When I was in primary school
And being smart was still cool
They'd group clever kids in one class
And stragglers in the quicksand mass
The best they'd call Class Yellow or A
The worst class, D or Grey
The worst class, D or Grey
They ran two tracks of intelligence
Separated by a mental fence
Class A reached the good high schools
To the rest, they gave hand tools
Nobody got a second chance
To outgrow the Childhood Trance
Please what's the lesson
ReplyDeleteJoy,
DeleteThe lesson is it was not right, in my opinion, to relegate the slower kids to a class and to 'segregate' them from the smarter kids. It would not encourage them to aspire to be better. Many of them were late starters (the Childhood Trance) who stood a good chance of 'waking up' in later years if given the chance.
I regret looking down on & teasing some of the kids in the "F" streams. A bunch of them are very successful individuals today, with A+ performance in their respective fields.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible that they put in more effort after being in the F classes so long, and that put them on paths to success?
Exactly my point. Imagine how many teachers on retirement would be eternally mortified on seeing these now-successful persons you refer to.
Deletehmmmm one of the mysteries of life........things are not always what they seem on the face value.
ReplyDeletethe ''problem'' with conventional education...and many systems that are used to run the world
ReplyDeleteI'd rather say the problem with sticking with colonial education instead of situation-specific and situation-relevant education. Wouldn't you agree?
DeleteNana I agree. Some people are not smart with books but even become successfull in later life than the so called sharp brains. A typical example is the famous Bill Gate
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joy. I agree with you.
DeleteThis is absolutely the result of our enormous youth unemployment and failure, Nana i believe we need to reverse these actions and set the right pace for our educational system. Thanks for sharing your thought.
ReplyDeleteGood point, Emeritus, except that I believe it is the cause instead of the result.
DeleteI remember this so well in my JSS school in Ghana. I failed an entrance exam to the said school so I was put in Class "Bee".
ReplyDeleteThe A class were the smart kids. All the school prefects and whatever else were chosen from that class.
Can you imagine, every teacher coming to the class and adding salt to injury by calling us dumb, Always. "Mute abon papa" is wht they say.
If this still happens in some schools, it really has to stop.
Does not motivate, or develop such students
Thanks. I am still waiting for anybody to say whether it is still prevalent or not. But those were such terrible times!
DeleteA lot of talent wasted in Gh! Basically such people tend to employ the A and B students! Hope we learn to treasure and channel all talent SOON! Still waiting for your visit, Stella keeps asking. Wassup, NY?
ReplyDeleteLooking to be there on 3rd or 4th July, Kwame.
Delete