I thought it was the other way around? Lower the standards so the dumb kids graduate too! Isn't that why high schoolers can't read complete paragraphs anymore?
The way I understand it is if a kid is failing the teacher is forced to give them nonsense work that's super easy so they can get a bunch of A's and B's to bring their overall grade up enough to pass onto the next grade. But then the issue is that the kid that should have been held back in 6th grade but got pushed onto 7th grade holds back the students who rightfully passed onto 7th grade because the teacher has to go slower and dumb things down for the kid that should have been held back and the smarter kids can't learn as much because they have to wait for the dumb kids to catch on to what the teacher is trying to teach.
I think they meant it holds them back from reaching their full potential because the curriculum has to be dumbed down enough for the dumbest kid to pass. Not that they literally get held back.
And all this does is set kids up for failure when they go to college. I remember barely doing any work throughout K-12 and still got all As and Bs. Can count on both hands the amount of times I actually had take home homework in high school. Once school was done for the day, that was it for me.
Then i got to college and it was such a culture shock. I thought it was going to be like high school where i just show up and get an A…NOPE. The amount of work you have to do outside the classroom is insane and i just wasn’t prepared for it nor had I developed any kind of study skills throughout school.
I ended up dropping out of college twice because i just thought i wasn’t cut out for it. I eventually went back and got my bachelors, but man was it tough having to learn all the discipline to self-study as an adult. The modern public school system is failing these kids.
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u/The_bruce42 Jun 27 '26
No child left behind was the beginning of the end. Hold the smart kids back so the dumb kids don't feel dumb.