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Is Four the New Six?
June 12, 2008
If we surrendered to earth’s intelligence we could rise up rooted, like trees.
-Rainer Maria Rilke
-Rainer Maria Rilke
A child’s job is to learn all about
the world and fully develop into
the very best person that
he or she can be.
the world and fully develop into
the very best person that
he or she can be.
This is the opening for Jim Greenman's Exchange article, "The Child’s Job: Talking to Parents About Child Development." Greenman continues...
"Child development is complicated. There are many research studies and thick textbooks that cover every aspect of child development. Good caring practices, environments, activities, and the expectations of children and teachers are designed to promote and foster each child’s development. How can we explain that to parents? How can we help parents understand and recognize the value of what we do?
"Of course, what good early care and education programs should do is under siege by a growing national anxiety attack and obsession with school readiness. This anxiety casts a cloud (or shroud) over early childhood programs, as if all we should focus on is how to create the ideal child for a kindergarten classroom, and an academic kindergarten at that! The irony is many of these children may live to be 100 years old. Drawing from a popular expression, they will experience '40 as the new 30', '60 as the new 50.' So why does four have to be the new six?
"In reality, the focus of good child care is much broader and deeper because our programs provide the foundations for lives that extend far beyond the kindergarten year."
This entire article can be found in the Exchange Ideas for You �" Free! section of the Exchange web site.
Jim Greenman has distilled his great thinking on designing learning spaces in early childhood programs in his best-selling Exchange guidebook, Caring Spaces, Learning Places �" Children's Environments that Work. This week, Caring Spaces is on sale at a 20% discount on the Exchange web site.
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Comments (2)
Displaying All 2 CommentsPlantation, FL, United States
This is so in tune with what I've been saying for many years. When I taught kindergarten in the 70's it was preschool. There was no expectation that children should come to kindergarten already knowing letters and numbers, and certainly not reading. Today, our pre-k programs are like first grade used to be. It is so sad for the children who are pressured to be little elementary school students at a very young age. I know it's unlikely, but I wish the pendulum would spring back t reality.
Pinehurst, NC, United States
Given the current emphasis on accountability and the related desire to ensure that historically underperforming populations enter school "ready to learn", this push down mentality is understandable. But when did we lose sight of the fact that children are inherently born ready to learn--regardless of adult intervention? I keep looking to the horizon in the hopes that I'll see the pendulum swinging back toward the promotion of children's innate curiosity and a teacher's role as the nurturer of that inquisitiveness.
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