often decision makers appear to be far removed from the realities of the classroom. Bottom line: Don't knock the Indian model unless you've tried it. Sounds sensible to me.

The article scapegoats lecturing, presenting it in the deadliest of contexts, thus continuing its use as a whipping boy for trendy education writers. In fact, listening, supplemented by note taking and reading, is an extremely effective way to learn. I tried to curtail lecture in my high school science classes, but my best students complained to me that they needed my explanations to help them understand difficult concepts. Ironically, I have also sat through countless in-service-day lectures about how preferable other approaches are compared to lecturing. Put lecturing in a context of talent and commitment — imagine Ms. Anumula and Mr. Rao presenting their approach to a large class of college students — and it will blossom as an essential part of effective teaching. The approach sketched out in this article was developed for a classroom environment more suited to activities than lecture, and a talented, committed teacher would recognize it as such. But put that same teacher in front of six high school classes of thirty, teaching four subjects, and you can bet they will make use of lecture. Will they include demonstrations and visual aids in the lectures? Will they intersperse simple, often hands-on activities? Will there be days devoted to labs? Will there be days devoted to reading and writing activities? Of course! But a centerpiece of instruction will continue to be the teacher standing in front of the class, distilling and explaining often difficult concepts,

Ms. Anumula and Mr. Rao sound like wonderful people who have dedicated themselves to helping all children learn. I’m also sure the approach they have published merits scrutiny by educators around the world. Will it work in every circumstance? Probably not. Will it work in the hands of other educators? Only to the extent of their talent and commitment. The world of education is full of politics and pressures that push educators to follow a path of least resistance. Hence the “plowing through textbooks,” a method encouraged by the teachers’ editions, which tell teachers how long to spend on each unit. And then there are the standardized tests, which could offer significant insights into students’ progress but which instead function as pressure on teachers to keep on plowing along. There are no silver bullets in education. Good education requires that the local society value it and that schools budget for, search out, and hire talented teachers who are committed to kids’ learning.

This approach is successful because it is a system of teaching and learning that uses standard materials, procedures and processes. Unfortunately, we have no standard systems for teaching in America: our schools of education teach different approaches and philosophies that teachers are supposed to draw from when teaching. But there are no systems for cumulatively building knowledge. Every teacher must create their own way of teaching with the materials at hand. On the other hand, Montessori schools, Waldorf Schools, Finland's schools and these Indian schools successfully use specific systems of directed play in the early grades. American schools would do better if they had such systems in place.

This methodology addresses the last child in the classroom, even the last child who is a disruptive child, who is a slow learner, who is a regular absentee. Yes, very important but any thoughts/data on how it addresses the high flyer?

More than anything, this reminds me of the mathematics curriculum from my 5th grade year. It was self-paced. We could work by ourselves, at our own pace and teach ourselves. We worked on laminated cards with grease pencils. If we needed help, the teacher came around. Mostly we didn't need help because change was incremental. I powered through two years of math in a year. In small classrooms, where learning is play, children can and do, indeed, teach themselves.

In search of uniformity, schools have been industrialized. The system of grades is senseless.

Such efforts does not seem to have much future in a society where success depends more on one's ability to exploit socially accepted culture of sycophancy, corruption and crime. Honesty and good education are severe drag force to get even a basic job that offer below poverty salary. Almost no employer or even political parties care for honest and straight talking person there, even s/he has the best education and, more importantly, excellent skill set even in global standard. Any meaningful effort to reform Indian education system, mainly primary education, which is most corrupt even in Indian standard, must start with introducing decent corporate governance and transparency in political funding. Then, education sector must be de-linked from politics. Now each and every political party views schools and universities as training facility for future party cadres and indoctrinated supporters. Teachers, other staff and even students are recruited/admitted on that basis. Jobs (even for top positions like Vice Chancellor, Director of a research/academic institute etc) are offered based on political allegiance. Now India's right wing "Hindu Nationalist" Modi led BJP-RSS Govt is infusing religious fundamentalism and racism into schools at an unprecedented level.

I'm surprised that this article doesn't mention the parallels between the teaching method it describes and the Montessori method, developed by Maria Montessori in the early 20th century and used in thousands of schools around the world. Montessori education also lets students set the pace and work at their own level through a series of hands-on learning activities. Montessori classrooms are multi-year and, as described in this article, older children help their younger classmates. This was a regrettable omission in an otherwise interesting and inspiring article.

In 4th grade I attended five schools. The last one was in Verona, WI. As I recall it had one classroom for K-2 and another for grades 3-8. The teacher grouped us flexibly based on what we could handle depending on subject. I'm from a family of book addicts so I read with the older students. It's been about 60 years so details are long forgotten, but I think we did science as a whole class. The teacher knew we'd absorb what we could based on age and ability. Unlike many other schools I attended, I do not recall being bored at this one. I would add only that children are born curious and possess a strong desire to learn and to be independent. (My two-year-old granddaughter recently added "I can do it myself!" to her favorite phrases. Usually said with a defiant snarl as she tries to put on socks or shoves both legs into the same side of her pants...). Good parents, teachers, and schools encourage and foster that curiousity.

There are two main problems with public education in the United States: the first is the inadequacy and inequity of school funding, which varies from state to state; and the second is politics, specifically the politics of testing. Even if this model were to work, unless it can be made to function in our existing standardized testing model of public ed, it won't even be tried. Make no mistake - testing is not about student success; it is about money. That's why music, art, home economics, cursive writing, and more are all being discarded. That's why Social Studies and Civics are being deemphasized. If it isn't tested, it isn't taught. Disgraceful.

We have schools without textbooks in my community in NC. Schools in lower socio-economic areas do not get tablets or modern computers, so no textbooks or computers for them. Behavioral problems abound in these schools, which seem like "warehouses" for children. The gap between schools in middle class and disadvantaged areas is huge. Schools perform at B or D depending on their location. This article is interesting but there are no specifics. I would like to know how this works. We need an answer to this problem of the "forgotten children" right in our own country.

I love this article and think the whole program is wonderful: might work in the U.S. as well. However, I do see an obstacle: teachers gain power and status from standing in front of a seated class. Some teachers will have trouble sitting down at student level. So the socio-emotional needs of the teacher needs to be evaluated. If the teacher can do math but most students fail it, he/she can feel smug and entitled that he/she is so much smarter. etc. etc.

Education, the more the better, is a multifactorial issue, foremost based on teacher's 'calling' to excel in teaching students in using their imagination, not only in memorization; and, along with parents, teach students to think for themselves. And public schools, nor elite segregated one's, are the answer. Obviously, the newer technologies to enhance learning, prudently used, are essential in today's competitive world.

This is nothing new. I grew up in Germany after WWII, when we were class 1 through 4 in one classroom (Protestant), while on the other side of the wall were the same grades catholic, and then the same thing in grades 5 through 8. We were the last class going through elementary school this way, a new school was built and the last month or so we were only one ot two grades, I don’t remember. It worked!