It just can't be done well without cutting corners. And too many corners have been cut for too many years in public education. Schools need to publish the true class sizes. Your editorials, in which you suggest that retention is no reason to assume success the second time around, are well-taken and compassionate, but you forget that this is an age of grade inflation as well as social promotion. In 30 years of teaching, I have never met a student who failed because he couldn't learn the concepts.
All teachers offer remediation to children who have difficulty understanding material in class.
That's what teaching is all about. If we set standards, and enforce them, children will learn that there are consequences for laziness, and do their work. St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.