The Kids Have Changed.....
Or have they? When I walked past the Gesell Institute display at the ASCD conference I found myself smiling as I remembered being introduced to the ideas of Arnold Gesell at the University of Connecticut in the 1970s. First published in the 1920s, a recent study of children in the 21st century showed the same sequence of development, at the same ages, as children in the 1920s. Of course we know that evolution doesn’t happen in one generation yet some push for moving forward with curriculum and tests that are cognitively advanced for children’s chronological ages.
While children may appear smarter, it is just in a culturally savvy way, not in a deep understanding of it. 2 year olds can no better interpret the symbolism of sesame street characters, as 3 year olds can understand oblique angles, or 4 year olds understand conservation of matter. Sure they can be trained to draw acute angles and write four digit numbers, but understanding comes later.
So, if Gesell’s data is valid (and research shows it continues to be) why are we pushing advanced curriculum down to lower and lower grades. Time spent teaching all kindergarteners to write full sentences and teaching algebra to all 8th graders may not be productive because of developmental constancies and differences. Babies all start walking at different times and new skiers don’t start on the double diamond slopes their first time out.
There’s nothing wrong with moving forward with those who are developmentally ready. But most children also need the training wheels of musical rhythms to stimulate the patterning part of the brain and opportunities for art that build imagination as well as small motor skills, and yes, even dress up to build language and social skills.
posted by Assessment Network @ 1:29 PM
14 Comments
14 Comments:
I think there is an increasing amount of pressure from parents for students these days. I remember, even as recently as when I was in school, that my parents were supportive and encouraging of me academically, but they also were encouraging of my creativity and extracurriculars. My mom was supportive when I told her I wanted to do Irish step dancing and as I became more advanced, my dad took me to my competitions every weekend. I was also involved in a youth group and a youth orchestra on the shoreline. My parents cared about who I was as a person and what made me happy.
I see a lot of parents now signing their children up for advanced programs, AP classes, extra academic things and less things that students find fun. Kids haven't changed per se, but what is considered important has. There seems to be less value on who a student becomes as a person and more value put on grades, college that a student attends, and income. That seems a little off balance to me.
In our ever changing world, it seems like the pressure is only increasing in many elements of childrens' lives. With our country being worried about where other nations are with their educational systems, I feel we are forgetting what the actual purpose of education is. Children in present day America do not have much of an opportunity to be a kid. They are involved in many more extra curricular activities and do not have as much free time to explore and to be independent.
We are gearing our educational system to train each child as if they are going to be attending ivy league universities such as Harvard, Dartmouth or Yale. Unfortunately, this is an unrealistic goal and we need to focus on helping each child discover their strengths and weaknesses.
There is nothing wrong with enriching that student that needs a challenge with more difficult curriculum, but we also need to realize we are building the future of our country and allowing children to feel stressed out at a young age is not going to be beneficial in the long run.
As educators, we need to incorporate some more of that "out of the box", imaginative type thinking which seems to be currently lacking with many children. I think that not allowing students to practice this type of thinking prevents them from developing critical and creative thinking skills.
Everything is moving at a fast pace and it seems something is only better when it is faster. If this is the case, then what is the point of living and enjoying the simple things life has to offer?
In my opinion, it is a part of our modern, American culture to want to be the best and the brightest. Therefore, it is no surprise to me that we believe our children to be better than the children of previous generations. We certainly encourage our children to work ever harder in order to make this statement true. There is evidence of this in the academic expectations placed upon today's students. It is becoming increasingly common for children to attend full-day kindergarten, for example, when half-day kindergarten was considered sufficient up until recently. Also, children are considered to be at a disadvantage academically if they do not attend preschool first. These pressures are seen in expectations following high school graduation as well. Everyone, regardless of their career goals, is now expected to attend college. I, myself, attended a four-year college- not because it was required of my intended field, for I had no idea what I wanted for a career, but because it was expected. It is my hope that our generation of teachers can help students to understand that it is not important to be the best of the best. I hope that we can help them to achieve their own personal bests and know that this is enough.
It seems to me that with increasing technology, we assume our children will be increasingly smarter, earlier. Parents attempt to give their children every opportunity to be the smartest, the best, go to the best school, be the best on the team, etc. but this is simply not realistic. Not every child can be the best, not every child can reach the expectations set forth for them and often children just need to be, or want to be, children.
I, personally, know that I was pushed as a child, and even as an adult, to achieve academically. My parents have 4 children of which I am the oldest. It seems as though I was pushed the hardest in my studies and my younger sisters are not being pushed as hard as I was. This is slightly backwards in regards to the changing society pushing their children more now than before. My parents do expect a lot of my sisters but I feel as though they have learned to let them be kids. My mother refers to me as having a "Type A Personality" and has often times "blamed" herself for it. It is true that I like structure, need to get my work done, and generally overstress about school so I believe once they realized that was my outcome, they decided to lay off of my sisters a bit.
On the other hand, my parents are the type of parents that expect their children to do well in sports and activities. They are most definitely of the generation that expects their kids to be "the best of the best." I played softball and volleyball and my youngest sister runs track and is phenomenal. My two middle sisters are not the sporty type so they get left out of this phenomenon.
Looking at my sisters and their disconnect with school (which is seemingly increasing) I have to believe that the increasing pressures of school are the downfall of education. My sisters, and other students I see in my internship, are not connecting to the curriculum. We are forced to go through too much, too quickly and therefore lose focus that she students have to understand it in order for it to be effective. Once we move on to more difficult tasks, we need to take the time to explain them as educators so that the students understand what it is we are asking of them and why. In agreement with the posting, students are not magically different or more intelligent so why are we forcing them to prematurely think about and try to learn about things that they cannot possibly understand? We need to look at ways to change the curriculum to increase higher level thinking at younger levels without requiring the students to have skills and abilities that they cannot possibly have yet.
We are fooling ourselves if we believe that children of this generation are more intelligent than past generations. Working at a high school this year, I have seen firsthand that even though students are given more work and start homework at an early age, they are no more intelligent or prepared than students of the past. In fact, they seem to be lacking in some major areas, including reading comprehension and analytical skills.
There is a reason that kindergarten and first grade were meant for creative exploration and "play." The opportunity for children to play and to explore their world is a learning experience unto itself, and we are doing young children a great disservice if we see play as a waste of time. I find that rote learning and reading/math drills to be a waste of time for young children because we are dampening their spirits and we are robbing them of opporunities to be independent and creative learners. Creativity needs to be fostered at an early age. Yes, it is important to know your math facts, but it is more vital to be creative, analytical, and self-sufficient. And being creative does not mean that you are good at arts and crafts...creativity at its core is the ability to come up with new and innovative ideas/concepts.
I agree that children may appear mature, but it is more because they are exposed to culture at an earlier age. Yet, their ability to understand it doesn't come any earlier
I do not believe that children are any more intelligent today than children of past generations. Human development occurs at somewhat similar stages for each child and that has not changed simply because the amount of information has increased.
Children are certainly introduced to popular culture at an early age, which may make them appear smarter than children of earlier decades. Young children often can maneuver the intricacies of computers and other new systems of technology better than some adults, but they are unable to analyze the impact of technology on the world and may lack understanding of the functions of simple tools and problem solving skills. I interact with middle school kids daily and while they may be able to talk about popular media, some still have trouble writing a complete sentence. I do question the intelligence for advancing learning in students today. I think this push has two causes: the sheer magnitude of information available to learn, which results in an attempt to squeeze all this information in and the fact that speed and accomplishments are the American way.
By the time my nephew was two years old he was able to recognize his letters, numbers and colors. He could count the number of items and find letters on a page. He was able to accomplish this by using applications on my brother’s iphone. I’m not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, I think this is great and understand my brother’s motivation to give his child a jumpstart on school, but on the other hand, I’m not sure he needs to know that at two and am concerned about an over-reliance on technology. I also watched the transformation of the five year old I babysit this past year from entering nursery school not knowing any of his letters to now knowing them and applying them to words. I wonder what his attitude towards school would have been had he entered already knowing that information. This child is also highly talented in singing and making up lyrics on the spot. I wonder if he would be so musical if he had focused on learning letters at an early age.
I agree with Dr. Greenstein. There is nothing wrong with challenging your child, but I do not believe it is developmentally appropriate or helpful to children to push advanced curriculum to lower grades, unless of course the child is capable.
The students we have today are no smarter than those of days past. It seems as though, because students are technologically precocious, it is no assumed that this translates into an intellectual precociousness as well. This is not the case yet due to confusion that mistakes their early cultural awareness for early intellectual development, they are now challenged to think on a level that is in many cases, developmentally beyond them. Even more unfortunate is the fact that many young people are witnessing and hearing things, both in the classroom and at home that they may not be ready to understand the implication of, as they do not yet have the foundations for understanding such things.
I am reminded of a video advertising a product which is named "Your baby can read." Which, in my opinion, is slightly ridiculous. Instead of giving children time to play, something which increases their understanding of the world into which they are growing, they are being encouraged in activities for which they are not developmentally ready. It seems as though there is too much of a push for knowing, which at too young an age means without any of the emphasis on understanding. This push has led to many students who can't write a cohesive sentence, let alone a paper with a cogent argument. We need to let children develop at the pace which is appropriate to them.
It’s unfortunate that kids don’t get to be kids anymore. Our society is consumed with idea of more, better and not enough. School systems are trying so hard to race our nation to the top that they have forgotten that these are just kids. There not robots that we can program. Nowadays if students don’t enter kindergarten knowing their alphabet and a basic understanding of phonemic awareness they are behind. This desire to rush students through school and cram as much information into them as possible is obviously not working. Why is it that 1/3 of student entering college have to take remedial classes (especially in math)? Obviously that should be sending us a message. Unfortunately many in control cast a blind eye. There is a reason some ideas like algebra shouldn’t be taught until students are in high school, most students are just not ready to handle those new ideas developmentally. No matter how hard we try we can’t fit a round peg in a square hole.
There is such a rush for kids to grow up. Children need to learn things on their own-make mistakes, fall down, color in kindergarten. I remember when I was in kindergarten we colored, we played, we had nap-time (it was all day kindergarten). Two years ago I worked in a kindergarten class and I remember the head teacher looking at me and saying "we have no time for fun-we don't color anymore unless it goes with the story that the students are writing". No one wonder why motivation in children can be hard to spark, its all work work work, and it is hard. Some students who are advanced and are ready to move on should, but those that are not shouldn't, they are only going to get further lost. It is unfair to the students. We are raising students to be top-dogs, but by the time they get there,will they want to be there because of all the pressure they have already had in their lives?
I remember reading an article over the winter in our Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum class about a parent who sent her child to some expensive private Kindergarten because she thought it would help her later success. The parent later became astounded when she learned that her child was performing "fun" activities such as drawing and painting. She later demanded that the school give them a refund, insisting that they had compromised her daughters education. This example illustrates the pressures that are on kids today to grow up when they are not developmentally ready to do so. I think that from a biological perspective it is unrealistic to think that kids are any smarter today than they were in the 1920's. The fact that we expose kids to different things at younger ages than we did back in the 20's is what creates this illusion. Young children are much better at using technology at a young age now because resources are more readily available across the board. This might lead some to believe that children today are smarter when they are just merely learning different things than they used to. Children's brains still develop in the same manner that they did 100 years ago and some forms of thinking are simply beyond most. For example, you can spend hours upon hours going over math problems with a third grader, but it would be seemingly impossible for most third graders to then learn Algebra. This is because their brains are not fully capable of abstract thinking yet, which is needed for Algebra. The old concept of conservation that Piaget researched shows that kids today still think much in the same way that kids did in the 1920's.
Based on all this, I think that parents just need to relax and let their kids develop normally. Pressuring kids into trying to master concepts beyond their age might just lead them to hate learning eventually. If the example from the story I read over the winter does not illustrate that parents are putting too much pressure on their kids these days, then I do not know what does. In short, all kids grow up eventually and we should not try to rush their development too much.
I feel that it is what is presented to children in this day and age that makes them appear to be “smarter”. There are more children going to school than there were in the 1920’s, therefore there are more educated children. Parents want their children to be the best at everything they do, this is reflected in the way that people parent. I think too much emphasis is put on being the best in everything we do, there are naturally going to be certain things that we are all better at than others. I don’t think there is anything wrong with wanting your children to excel. The point where I get concerned is when I see parents who pour all of their energy into drilling the idea that the being the brightest or the best is the only option, this leaves children who can’t reach their parents goals feeling worthless. Too much energy is spent looking at the grades and not the children themselves.
I think students sometimes pushed to achieve things academically that they are not developmentally prepared to achieve. With so much emphasis placed on test scores and ranking, it seems that this push is necessary. However, you're right. Evolution cannot occur within a generation; the change is to vast to present itself in such a short amount of time. What has changed is our society's view on education. 15 years ago, kindergarten was spent fingerpainting and molding play doh. Now, they come in with limited writing skills and leave knowing how to write and read simple books. The expectations are intensifying, and children are feeling the pressure. Students are thrust through a rigorous curriculum, as it should be. However, what is the cost? Will this generation grow up not remembering playing outside after school because they were so bogged down with homework?
I feel the push for academic achievement at a young age may seem like a good idea, but to me the risk of becoming disconnected from the arts and proper socialization skills at a young age is not work the added stress of succeeding academically. I can compare these pressures of school work to when I was a young child playing baseball. Parents and coaches took the sport so seriously that myself and many other young players lost the pleasure of playing the game. There was no room for error, no time for fun, strictly business. I believe this full throttle attitude toward academic achievement at a young age can have the same effect on students as it did on me in my baseball example. I see students being “burnt-out,” stressed out, over scheduled, and extremely frustrated in a time in their lives when they really should not have too many responsibilities. (That’s not to say that I do not think all students should not be academically challenged early on) Even when students reach high school they should not feel pressured to take high level classes by outside influences. Students who want to strive for academic achievement should be driven by intrinsic motives. Everyone is driven and good at something when they have a passion for whatever it is they may love to do. This should be supported in an appropriate manner, not solely through positive reinforcement of high academic achievement.
There is so much pressure being put on teachers and students alike to succeed and have high test scores, especially in the era of NCLB and Race to the Top. However, some students are not developmentally ready to comprehend what is being asked of them and how they are being asked to perform. Students definitely benefit from "dress up" and "kitchen" center in Kindergarten because it helps build social skills, appropriate language, and helps them to develop "make believe" skills of adults. There are many reasons that parents and teachers put pressure on their students. However, I think it is more important to expose students to many experiences so that they can develop things they are exceptional at, such as art or math, as opposed to expecting them to be the best at everything. I agree with Dr. Greenstein that you should move forward with your students who are ready, but for the one who are not, it may be detrimental to their development because they are being pushed to do things that they are not yet ready to do.
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