Here is our second and final entry on chapter 3 -- Mallory did a great job writing it, and I think you'll find it thought-provoking.
Here it is:
Chapter three of Elkind, regarding how schools hurry children, was particularly interesting to me as I hope to one day be a teacher in our public school system. I think all of us, being Child Development majors, have some sort of passion for enhancing the lives of children and providing them with knowledge. I myself hope to inspire children and teach them as much as I can while making them passionate about life.
In our school systems today, I think this hope and goal is relatively hard to achieve with schools being so industrialized and standardized. I personally went to private school from the time I was in preschool through eighth grade, so our standards and requirements were different than those in public schools; however, I was no stranger to standardized testing and meeting number goals to keep up with comparable schools.
I agree completely with Elkind in that these standardized tests not only limit the creativity and room to grow as children, but also limit the teachers. Teachers sync curriculum with each other, all use the same textbooks, give their students the same tests and are expected to produce children who learn that the ultimate goal is to score well on a test.
One huge problem I think there is with this is that, as we’ve learned in our classes, not all children think and learn the same. According to Elkind, one way this standardized system hurries children is that it ignores that children have individual learning styles and learn at different rates. Not all children learn at a specific level all at the same time, nor do standardized tests measure for all kinds of intelligence.
Not only has this “reform” of schools brought all these different types of standardized tests, but it has also added more homework, less recess, and longer school days and years have even been proposed. When I was in elementary school, I of course thought I had a ridiculous amount of homework every day, but it is nothing like the load children carry today. I was a nanny for a family for two years and was amazed at the amount of homework the two girls had every day. They would literally work on it from the moment they walked in the door until they went to bed, with a small break for an hour-long sports practice and to eat dinner. They never had time to play with their friends on weekdays or even just to have downtime to relax from the day that they spent at school doing even more schoolwork.
I agree with Elkind that tests are a stressful thing for people at any age. I still get some level of stress every time I have to take a test, and I’m in college. Putting this sort of stress on young children is not healthy. Not only do they stress about whatever number grade they get and how it compares with their peers, but they quickly learn that retaining knowledge is not what’s important: it is passing or not passing the test that truly matters in the end. My mom is a kindergarten aide at the private school I went to and I sat in on one of her classes for an observation assignment I had. I was blown away by how drastically different my memory of kindergarten was from what I observed. The funny part is that my observation was in the same room with the same teacher as when I was there in 1990, but things were completely different. My memories from that classroom included the phone booth, the dolls and dress-up clothes, sitting in a circle singing, coloring, and all things that I think are important for kids that age. However, the day I was in there, I observed children lined up on the ground, cross-legged, with bean bag lapboards to write on, taking a standardized test. I saw stress on so many five-year-olds’ faces that it made me leave so sad and discouraged in our school system. These children would get so upset, even cry if they didn’t know the answers to these questions. After all, to them, that’s what determines whether or not they are as smart as the rest of the kids in their class, right?
Children don’t need these types of pressures, nor should they be given standards to meet that may be beyond their level, or may be impossible to measure for their learning style. In general, we should not hurry our children into tasks for which they are not ready.
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Mallory, I was immediately intrigued by one of your first comments- that as Child Development majors, we often seek to enhance the lives of children, which includes providing them with knowledge. This is true. But it was your comment that followed, about encouraging children to be passionate about life that made me think: "should we not also be wholeheartedly committed to encouraging children to be passionate about learning?" This is something that I believe has fallen by the wayside in the midst of "hurrying" children through school. I think you can agree. In an effort to "increase production," to improve test scores, and to even compare to the academic achievement of other industrialized nations, we are pressuring children to meet unreasonable and inappropriate academic standards before they are ready. We are placing excessive demands on kids today, for example by teaching subject matter at ever earlier ages without any regard for the complexity of individuals. You brought up this significant point in your entry, that children think and learn in different ways. Rates, styles, and strengths of learning vary from individual to individual, which is to be acknowledged and honored. And yet, rather than embrace this reality, we continue to impose more of the same- calling for (unsuccessful) educational reform. Educational reform is responsible for burdening children with more hours, more homework, more testing, less recess, and perhaps, in the long run, less meaningful learning. It sounds like you saw the effects of this in working as a nanny with the two girls with regards to the ridiculous amount of schoolwork they had. As you mentioned, Elkind argues that the implementations of standardized tests is just one example among the factors to blame for the breakdown in education. Not only are tests extraordinarily stressful for young children, but they send an erroneous message that it is more important that a child provide the "right" answers, and make a certain grade, than it is to truly learn and gain useful knowledge. How can we help children to be passionate about learning when they spend more time having their rote knowledge measured than truly learning? In this way, children are being robbed of meaningful learning and creativity, all in the name of "academic achievement." From this so called "achievement" they are gaining their self worth. And there is incredible danger in this: should children experience trouble keeping up, they are often compelled to think that something is "wrong" with them, that consequently, they themselves are "failures." The truth is, however, that our education system is not working. Newsflash: It is ineffective! By pushing young children to succeed beyond their ability, to adhere to inappropriate academic demands and expectations, to render their individual learning styles/levels/strengths meaningless, it is the education system that is failing our children. Not the other way around.
ReplyDeleteMallory, something that caught my attention that I feel is under-emphasized is your comment on teachers synchronizing education. I think this is one of the great tragedies resulting from the standardization of the American education system. Teachers are required to use the same books and teach in the same manner at the same pace as other teachers in their same grade, regardless of their personal teaching style and the needs of their students. As teachers, individuality that was once the inspiration for passing knowledge and creating a classroom environment with passion and imagination is now being substituted with instructions on what to use and how to use it. In my opinion, this makes it very difficult for teachers to be passionate about what they teach because they are not allowed to teach from the heart to the heart, only from the mind to the mind. As a former pre-kindergarten teacher this is very discouraging and the effects of teaching to test are felt by educators as much as by the children who are being robbed of the joy of learning. ~Annette Cipolla
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post Mallory. I really agreed with a lot of the points you made. I too have seen firsthand how times have changed in the classroom. I observed a second grade class in which the students had to take a writing test. I saw how nervous the students were as the teacher explained what they were supposed to do. As part of observing that class, I got to see some of the writing assignments these students did. In looking over these papers, I saw incredible differences among those students who were advanced, intermediate, and much poorer in their writing skills. This is a clear example of Elkind’s point that students have different learning styles and learn at different rates.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you when you say that students have loads of homework these days. My ten year old sister will sometimes stay up as late as 10 at night doing homework. It’s difficult for me to see her working so hard, but still struggling to understand the material. I feel as if she isn’t really learning anything, except learning how to do the bare minimum so that she can pass a test. When I was little, I enjoyed school and wanted to learn. Unfortunately, my sister is frustrated, stressed out all the time, and dislikes school. I think we need to stop hurrying the kids and hurry to fix the education system.
I really identified with this chapter because I also don’t understand why we are so focused on standardized testing. Like Elkind said, standardized testing limits creativity and room to grow in children and limits teachers. I agree with you that we have learned in numerous classes that not all children think and learn the same. I also think most of us have witnessed this first hand, while working with or observing children. Reading about this and knowing what I know from classes and my own experiences and observations makes me frustrated. If I see this so clearly and others see this, why are we still doing this? As an elementary school student I don’t remember the pressures of standardized testing and mounds of homework. My fondest memories are of recess, I feel truly sorry for the children that are being hurried through school.
ReplyDelete-Melissa Kyhn
Mallory, as I read your entry, I found myself nodding my head to what you had to say about our educational system today. I too feel that the way in which our children are taught is so different compared to what we grew up with. For example, teachers are required to teach lesson plans synced with other teachers; this method of teaching makes no sense to me. Why should teachers follow such strict guidelines? We're essentially asking teachers to put their creative styles aside and follow the same lesson plan at all times. Teachers are put in a hard position and so are children. They are forced to learn a certain way and at the same pace as others. Such expectations for teachers and children are ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteToday, I hear of many young elementary students feeling overwhelmed and stressed about school. The demands children feel really irk me. Children shouldn't have to do an extensive amount of homework when coming from a day filled with school. They essentially don't have enough time for themselves to enjoy the things they like doing as children. They feel burdened with hours upon hours of homework in some cases. I remember coming home with little homework as kindergarteners, 1st graders, etc. I enjoyed my school as a child and cannot imagine how I would have felt if homework was given to me as it is to children today. Some children no longer enjoy school like we used to. Like you said, we feel anxious as adult before taking exams. Can we at least try to imagine how these young children feel when they have to complete standardized tests? The demands are too much and something needs to change!
Lal Koeum
I agree that there is a lot of pressure put on children nowadays to perform well in school. I have a 12 year old cousin who spends as much time doing her homework as I spend doing mine. She has no time for anything else and has told me that she feels pressured to perform well in school. Although she is a very intelligent child, I feel that the stress is too much for such a young child to handle.
ReplyDeleteRegarding standardized tests, I really hated taking them when I was younger. I always did well in the classroom, but struggled with standardized tests. I believe such tests do not accurately measure knowledge because they do not take into consideration the different learning abilities and skills of each individual child.
Sharon V.