At least there isn't any pressure..
From The Week's "Only in America" sidebar:
Kindergartens in Boston will begin issuing report cards this year, evaluating children on three dozen skills. "I want to give my son the mind-set to get into first grade," said one father, "rather than the traditional kindergarten fare: milk and cookies, taking naps, reading stories." A school official said today's 4-year olds no longer had time to waste. "Kindergarten," he said, "should be about preparing them to be 5-year olds in the real world."
Umm... the real world for 5-year olds? Let's see running away from girls and learning how to print letters. Yep we better start these 4-year olds learning the real world right now. Come freakin' on.
posted by Scott at 5:59 PM
1 Comments:
Ok, time to drag out the soap box again...
The pressure being put on kids to perform in an increasingly competitive world is ridiculous. Let's see if I remember my high school math... the quality of our children's education is inversely proportional to the raising of standards by our schools. If I got that wrong, I only meant to say that it's odd how the higher our standards get, the lower the quality of education our kids are receiving. Grrr...
I believe in the phrase that all children can learn, but it si nearly impossible for teachers to give appropriate-level instruction (aka Differentiated Instruction) when they have more than 30 students in a class and have to teach to more than 20 different levels. Somewhere along the line our system is failing, not only because kids are coming to class unprepared, but because the theories thrust down the throats of teachers work nicely in a theoretical setting -- that's why they're called theories -- but don't translate to success in an actual classroom.
Ed, Note: I just spent the past two nights in a 6-hour inservice having theories shoved down my throat. I'm pissed off as all hell and ready to go to the mat over some of these things.
I'm not arguing that kids learn in different ways. They do. What I'm arguing is that when a teacher has to teach the same thing 30 different ways, the curriculum is at best abbreviated and at worst watered-down. I have heard the research time and again that lower-level learners learn more and more efficiently when paired with a peer-tutor, or a higher-level student. That's great, if they are friends and have a rapport and are aware of each other's limitations.
In the real world, on the other hand, students are shy, self-conscious, and unwilling to work with someone who can write stellar college application essays when they themselves are barely able to map out a coherent thought. In the real world, they are made fun of, isolated, and laughed at because of their skills, or lack thereof. The theory states that low-level students grouped together will produce a mediocre product, while high-level students will produce a stellar product.
I have found neither true in the real world. I usually let my students group themselves, at a great danger that they may get nothing accomplished except their weekend plans. But when they work, I find that they are more comfortable in their groups and tend to be more participatory and perform better. I have gotten some stellar thoughts and projects from students who, as a group, can barely speak English (they would be considered low-level). Other times, I find that a Special Education student is friends with the gifted students, and he too benefits from the arrangement. No one is laughed at or made fun of in a cruel manner, and the products I receive have been excellent.
So how does all this relate to Scott's original post, one might ask themselves. Well, sometimes the adults just have to step back, let the kids take control, and see what happens. They can surprise us sometimes. Quit raising the standards, quit scaring them with all the commotion about standardized testing, and for God's sake, make it interesting! They don't need the real world yet; that's why they are kids! We can prepare them for the real world without emotionally and psychologically scarring them from a young age.
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