Too young too fast

Another issue I wanted to bring up is that people push their kids too hard too fast to accomplish things they are not ready for or should not be forced to be ready for. I went to a waldorf meeting the other night and they were talking about how kids are forced to learn to read at such an early age. There are studies that show that we may be doing better in literacy in the world at younger ages then other countries. But that once american children get into higher grade levels our country does very poor in other subjects and that other countries kids do better. Which shows that reading isn't what we need to be focusing on in regards to how well our kids succeed in life. It isn't the end all formula for success as some may seem to think.

Pushing your child to readiness too fast can cause : acting out: stress for them: headaches: sleep problems: and anxiete for them.

What needs to happen is community uprising to take back the system of teaching that we all have and have had in the past. It's nolonger working for our children.

Whats happening is we rely too much on governemnt funding for the schools which comes from all the testing. But what needs to happen is that people work as hard as they can to make it a priority to be part of the school system and be involved in how kids are learning and make an effort to make it good learning and not bussywork for testing for money. Your kids suffer. Ok I'm all finished ranting. your turn

 

Totally agree

Always marched to my own drummer development wise. Seemed a point of principle, only caved in when it was crunch time (No way would I sit by and let everyone think I was stupid)
Actually I did learn to read early, having a talent and desire to. My brother always had trouble. But hey we both got there in the end.

Who the hell are these 'average/normal' kids anyway?
How can someone who has never met a child possibly say what is right for them. They can't obviously. So why are they allowed to.

Tests are stupid anyway. I answered one or two essay questions on a particular day, and was subsequently branded with a letter. Apparently that's supposed to represent my skills in every aspect of every subsection relating to a given academic subject, in some cases forever.

There is too much variation from thought processes, moods, wording of questions and such for it to be reliable. Too much of school seems to involve learning how to answer exam questions. Which will of course be so useful in later life.

Argh the madness of it all.

 

I remember having to take those assessment tests with my classes every year and most of what was on it wasnt even what we learned...some of it was though. Sometimes I would just fill in bubbles. When my results came back I didn't ever take them too seriously. And looky look they have nothing to do with the rest of my life. I didn't learn anything from test taking.

 

schools only fit those who study/ thinkthat way. i think there needs to be different types of schools for different learning personalities. like some people learn through the arts and others through the maths kind of thing? i liked college a bit more because things were explained differently and you were involved in the learning/ discussions but what i didn't like was that these kids were all there taking mish mashed courses because its the thing to do. to me it seems like a waste of money and time. i think there are schools (in denmark???) where you go when you are older?

 

I work in a school system and I see the stress put on kids to perform on standardized tests every day. Some people are not good at test taking and will always have trouble. I try to teach test taking skills to my students, it helps a bit, but not enough to make a big difference for most kids. I am just frustrated with the public school system in general. The longer I work here, the more I want to take my daughter out of public school and teach her myself.

 

I remember when I was a kid...I'd pretend to not know how to read, so that people would just do the work for me.


Even at five I knew how to work the system. *Laughs*

 

lol

 

You're right Applespark. You have to let kids follow their own paths in learning as n most things. Obviously you give them the tools but forcing them to read or whatever before they are ready is just stupid.
For what it's worth. My Son who in his early life (until 5) lived with his Mom, we broke up when he was 1, didn't really get reading until he was about 8 my Daughter has been reading since she was around 4 she now reads @ a 4th grade level, she is 6. We did read to her from the begining & my Son didn't get that much from his Mom & the times he was with me although I read weren't the same repetition that you get from daily doing. Both are quite intelligent they just had different paths. Reading to your kids is important. They are going to do it on their own when they are ready. I agree that that isn't the only thing that they need to learn.

 

i agree on this. Alot of the kids in Ravens class can read already! they are in kindergarten for christs sake! so of course they think something is wrong with my child because she dosent read 1st grade level already!!

 

when i started kindergarden the school was very upset at my parents that i knew how to read ( i had started at 4 years old ) now its shoved at the kids from day one by reading to the uterus, those leap pad things and all the tv / computer media

 

I had to take Algebra 2 as a sophomore (most people take it as a junior or senior) because I was in "advanced classes". Now, my strengths were english and history, even science sometimes, but never ever math. The only math I didn't hate severely was geometry cause there were shapes and such to refer to. But anyway I failed it (cause I was too young for it) so when they put me in there the next year(where I did well in the class), they tried to take me out of advanced classes altogether (of course mom wasn't having that lol) It's like you have to be smart in every single subject or else you have to have trouble in every subject. It's like they don't even understand that kids are individuals. You can tell the way they focus on retarded standardized testing

 

What he is saying has a lot to do with brain development and the different areas of the brain (IE: logical, emotional, fight/flight).

The younger child is still primarily living in the emotional/fight or flight brain. If its not emotionally important to the child, it will not be stored in long term memory.

Thus a form of writing with symbols that represent things in the real world, such as drawing a picture of a cat to represent a cat, has an emotional basis in the brain (assuming the child has had an emotionally engaged interaction with a cat before).

The letter's C - A - T mean nothing to the childs emotional brain. They are simply abstract characters with no emotionally representation of a real life cat.

Thus forcing children to read too early is simply forcing a child to memorize abstract characters that have no relevance in their life. What is worse is the emphasis and emotion given to the child to reward this unnatural memorization of characters that mean nothing.

The child then learns that blind memorization is an accomplishment to be strived for.

Taking it one step further (IMHO) the groundwork is then laid for the child to be a good student of blind memorization (standardized tests) and then later a wonderful worker working a job that is not emotionally or spiritually engaging or rewarding.

Thus we are losing our humanity.

A good book (not on this topic specifically), but a good book nonetheless is

PARENTING WELL IN A MEDIA AGE by Gloria DeGaetano (spelling?)

 

'shoved, pushed, forced'-what negative terms being bandied about here for what really should be 'helping' a child develop a love of reading. Sounds like some of you were made to do alot of things early on that you didnt like, but don't deny your child any opportunity to succeed as revenge for your own parents poor parenting styles, or for your own bad education.
I know so many illiterate people of all ages, and they have a much harder time in life than those who learned to read early.
Reading is not a chore, books should not be seen as the enemy. reading is a neccessary tool. approach it as part of your daily life-have kids read dirctions as they cook with you, have them read road signs as you drive.
My nephew never reads at home, but when we're together first thing he brings me is a book and he loves it. But if it makes you feel any better, he still cant ride a bike at age 8.

 

thats right doing it as a part of daily life instead of forcing it in a setting where learning is lesser to happen.

 

i totally agree - i love to read and now so do my older sons. my oldest has always been a very good reader, he learned the phonics system in 1st grade and was reading tom clancy books by age 10. i have to force him not to read sometimes! my 10 year old son is a good reader now, he could read but didn't really like to, until i found out he liked scary stories. i then went to every thrift store & used book store i could find and bought him stacks of them. and those animorphs, he loves that. and oh! my! god! - guiness book of world records - they pore over those things, and i am subjected to endless trivial facts, mostly while i'm driving...... but the point being, he finally got enough practice at reading that it became easy enough to become fun. i got them to read without 'forcing' - i listened to their interests and supplied them with what they like.

reading IS important, you can learn how to do just about anything if you can read.

 

I was more talking about in the school systems but I didn't make that claer

 

yeah i read to my children everynight, and Raven my oldest at times will point at words and ask "whats that mean" which is great shes learning on her time and speed.

The school on the other hand expects her to know how to spell many three letter words. So now she has homework because in there eyes "theres something wrong with her". Its at the point where Raven hates school. She told me she dosent like it and dosent want to go back. Shes only 5 she shouldnt hate school already!!! but she does all because they cant stop shoving stuff down her throat and belittling her!

 

but what if a child doesn't have the interest in reading that another child has?

 

kindergarten is when i first learned letters & numbers - homework? never. my son had to do a diorama of an ecosystem in kindergarten. who the hell do they think did that? ME!! well, he stuck the little animals on with playdo - but i had to do everything else. the school projects i've had to do....

 

I am talking about literacy. im not saying every child is going to have difficulties later in life from reading early but evidence is showing that it is not hindering them to read when the brain is more developed for that sort of thing. look at crystalstarrs case. . .

and i do believe reading is a necesary tool. i think your jumping to conclusions about my "messed up" childhood.

READING TO CHILDREN is more important then children reading. i did however learn to read relatively early and i love books now - every one is different, and that is just the point - to teach to individual differences in children as their own development unfolds.

also - the suggestions you have for reading would be better than learning to pass a test - your examples have emotional importance to the child.