Should Children Be Grouped?

In the reading "Tracking: Why School's Need to Take Another Route" by Jeannie Oaks the controversial topic of grouping kids comes into play. Now by tracking and grouping certain children, it is said that there are both advantages and disadvantages. However I only see disadvantage. For instance in the reading it mentions that tracking "locks most kids into classes where they are stereotyped as "less able". And by doing this I feel as though it puts everyone at a disadvantage because they are now stuck and unable to be challenged. This reminded me of the video "Between Barack and a Hard Place" because in the film the speaker mentioned how children of black or Hispanic background were placed in lower ranking classes than him just because they were not white. And because of this they were viewed as less able and maybe less intelligent.

Another quote I found interesting was "A number of studies have found that top-classes spend more class time on learning activities and less on discipline, socializing, and class routines." I found this to be important because all though in some classes of lower standards there are disciplinary issues, teachers should always make it their main priorities to teach the students, and should find a way to still have stable order of the classroom. And finally "What about average kids? The quality of classes for average students usually falls somewhere between the high and low-class extremes" I feel as though this is really important because being an average kid myself I realized that many of my fellow class mates who were in higher ranking classes were asked to do more and were given more independence, and with kids in lower ranking classes, they were babies their whole way through high school. But with the average kids we were stuck in some awkward stage of life where there was either too much of one thing and too little of another and it eventually became frustrating! So overall though I believe this reading made some good points I feel as though by tracking and grouping children only harm can be done.