Delaware’s Governor Markell wants to get Kindergarteners ready for college by having them take standardized testing. What a crock! I’m convinced this is just a big Ponzi scheme and someone is making a lot of money off all these tests.
One of the most distressing characteristics of education reformers is that they are hyper-focused on how students perform, but they ignore how students learn. Nowhere is this misplaced emphasis more apparent, and more damaging, than in kindergarten.
A new University of Virginia study found that kindergarten changed in disturbing ways from 1999-2006. There was a marked decline in exposure to social studies, science, music, art and physical education and an increased emphasis on reading instruction. Teachers reported spending as much time on reading as all other subjects combined.
The time spent in child-selected activity dropped by more than one-third. Direct instruction and testing increased. Moreover, more teachers reported holding all children to the same standard.
How can teachers hold all children to the same standards when they are not all the same? They learn differently, mature at different stages – they just are not all the same especially at the…
View original post 696 more words
The Exceptional Infinite 
Thank you again for an enlightening read. It reminds me of an excellent book called “Better Late Than Early” by Dr. Raymond Moore. In that book Dr. Moore cites study after study making the case that children need uncluttered play time, and lots of it, before they are required to sit still and do desk work. In each case, the children who were free to explore their environment through play in the presence of a caring adult who answered questions and read books always fared better than the ones who were institutionalized early. Independent reading was delayed but once students began to read at ages 8-10 they always surpassed their peers in reading ability and comprehension within a year of beginning to read. Why? Because they had rich experiences to link to the words they read. And this book was written when compulsory age of school attendance was 8 in most locales! I wonder what he would say now!
LikeLike