The concept of social promotions is passing a student to the next grade, when that person has not earned the advancement, based on academic achievement. This promotion is done to prevent that student from falling behind his/her age peers. To keep the student back, with younger students, is conceived as being a detriment to self esteem.

These social promotions are doomed to failure.

It is acknowledged that the student has not earned the advancement. There are educational gaps. How can the teacher / educational system, in good conscience, place the student in a more demanding and more difficult grade, without having mastered the concepts taught in the previous grade?

It is not possible for that student to succeed. This is a formula for failure.

Supposedly, these promotions are done for the sake of self esteem. Fellow students know who is doing well and who is floundering. Is it a kindness to place a student in a situation where there is little chance of success? All it does it set up the student to fail with his/her own age peers.

This passes the student (and problem) to the next teacher. It does not address the problem. Why is the student failing? Is there a learning disability? Are there problems at home? Is there a developmental lag?

Teachers will say that there are not enough resources to address these problems. That begs the question - ‘what happens to these kids?’. - At some point, these kids (or adults) will be a demand on the public financial resources. Isn’t it far better to address these problems sooner rather than later?

Yes, these problems will require a financial commitment. However, there are developments in schools to fingerprint students and create data bases, so that the lunch line can move along in a more efficient fashion. This is an example that costs thousands of dollars. These funds could be used to teach some children to read better, to write better, to spell better… where are our priorities?

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster: http://flyinghamster.com/

Tags: schools, promotions, students, failure