SuperUnknown GP's writeup is dead on.
In my
high school there were three tracks, we'll call them
dumb, average, and
smart. The only problem with a multi-track system is when you decide who goes on what track. My
school decided that it would base how "smart" you were on your
math,
english, and
science grades prior to
eight grade. Most kids didn't give a flying fuck what they're grades in
middle school were since it didn't seem to effect
college. The logic was that if it didn't show up on your
college transcript, then it didn't really count. The only inspiration for getting good grades was to keep your
parents off your back.
Once the end of middle school came, we were privately(read:
secretly) told what class number we were in, but now what it would mean. We were also instructed not to divulge our
rank in our class because it might make the other kids
feel bad. I got put in the "average" group, despite an
IQ of 150+. Most of the people filed as "smart" were pretty much as dumb as logs when it came to common sense. I recall one girl
reminding the teacher that the
square root of 81 is 9.....10 minutes after the fact....with the help of a
calculator. Similarly, most of the kids that wound up in the "dumb" classes turned out to be
clever,
interesting,
intelligent and....duh duh duh dah!
Potheads. These poor guys got shafted into the "dumb" group because they were smart enough not to care about their 6th grade transcript, but nobody warned them it would kick 'em in the ass later.
Once the dust settled and we got into high school, it became immediately apparent that many of the class
placements were horribly incorrect. Unfortunately my school provided absolutely no mechanism for changing "tracks" mid-high school. You had to get special permission, each year, for each class, and needed three
signatures on each permission slip. Needless to say, I stopped caring and became a pothead. Now I have learned that the
lazy stoners that many people have to come to hate are the only
quality product that
public schools turn out. If you don't believe me think about this: Who is
smarter: 1) A person who follows directions to the letter, without
consideration or 2) Someone who realizes that if they
substitute one step for another (or do two at once) they can save themselves an hour and get home in time to
smoke a joint with their
roommate?