Pity the Four-Year-Old
March 15, 2011
A MANHATTAN mother has filed a lawsuit against her daughter’s $19,000-a-year nursery school, charging that it failed to prepare her daughter for the entrance test necessary for admission to top private schools. According to the suit, as reported by The New York Times, “The school proved to be not a school at all, but just one big playroom.”
— Comments —
Jill Farris writes:
I do pity the four year old. This article makes me sad.
I speak on the topic of education quite a bit and feel it is my duty to ask parents to examine what they believe about education. Are children empty cups whom we must “fill” with knowledge? How do children learn most effectively? What is the difference between schooling and education?
Well, we’ve known for decades that young children learn by playing. Auditory stimulation (in the form of reading aloud, conversation and singing) is crucial to brain development. Movement stimulates the brain (cross pattern movement such as marching with arms alternating). Jumping up and down is great for brain development! We must not forget other stimulation to brain pathways through auditory and tactile stimulation (singing, being touched/touching and exploring objects). In other words, children need to move, sing, be read to, be loved and touched to develop critical brain function. They can’t do these things if they are in accelerated preschools geared toward testing and academics sitting still all day.
We currently have an 11-year-old Korean student staying with our family to learn English (yes those Korean parents start their children early in being globally competitive!). This is a child who spends eight or more hours a day in school and after school goes to a Math academy. Every other Saturday he goes to school and every Sunday his father takes him to the museum. Unlike other Korean students we know, he doesn’t have time for piano anymore (although he enjoyed it) and he doesn’t have time for chores, cooking, or playing.
Our children (in stark contrast) spend perhaps two hours of time each morning on school “work” (math and science textbooks, copying the Bible, writing essays). The rest of their day is filled with reading, reading aloud to the little brother, limited computer usage and exploring the great outdoors.
As I homeschool our well-schooled Korean guest along with my children I compare and observe the differences between this boy and my children with their very relaxed school schedule ( I worry about my children like every mother – :). I have not observed any visible difference in focus or concentration between the children.
My children have a love of reading which has been shown to be the one crucial indicator of future success (not the ability to read but the love of reading). Our Korean guest doesn’t have the time to pick up a book and read for pleasure unless it is assigned but he certainly knows how to apply himself to his workbooks! He is a hard working boy who obediently fulfills his school requirements but does he have the critical advantage after all those hours in school? Hmmm….
Our nine-year-old daughter has a friend from a Russian family who has immigrated to the U.S.. Both nine year old’s get together to practice Russian (one teaching and the other one learning). They have chosen to do this on their own and delight in each sign of progress. Our daughter can say all 36 lettters of the Russian alphabet. I did not ask her to do this. She has taken the initiative and is (rightfully) proud of herself.This is learning! This is education!
Our new Korean friend is great at math and seems to genuinely love it (thus his enrollment in the Math Academy) and I cannot say the same for all my children so I will take the blame for that one (I am a word person:). My children do, however, know how to find answers and confidently approach math as just another subject that they know they can learn.
Our children get one childhood to learn and play as only children can. Studies have shown that even adults do not absorb much information after about 30 minutes. The lecture method was found to be the least effective way of learning but most institutional school settings continue to transfer information to students using the lecture method.
Why do we think that making little children sit still for hours and hours will make them excel? And what does it do to a child to know that mommy wants her to get into the “best” school no matter what it takes?
Children develop at different rates and little boys may not hit their stride until much much later.
My own father did not read well until the age of ten and went on to get his Ph.D. from Yale and became chairman of his department at his University.
Our son did not read well until the age of 13 but has gone on to make the Dean’s list at his University and will graduate this May. Those accomplishments are wonderful but what really makes my heart beat faster is having this 23-year-old call me and tell me what books he is reading on his own outside of class. He is truly an “educated” man and will be even more knowledgeable as he grows older because he loves to learn.
Laura writes:
The difference between what Jill describes and what this Manhattan mother is seeking is the difference between education and training.
The New York mother has the more narrow objective of preparing her daughter for further schooling and a paid vocation. This is training absent of any higher values.
An education that focuses too heavily on science and math, as with Jill’s Korean student, fails to develop the whole of the person. Language is the most influential medium of communication and thought. Good books are the foundation of education (not training) and always will be.
