I have been thinking a lot about tracking.  Two issues stand out when considering tracking.  First, there is the issue of depth versus breadth.  Then there is the issues of ability levels.

I have had the opportunity to visit schools in other countries.  Tracking is common in these schools. By sixth grade, students are tracked into an aptitude/ability/interest track.  Basically, they are allowed to make choices about which interests they would like to pursue within their ability levels.  On the one hand, it seems like a great solution because it gives both students and teachers the opportunity to focus on subject matter, pursue it in depth, and learn it well.

On the other hand, I have a hard time with it because I feel it is limiting to students.  I find it hard to believe that their interests and abilities are so developed by sixth grade that it should decide their futures. Perhaps I feel this way because I was a middle student in elementary school with not a great deal of interests or abilities.  Then I hit middle school, and in those three years, somehow I grew into myself.  I found all kinds of hidden talents, abilities, and interests.  I can’t imagine what it would have been like if I had been tracked at an earlier stage and those opportunities not opened for me.

It is an important and interesting question.  Our nation definitely has a breadth of curriculum that makes it difficult to learn anything extremely well and yet gives students opportunities to try all kinds of different things.  As we look to our goals and aspirations for our children in the future, this is definitely a topic we must consider.