Our government is totally failing the students of our country...
It truly makes me sad to read the brief to the new CAPS system(our new curriculum). We will soon be marking children on their reading skills on a scale of 1-7...and that's it.. spelling? grammar you say? NOPE. Just can the kid read or not, no explanation, no helpful comments NOTHING.(Maybe if I had more helpful comments my blogs wouldn't look like they do!
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Also being introduced with CAPS is the principle of inclusion..For those of you who don't know, inclusion in schools means basically all special needs schools will be integrated with standard public schools. This is apparently for the benefit of the students so that they will not feel excluded or discriminated against.
Am I the only one that sees this is a bit ludicrous? yes these kids might feel included,but the only unity they will experience is the unity of all feeling like failures. No public school or private for that matter has the resources to deal with a variety of physical,learning and mental disabilities while keeping other students occupied.Also these are classes of about 50 kids, how in gods name do they expect anyone less than a super zombie-jesus to be able to keep up?
I don't know who I feel more sorry for..the poor teachers who will be under paid,over worked and will probably bare a lot of brunt from upset parents or the students who simply just wont receive education.
It truly makes me sad to read the brief to the new CAPS system(our new curriculum). We will soon be marking children on their reading skills on a scale of 1-7...and that's it.. spelling? grammar you say? NOPE. Just can the kid read or not, no explanation, no helpful comments NOTHING.(Maybe if I had more helpful comments my blogs wouldn't look like they do!
)
Also being introduced with CAPS is the principle of inclusion..For those of you who don't know, inclusion in schools means basically all special needs schools will be integrated with standard public schools. This is apparently for the benefit of the students so that they will not feel excluded or discriminated against.
Am I the only one that sees this is a bit ludicrous? yes these kids might feel included,but the only unity they will experience is the unity of all feeling like failures. No public school or private for that matter has the resources to deal with a variety of physical,learning and mental disabilities while keeping other students occupied.Also these are classes of about 50 kids, how in gods name do they expect anyone less than a super zombie-jesus to be able to keep up?
I don't know who I feel more sorry for..the poor teachers who will be under paid,over worked and will probably bare a lot of brunt from upset parents or the students who simply just wont receive education.
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I agree about including every person and do not discriminate, because everybody in this world complement with each other. People with special needs can teach a lot, how to be more sensitive, appreciate every little beautiful detail in life, they can change your paradigm to solve determinated situations, etc.... an enriching experience.
If you want to include everybody it's not like "here we have the resources, let's do it". As you say, teachers have to be very well prepared to handle this: "how can I intregrate the whole group?", "how can I attend some children without making the others get bored?". Teachers of course, because of their responsability, should have a well rewarded income and constant preparation.
Sounds good as long as there is a strong investment to make this happen: so no, no, no to... large groups, unprepared and under paid teachers, unstructured agenda according to the different needs... it's really difficult, but never impossible. So the only thing I can say is hope they don't take it lightly.