Disadvantages of Looping Looping is not for everyone, however, and certainly should not be mandated or forced on an unwilling staff. Time may be lost at the beginning and throughout the school year as the looping teacher strives to master the new curriculum. The higher the grade level, the more curriculum content there is to be mastered. Despite the best efforts to match teaching styles with children's learning styles, there will always be mismatches. Continuing those mismatches for a second year is unfair to both teacher and child.
Every teacher has strengths and weaknesses.
As children move from grade to grade in the traditional system, they may go from a teacher who is gifted at teaching one subject to a teacher who is strong in a different subject. But looping relegates children to two consecutive years with an instructor who may not teach an important curriculum area as well as other grade-level teachers, or who may not be able to bring out the best in a particular child's area of special interest. Each year, there are some children who are ridiculed or even ostracized by peers who perceive them as too smart, too dumb, too tall, too short, too fat, too thin, or too this or that. Looping extends the negative consequences for both those children and their classmates. Also, remaining with the same class for a second year limits a child's opportunities to make new friends in the classroom setting.