The classroom experience of today’s elementary school children would be quite unfamiliar to many parents and grandparents.

“They used to be one room, one grade, one lesson,” said Cathy Gallagher, District 112 K-12 curriculum coordinator. “Education has evolved, with recognition each room has a variety of students and each teacher is different. We now try to build the social and emotional child as well as the academic child.”

Three practices used by District 112 elementary schools to combine academics with social and emotional awareness are: multi-age experiences (grouping older and younger students together); looping (keeping students with the same teacher for more than one year); and flexible groupings (grouping children by ability).

This week, the print edition of the Chaska Herald explored “multi-age experiences.”

Some educators believe that grouping younger and older students together for various programs helps them learn from each other.

However, some parents are concerned that the approach has downfalls, such as separating students from their peers.

How do you feel about the “multi-age experiences” approach? Does it help or hinder students?