Discussion#8:Grade Skipping (Nov.26)

Last week, we talked about Gread skipping in the class.Taro (Airi) is a 5th grade student at elementary school. He is smart and he is good at mathematics. So, he wants to skip the grades to study more. Hayashi (Fumika) is an elementary school teacher. She is in neutral position. she thinks that skipping grades will cost less money, and this will help many parents and students. On the other hand, she is worried the lack of communication skills. she thinks that it is hard for students who skipped the grade to talk with students who are different from their age. Lee(Hiroya) is from China. Actually, he skipped some grades and he entered the university when he was fourteen years old. However, he is also in neutral position. He was satisfied with this system because he was happy to study and be awarded. But, he couldn't make special friends because of the generation gap. Koizumi (Chika) is the Minister of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. He disagrees with this system because he wants to treat all students equally because he needs to offer compulsory education in Japan.
About communication, Hayashi suggested to take quiz to make sure skipped students' communication skills. Lee added to take this test for all students because all students will be required to be good at communication. But, Taro stated that he wanted to be tested by his ordinary behavior. I also think that usual communication and the communication at test are different and teachers shouldn't judge students by only test.
I think the quality of teachers should be raised if they want to introduce Grade skipping system. And, I think that compulsory education such as classes at elementary and junior high school are really important for students. Even though they are good at some subjects, maybe they are not good at some fields and their understandings are not enough. So, they shouldn't skip their grades. I think it is important to have friends who are in the same generation. If they want to study more, I will recommend them to take traial classes of university or high school while they are in the usual school. This will improve their interests and develop their skills.