posted on Aug, 2 2004 @ 01:18 PM
I went to school in a very small independent district, and in my town most people were poor, some extremely so. When I started 6th grade, the number
of kids that year was supposedly too large for the portable classrooms the 6th grade used, so about 14 of us were reassigned to the class of one of
the 5th grade teachers. We were in the same roon with a small 5th grade class, but we were doing what we were told was "advanced" 6th grade work.
Some of the kids in my group weren't from the top of the grade standings, I know I wasn't, but that's why we were supposedly grouped together.
After about a month, some parents realized our group wasn't on a tougher curriculum, and started a drive to have us put with the other 6th graders.
I think the parents of the 5th graders we were in a room with also had concerns about how much attention their own children were receiving. So, we
were moved into the portable classrooms, which must have grown overnight because we certainly weren't overcrowded. Looking back years later, I
realize that although most of the kids in my group were reading on a consistenly high level, we mostly had a higher family income than some (but not
all) of the other 6th graders. So I wonder if maybe it was some type of experiment the school was conducting, looking for a way to segregate economic
groups.