Faster isn’t always better

These posts are for people who are highly preoccupied with educational issues.

Fast or Slow and Steady?

I remember a student I tutored in high school geometry – he was brilliant and more interested in the whys and wherefores than the final answer. On a four-page exam in class, he came to me with a big “F”. I looked at the test and everything was correct on page 1 but pages 2, 3, and 4 were blank! Huh? When I asked about this, he said the questions on page 1 were so interesting that he never got to the other pages before the bell rang at the end of class!

So, at that time period the work-around was to classify the student “LD” and let them work at their own pace on exams. This flowed over into the SAT and ACT exams with some students being untimed and other having to finish within the set time parameters. This led to an outcry of unfairness and today many colleges are not even requiring either of these exams.

Fact is, many highly intelligent people are not recognized as such because they are slower to solve hard problems.

Educating our populace with so many varying abilities and aptitudes has been challenging for our country. These discussions continue about teaching to the middle of the curve to individualized instruction to accommodate many different learning styles.

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