We find that bright children are rarely held back by mixed-ability teaching. On the contra

ry, both their knowledge and experience are crotched. We feel that there are many disadvantages in streaming pupils. It does not take into account the fact that children develop at different rates. It can have a negative effect on both the bright and the not-so-bright children. After all, it can be quite discouraging to be at the bottom of the top grade!

Besides, it is rattier unrealistic to grade people just according to their intellectual ability. This is only one aspect of their total personality. We are concerned to develop the abilities of all our pupils to the full, not just their academic ability. We also value personal qualities and social skills, and we find that mixed-ability teaching contributes to all these aspects of learning.

In our classrooms, we work in various ways. The pupils often work in groups: this gives them tile opportunity to learn how to cooperate, to share, and to develop leadership skills. They also learn how to cope with personal problems as well as learning how to think, to make decisions, to analyze and evaluate, and to communicate effectively. The pupils learn from each other as well as from the teacher.

Sometimes the pupils work in pairs; sometimes they work on individual tasks and assignments, and they can do this at their own speed. They also have some formal class teaching when this is appropriate. We encourage our pupils to use the library, and we teach them the skills they need in order to do this efficiently. An advanced pupil call do advanced work: it does not matter what age the child is. We expect our pupils lo do their best, not their least, and we give them every encouragement to achieve this goal.

What does the author mean by "held back" (Line 1, Para. 1 ) ？

A．Made to stay in the same class.

B．Obliged to study in the lower class.

C．Prevented from advancing.

D．Concentrated on their studies.