Rock and a Hard Place
Find a Conversation
Rock and a Hard Place
| Thu, 11-20-2003 - 10:45am |
There's something on this board that has been bothering me, and I hope I can articulate it.
| Thu, 11-20-2003 - 10:45am |
There's something on this board that has been bothering me, and I hope I can articulate it.
Pages
PumpkinAngel
I have to admit this is kind of a sore subject for me and I am getting ready to rant. You might want to step back. Plus, I might go alittle off topic.
When did it become so important that our kids meet some so-called standardized test anyway? Our children today are under a huge amount of pressure to read early, to be more verbal and to have improved math skills. I remember Kindergarten as a time to have fun and do a little school work. We played dress up and played in the imagination centers-kitchens and such. Now, it is all about how our children place on national testing standards or school standards. Why? What is so important about a child reading or doing basic math in first grade instead of kindergarten. Why are we as a society pushing our children so hard and so fast to academically achieve? Is it worth the cost of losing recess or free-time or using your imagination?
I truly have not worried about my son. He is not the fastest reader in the world but he reads. He did it in first grade instead of kindergarten or preschool. I don't think he is going to be a homeless bum because of it. I just think he is, gasp, average in reading. There is nothing wrong with average. Nothing. I struggled with the fact he wasn't reading in Kindergarten for awhile. Devin and I are huge readers. I love to read and read 2 or 3 books in a good week. I asked my mother and she said I learned to read in first grade. Guess what? I survived.
I don't approve of teaching for testing which seems to be where education is going. It is ridiculous and it takes the imagination out of teaching. It also takes the individuality of learning out of education. Teachers have to follow a routine and children are expected to learn at the same pace and the same level. It is unfair for the teachers and the children. The charting of children in a classroom is part of that trend. Who cares where your child places in his kindergarten classroom? Really, if he is first, do you think he will be a valendictorian one day? Do you think your child will always be first? In the big, huge picture of your child's life is it that important? If he is in the middle, do you think your child is a failure or do you take him for tutoring in kindergarten? I don't get it.
&nbs
I have witnessed parents who are unable to accept the their children are where they are and for who they are and who address the issue by hounding the schools, the sports organizations, whatever. The problem is that in my world class distributions are not available. You don't get them below school level. Which means every parent makes up their own idea of where their kid "should" be and when that doesn't pan out they blame the school system. They make up their own idea of where their kids should be, and their own idea of where their kids are, and their own idea of where everyone elses kids are, with out any real clue as to where any other kid in the whole world is. 2 yrs of K here give only qualitative results and hoards of parents assume that whatever little Jonny is doing is as good as can be expected for any child. Hoards of others assume that no matter how well little Jonny is doing its not good enough. Lack of objective comparison data cause more harm than presence of it ever will. These parents NEED to see the reality of where their kid is compared to actual kids. Lack of reality doesn't change the parent type, it just makes the parent type more dangerous to the kids. Lack of this data allows parents to make up distributions to suit themselves. Its WHERE you get the kid with all As except for one B, pressured to get more As next time, actually. Its because that parent has imgained that 10% of the class has aboslutely straight As in the class where no kid besides theirs has less than 3 Bs. Its also where the kid with all Ds and Cs is deemed by another parent to be doing as well as the average kid in the class, even when no other kid in the class has no Ds and at least 2 Bs.
<>
IMO, thats a parents job, first and foremost and they children should hit K with that mentality fully in place. You are pretty much proving my point here -you are competitive wrt your child/ren but don't want to accept any responsibility for the result - you want it all to rest with the teachers.
Pages