Standard curriculum called prescription for failure

By VICTOR GRETO / The News Journal
03/05/2005

Do all children have the ability to excel on a college-prep track?

Yes and no, depending on whom you talk to.

Several educators, including Michael Stetter, director of Curriculum Development for the Department of Education, say that if you start a child on the track early enough, you will be able to raise the bar for most, if not all, students.

Bette Coplan, executive vice president at Wesley College in Dover, however, cited Harvard University professor Howard Gardner's famed work on "multiple intelligences" as evidence that children learn at different speeds, in different ways.

Gardner's theory says intelligence is not a single or fixed ability. It's normal for an individual to develop different capabilities and mental strategies, he argues. These are commonly listed as visual, spatial, linguistic, musical, physical and numerical.

Schools often emphasize linguistic and numerical intelligences, including the Achieve Inc. report on math and English standards. That report, commissioned by the state Department of Education, urged the state to place every student on a college-prep track.

Although Coplan believes in the necessity of setting basic standards, "We need to recognize that kids have different strengths," she said. "When we don't do that, we're consigning that kid to frustration and low self-esteem."

Alexis I. du Pont High School algebra teacher Dawn Olmstead has seen the frustration.

"We lost six or seven children at the beginning of the year because of behavior problems," she said. "Most of them were just frustrated with their inability to do the required work."

Part of the reason for some students' frustration is that they do not come to her ninth-grade class prepared for algebra, Olmstead said. Of the dozen 14- and 15-year-olds who constitute her ninth-grade Algebra I class at du Pont High, seven didn't pass their eighth-grade high-stakes tests.

When the seven took the test again - some after attending summer school, others after working at home - four failed again. Because they failed again, besides taking Algebra I again this year, those four are taking another math class created to help them pass the test.

Sometimes it's tough to keep his notes from one class straight with another, said Johnathan Carroll, 15, who is taking both classes. But Carroll, unlike what some of his classmates say, knows he'll need the math, especially geometry. "I want to be in construction work," he said.

It's a different story for other students in the class. Tyler McDaniel, 14, doesn't like math very much, either, but also knows that "I could do well if I would do the work."

But she gets frustrated with the equations and just gives up. "Sometimes I don't understand it," she said. "I get an attitude and get agitated."

Some of the middle schools from where Olmstead's students came did not cover the material necessary, she said. Some students, however, should simply be put on another track, she said.

"Not everybody can learn everything, and not everybody who can learn does it in the same way," said Harriet Ainbinder, a child psychologist. "We expect every child to do gym and do exercise, but we don't expect everyone to be the lead swimmer on the team or even be on the team."

Another of Olmstead's students, Macy Maxwell, likes to write, and does well on tests with essays. She has zero interest in math.

"I do my homework but always fail the tests," the 15-year-old said.

People draw many different conclusions from his intelligence theory, said Gardner, who is on sabbatical from Harvard. His theory about how the mind is organized "acknowledges that there are many ways in which to teach a concept or a subject, and that all students benefit when curricula are presented in a variety of formats, thereby activating a range of intelligences," he said.

In other words, a one-track, college-prep curriculum is not necessarily antithetical to his theory.

But, Gardner said, "it does not make sense to force all students into the same curricular pattern [or] mold. This is likely to yield many disaffected students, a lot of dropouts, and other unintended consequences. I think it is better to have some flexibility in courses, a variety of tracks, if you like."

Contact Victor Greto at 324-2832 or vgreto@delawareonline.com.