Child Development

I have worked with children for nearly ten years and I no matter how challenging my day maybe I can’t imagine doing anything else.  You will never hear my say that it’s easy everyday working with three and four year olds, but you will hear me say that I rather be in a classroom full of children rather than an office full of adults bickering and complaining.

Young children are so impressible and their brains are like sponges, ready to learn so when I found this quote “A child mis-educated is a child lost” by John F. Kennedy it really touched my heart.  As I read this quote, mis-educated to me can be anything from an academic to a social/emotional stand point. As an example, I choose resilience as my topic to research this week and writ. Resilience is something that our children should be taught to be successful.  Children need us an educators and parents to show them the correct way and our children will learn by example.

Another quote I found very interesting and touched my heart was “A torn jacket is soon mended; but hard words bruise the heart of a child” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  The US is currently feeling the stress of living through an economic recession and research has shown that due the stress of unemployment and economic hardship that there is an increase in child abuse which can consist of physical and emotional abuse. However, there are also situations in which the economy has nothing to do with this quote, for example, a teacher may have negative things to say to a child which will affect the child for the rest of his or her life. A teacher may say things such as “You can do it, but Johnny can”, this is something that this child may take to heart and have long lasting negative effects.

As parents and educators we have so much influence over our children, so we must always be weary of what we say and do in front of our children. Children are watching us and listening to everything we say. I can remember back in early elementary school and throughout high school I thought my teachers were superior and I thought they were “perfect”.

I have to say a special thanks to Evlyn and Theresa. Evlyn and Theresa have been very supportive during this term and I have enjoyed and learned so much from their blogs in relations to Early Childhood. I wish them both much success and hope to have them in another class very soon.

STANDARDIZED TESTING/ASSESSMENT

As a resident of Georgia, I decided to specifically research the way Georgia children are assessed and measured in relations to their academic ability. Students in grades 1-8 must take the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT).  The CRCT is designed to measure how well students acquire the skills and knowledge described in the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS). The assessments yield information on academic achievement at the student, class, school, system, and state levels. This information is used to diagnose individual student strengths and weaknesses as related to the instruction of the GPS, and to gauge the quality of education throughout Georgia (2). Beginning in 2004, the state phased in the use of these tests in promotion/retention decisions in grades three, five, and eight. Students in grades three, five, eight, and eleven are required to take a writing assessment each year. All kindergarteners are assessed for first-grade readiness with the Georgia Kindergarten Assessment Program. This is a performance-based test which is administered to each child individually by the child's teacher three times per year. Local school districts are also required to administer a nationally norm-referenced test annually in grades three, five, and eight. The CRCT consist of assessments in reading, english/language arts, and mathematics. Assessments in science and social studies are assessed in grades three through eighth.  Additionally, assessments in reading, English/language arts, and mathematics are administered in grades one, two, three, five, and seventh.

Personally, I’m not a promoter of standardized testing for several reasons. One reason is that the test puts a lot of stress and pressure on a child to perform. If a child has done well and shown the ability to master the goals of his or her grade then that should be enough evidence to promote this child to the next grade. However, I do understand that the Department of Education needs to have some way of measuring the knowledge of children, but I think that is all standardized testing should be used for.  Also in Georgia there is so much pressure for the students to pass this test that many teachers just teach the CRCT all year.  I think that Georgia should change the ruling that children must pass this test in order to be promoted to the next grade. I think the child’s performance in the classroom should be the determining factor.

The Japanese elementary curriculum is cumulative and demanding. At each grade level, children are required to learn large quantities of new material and proceed quickly from one new concept to the next. Although most children manage to keep reasonable pace with the instructional objectives, some fall behind. These children are termed ochikobore, which is those who have "fallen to the bottom" of the system (1). Although detailed evidence is scarce, the problem clearly exists and receives considerable sympathetic attention in the mass media and from the public. Some evidence regarding the extent of the problem is found in a recent comparative study of reading achievement among first and fifth grade children in one city in Japan. Results for the Japanese sample showed that although most children enter first grade well prepared in reading, but by fifth grade a significant number of them have fallen seriously behind (1). However, this type of assessing ends and standardized testing begins at the age of 12 year of age.  

I found it very interesting that Japan doesn’t implement standardized testing until the child reaches the age of 12 years old.

1.    http://members.tripod.com/h_javora/jed3.htmerences

2.    http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/ci_testing.aspx