School is a place for learning, but not all students have equal learning capabilities. Naturally, some people learn new things easier or harder than other people. So, how exactly can you teach the same thing to a group of diverse people?
Some people believe that students should be grouped together based on their academic abilities, while other people claim that this discriminates against students. There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches, so why don’t we begin by comparing them based on their abilities to actually teach students?
First, let’s start by analyzing the first approach, grouping students together according to their academic performances. The main benefit is that because everyone can understand new subjects at similar rates, the class doesn’t slow down because of people not understanding things, for the more academically gifted people. The main benefit, of course, is that the students in the lower classes have no motivation to learn and improve. They think that there is no way for them to improve because there are no people around them to guide them and for them to take example, so they do not pay attention in class, and this makes it harder for other people in class to learn too. This puts people in an academic cycle that can only go downhill. This is also very frustrating for teachers that have to deal with students that are not willing to cooperate. This is also a factor that decreases the overall performance of the class.
The other approach is where all students are mixed together in classes. The main benefit is that the worse students are mixed in with better students, and this makes the worse students more motivated to try and improve. The downsides are that the higher-performing students are not able to learn efficiently and effectively because the lesson has to go slower to accommodate the slower-learning students. This makes school hell for the higher-performing students. This approach is often defended by parents that believe that their students are not performing badly, but in hindsight, those students should not even be going to school but instead work in different areas besides education.
In conclusion, grouping people together can sometimes be a good thing, even if it is a little discriminatory.