It occurs to me what American schools really need to do. [View all]

I like to call my first-grade son is a genius, but I know it's probably not true. To be honest, he is already doing second grade math, but he needs a LOT of work keeping up in language arts. He got great help in language arts, but he was so sharp that last year, he would finish with math work before everyone else and was assigned the task of watering plants. I knew a girl in his kindergarten class who was not only at the top of math, but started reading at the 3rd grade level. As a matter of fact, if you talked to her, you would swear she was 10, not 6. She would get so obviously bored in class that the teacher cited her for disciplinary issues a number of times. Despite her parents' pleas, they refused to promote her to the 2nd grade. There was a third child, a son of Chinese immigrants, was stuck in ESL even though he was bright and fluent in English. And resources were wasted on him that could have gone to a child who really needed the help.

If public schools have a problem, I think it is that we try to impose a one-size-fits all on every school, classroom and child. At my son's new school, he continues to get the help he needs in language arts, but he is able to move on in math without waited for anyone to catch up. He and his classmates are closely tracked to see where they need help and teachers are able to break the kids down into groups and focus on those areas. So we need two things: To help schools become more flexible with different groups of students and give them the funding to do so.