Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Essays about strategies coping with stress for children
Children's mathematical mind
Essays about strategies coping with stress for children
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Introduction
The article The New First Grade: Too Much Too Soon? by Peg Tyre discusses the recent evolution of the preschool years and how children are required to master reading and mathematic skills at increasingly younger ages. It also describes how lessons that were once taught in the first grade are now being instructed to children in kindergarten. In regard to this topic, I believe that society today has become so competitive that parents are placing more and more pressure on their children to be academic stars and lose sight of what is truly important: encouraging their child to be the best that he or she can be.
Article Summary
In kindergarten, there has been a significant decrease in the amount of playtime and an increase in time spent learning mathematics and reading. Activities previously common in kindergarten, such as story time and arts and crafts are being replaced with worksheets and reading groups. The number of tests administered to children in preschool has increased as well. Children are tested as often as every 10 days to track their progress.
Many parents are willing to spend an exorbitant amount of money on their young children’s education in the hope that they will become Ivy League candidates in the future. They enroll their children in after-school tutoring and implement a substantial amount of external schoolwork for their child. Parents are not just concerned that their child succeeds, they are determined that their child be “the best.” As such, parents are forcing their children to obtain learning skills at increasingly younger ages, believing that the younger children are when they learn a skill, the more successful they will be later in life. This notion is not only false, but it can result in...
... middle of paper ...
...parents that their child be the finest. However, I was surprised to learn about the concept of “red-shirting.” The fact that parents will go to such extraordinary lengths to ensure that their child is one step ahead of all the others is quite astonishing. There are a number of questions that remain on this topic that future research should address, such as: Are most schools like this, or is this an over-exaggeration? Is this limited to a certain region of the country? Is this issue seen in other countries as well or is it seen only in the United States? Hopefully, forthcoming research will confront these and other matters and assist us in reforming the current education system.
Works Cited
Bee, H. L., & Boyd, D. A. (2009). The developing child (12th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Tyre, P. (2006, Sep). The new first grade: Too much too soon? Newsweek, 148(11), 34-44.
In this essay I will outline the curricular systems for the 0-5 age group in England and Scotland. I will examine in detail the planning and assessment provisions of these systems which allow early years practitioners to gain insight into children's learning and to aid them in that regard. I will draw comparison between the practices of these two countries where possible, and provide criticism of each.
Slater, A., and Muir, D., (1998). The Blackwell Reader in Developmental Psychology. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, Ltd.
The Child Development Center of College of San Mateo provides early care and educational programs for children between the ages of 3 to 5 years old. Children are divided into classrooms with a “master” teacher, a “regular” teacher, and two or three “associate” teachers. Klara attended Classroom, “A,” a stimulating and well-resourced classroom. Klara was observed for two hours on Monday from 9 am to 11 am and for two hours on Wednesday from 9 am to 11 am. During these two hours, classroom activities consisted of “free time,” “story time,” and an outside “play time.” A “master” teacher, a “regular” teacher, and two “associate” teachers were present during observations. Additionally, a total of eighteen children were in attendance during the observed days.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum in England differs greatly in structure and content to the Te Whariki curriculum in New Zealand; this therefore makes for an interesting comparison. The EYFS was introduced in England, in 2008, by the DfE as a framework that ‘sets the standards for learning, development and care of children from birth to five’ (DfE, 2012). Alternatively, Te Whariki was founded in New Zealand, in 1996, based on the aspirations for children ‘to grow up as competent and confident learners and communicators, healthy in mind, body, and spirit, secure in their sense of belonging and in the knowledge that they make a valued contribution to society’ (Ministry of Education, 1996). Throughout this essay, the EYFS and Te Whariki curriculums will be compared and contrasted to give a greater understanding of the similarities and differences between England and New Zealand regarding their beliefs about young children’s needs.
Achievement First sets high standards for academics and character. It requires school uniforms and sees the state tests as the “floor, not ceiling” in the road to college readiness. Simple changes such as referring to kindergartners as “class of” and the year that they graduate from college help Achievement First promote a college ready culture. One method for achieving high results and meeting high expectations is by increasing the amount of time spent in the classroom. Achievement First students spend approximately two hours more per day in school than public school students, and attend a 15 day summer academy. T...
Children’s development, including their brain development, and the differences, both physically and emotionally that, children go through when transitioning into kindergarten. Reviews of different forms have evidence concluding that these programs have short, medium, and long-term benefits that suggest the effects are often greater for more disadvantaged children. “Some of the evidence from model research has produced exciting results in terms of improving educational attainment and earnings and reducing welfare dependency and crime.” (Currie, 2001). “To the point where cost-benefit analysis of these programs suggests they would eventually pay for themselves in terms of cost-savings to the government if it produced even a quarter of the long-term gains of model programs.” (Currie, 2001). This is one of the reasons the government has been pouring an abundance of money into these programs, in fact, Obama just recently announced a one billion dollar investment in early childhood education. “Obama said that less than one-third of 4-year-olds enrolled in preschool and blamed the high cost of these programs for essentially shutting off access to poorer infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. “ (Obama announces $1 billion investment, 2015, p. 1). “He said studies repeatedly show that children who are educated early in life are more likely to
Berger, K. S. (1980). 4: Prenatal Development and Birth. The developing person (pp. 93-121). New York, N.Y.: Worth Publishers.
Early childhood Education has always been a vital part to the nation’s prosperity and achievement. However, many schools started without early childhood teachings. Teaching usually began around the time a child had reached six or seven; about the age of a first or second-grader today (Vinovskis 18). Instruction to early adolescents was not contemplated as crucial for brain development until the 1800s. After the Head Start program, early childhood education spread like wildfire throughout America. In 1840, 40 percent of all the three year olds in Massachusetts alone, were attending school. Yet, the reactions from many states, and the overall populace of the country at the time were still negative and contradicting towards early childhood development and education (Vinovskis 19).
During early years of life, children undergo several developmental changes. Their logical reasoning, attention, perspectives, skills begin to develop. When children go to the elementary school, they begin to integrate knowledge from their interactions with parents and teachers in order to confront the academic challenge. Some children successfully achieve their academic goals; however, some children fail to meet this challenge, which can have a long-lasting negative impact on their success in the school context (Supplee al et., 2006). Thus, parents and school are critical for academic performance and personal development. In a long time, families were responsible for preparing their children with the necessary skills in the early years, and schools took over from there with little input
Infants and Children: Prenatal Through Middle Childhood. Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. Cooper, J., Masi, R., & Vick, J. (2009). The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. Social-emotional Development in Early Childhood.
Wood, A. E., Wood, E. G., & Boyd, D. (2007). Child development: The world of psychology.
What Kids Really Learn in Preschool. Parenting. (Fall 99):Vol. 13 Issue 7, p 74. October
The inequality of education is a disparity among our children experience in their education compared to other children. The relations of educational success focus on grades, test scores, dropout rates, college entrance rates, and college completion percentages. Unfortunately, the inequalities of education are linked to the difference in socioeconomic status, racial, and geographic reasons. According, to Colclough (2005) “it is commonly presumed that formal schooling is one of several important contributors to the skills of an individual and to human capital. There’s not just only one factor parents, individuals and government officials have the abilities to contribute” (p.40). This perception of inequality of education does not only exist in the United States, but also all over the world. When associated with other nations the United States invests the most in education, however manages to obtain lower levels of student performance than many other countries. The children around the nation are not responsible for the injustice of inequality in education but sadly enough they are our victims. Although, the ones to blame would be our government they should be accountable for creating a vicious cycle that eventually trickles down to our public education. Our government highly contributes to our problem on the inequality of education because they are the ones in control of the Board of Education were they have the opportunity to analyze their trouble schools including their state test scores, their academic school standings, and school dropout rates. By knowing and having easy access to valuable information there shouldn’t be any an excuse on the behalf of the government or on the Board of Education for not trying to working together i...
Entering my kindergarten teaching experience in the last quarter of school year I had to quickly become familiar with kindergarten content standards and the school’s curriculum. To do this I observed my mentor teachers instructional time with the children and gained as much information as I could about the children’s educational standing by developing a professional relationship with the my mentor teacher and the children. I learned that the majority of my kindergarten children had not previously attended preschool and that this was their first year of school. I found that interacting with the children in social activities provided me with great insight to their literacy, math, science, and social studies development. In reviewing the children’s class projects, school displays, and an array of their work sample along with my mentor teachers year-long assessments I was able to recognize challenging, emerging and advanced content areas of the children’s core curriculum. These emerging and challenging content areas is what I centered my curriculum planning around. “Information about each child’s learning and development is used to evaluate teaching effectiveness. This may lead to changes in schedule, curriculum and teaching strategies, room set up, resources, and so on.” (Bredekamp and Copple, p. 249)
Parents are their child’s first teacher. The elementary age is the most crucial time for