Troubling

Today I was helping Brit (nickname) with her homework. While we were working on her spelling words (which she had down pat) she told me that, although she is in 2nd grade, she had been moved down to the 1st grade class. I figured she must have been held back. But then she told me that the reason she had been moved was that there were too many kids in the 2nd grade class, and only 1 teacher. The teacher couldn't handle 30 kids alone, so a handful were moved down.

I don't know if this is true or not. Sometimes the kids tell me stories. But it concerns me. I know the classrooms are overcrowded, and the teachers are at their wits end. But would the public school system really move kids to a lower class because of this?

I also noticed that Brit didn't have the same homework packet she normally does. Usually, in this particular class, the kids get a big stack of pages that they are supposed to finish by Friday. Today, however, she just had a couple of loose-leaf exercises (that were WAY too easy for her). She told me the reason she didn't have her normal packet was that her teacher "didn't have time" to prepare it.

So basically Brit is learning nothing. She is being given assignments that are much too simple for her, and, according to her, she is in a class that she has already successfully completed.

Strange, isn't it?