Yes, Kids Can Miss an Elective to Get Extra Support in Reading or Math
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder argues that pulling students from electives for intensive reading or math intervention is a reasonable tradeoff.
Key Takeaways
- Core skills come first - If a student can't read at grade level, art class can wait while they get intervention support
- This isn't permanent - Intensive intervention is temporary; once skills improve, students return to their full elective schedule
- The alternative is worse - A student who can't read will struggle in every subject, including their electives
Transcript
Is it okay to take students away from electives in order to do remediation in reading or math?
There's this idea out there that it's never okay, that students have to have every single one of their electives, the same number of electives as everybody else, even if there are multiple grades behind in reading or math.
And I think electives are important, right?
I think every student should have the opportunity to take electives.
And nobody is really proposing getting rid of all electives and saying, no, you have to do math remediation, reading remediation all day long.
Nobody's proposing that.
What people are proposing and what I think every school should do, especially at the high school level and middle school level, is have a period, an extra period of support for reading and for math for kids who need it.
And yes, that means you will have one fewer electives, but electives are elective.
They're optional.
You don't have to do electives and you will still get lots of electives.
See, in the high school credit system, there are between four and eight extra periods in your high school career that you don't need for anything.
That's after you meet graduation requirements, including electives.
Let me know what you think.