I never even considered that the entire lesson should be pitched solely to “Jose”. I merely used that name as one that a teacher might find in their classes today in an inner city. You don’t find “Sally”, “Dorothy”, “Paul”, “Frank” or “Carl” in classes any more. By no means did I mean that “Jose” stood for all Hispanics. What I meant was that a classroom teacher would throw in a few clarifying remarks for Jose or any other kid who you know is not going to grasp the concept as originally explained. A few clarifying remarks does not an entire lesson make. Your “Juan” in the front row is likely to “get it” as originally explained, but will still benefit from having the concept explained a different way. It is also true that many students claim they understand something, when asked, when the actual situation is nothing of the kind. They were too shy, proud, intimidated to ask questions they should have asked to clarify the concept for themselves. So having a few clarifying remarks made for the sake of “Jose” will actually benefit everyone.
Like I said before, an hour course on history with maybe 40 minutes being taught on the TV with visuals and best of the best teacher followed by the classroom teacher clarifying to Jose what they perceive as questions is not a problem. I remember film strips back in the 50’s that knocked my socks off when it came to explaining scientific principles. To think that 50+ years later that this is not an integral part of the classroom experience befuddles me.