High expectations, or plain daft?

[newfoundland]

My granddaughter came home from school with her weekend homework:

1. What are your term's (semester's) targets in both literacy and numeracy?

2. How will you achieve these targets?

She is 4 YEARS OLD!!!

Am I missing something here?

 

[sourland]

What??? Why have they stopped letting kids just be kids?

 

[Whoops]

She's four? Four year olds don't have goals and can't spell literacy. It must be parent homework.

 

[Bunnylady]

My granddaughter came home from school with her weekend homework:

1. What are your term's (semester's) targets in both literacy and numeracy?

2. How will you achieve these targets?

She is 4 YEARS OLD!!!

Am I missing something here?

Frankly, I think the "educators" are the ones "missing something." I read those questions, and all I can say is, "huh?"

 

[newfoundland]

This is what happens when the education system becomes results driven. Unless they are 'achieving', and that achievement is both visible and measurable, the school is not doing a proper job. I am all for driving up standards, but frankly, this is absurd!!!

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

That's ridiculous if it's truly meant for her. Any possibility that is homework for you?

 

[Whoops]

lol, now you are getting into "no child left behind" territory. I work in education. We hate the "teach to the test, if it's not easily tabulated, it's not real" culture. Kids aren't little square pegs fitting in little square holes - they are each an individual melody. Just because you can't measure the results in a graph or set them out in a tabulated national database, doesn't mean teaching isn't successful. Kids can learn to do very well at tests and still, their education sucks, because they have just learned to copy the pattern of thinking used in the tests. They have learned to avoid critical thinking, analysis, comprehension or, basically, anything but how to repeat back what they are told without taking it in at all. Actually, they are being taught NOT to take in or "smoosh" new ideas around to comprehend them and make them their own. Creativity, analysis, critical thinking, all are being discouraged to get predictable, measurable, and, I'm sorry, but stupider kids less capable of actual thought.

Stupid is testable. Stupid is measurable. Stupid fits into all the slots nicely.

So, if you district is pushing 4 year olds to articulate goals, don't blame the educators. Blame the legislators.

(rant over)

 

[TXchickmum]

Frankly, I think the "educators" are the ones "missing something." I read those questions, and all I can say is, "huh?"

X2

-loved the school my kids attended. (They were home with me at four....playing outdoors, asking questions about everything and anything, discovering, and enjoying life whilst learning!) Anyway, their school was wonderful. Kindergarten - 6th grade was considered lower school/elementary school. It included daily P.E. classes, daily recess, a full and adequate lunch time (45 minutes), art, Latin, music, and all the core subjects. There were no compulsory tests mandated by the state (only standard achievement tests). Tests were given weekly over material covered and learned in the classroom. Classroom sizes averaged 11 - 13 students. It was fabulous! It was, however, a private school. -no bureaucratic junk with which to contend. -simple, excellent, appropriate education.....

At age four and five, it is fine if children are reading. -just don't think they should be pushed and prodded/stressed at such a young age. They need to run, jump, play, and have learning be an integral part of their daily experience (not some structured, competitive environment). -just my opinion.

-and to the OP, it does appear to be a parent assessment form. -can't imagine these questions being posed to a very young child. -probably some basic questionnaire regarding development/progression for the parent. One never knows these days, though......

 

[newfoundland]

Whoops I think the difference is probably that we are in the UK. Here there is a National Curriculum and it is both very prescriptive and very rigourous. It is not that I don't see the benefits of the system it certainly means that children, all over the country will be working at the same level and there will not be poor schools which provide a less than adequate education. I also think attainment should be measurable and I would argue that there is a big emphasis on problem solving and pupils developing their own ideas and extrapolating information from given sources, to better understand theories. We are after all educating the next generation to take their place in what is already a highly educated and competitive world.

My argument is that 4 years is too young. My granddaughter was 4 on the 21st of August 2013 and began school on 3rd Sept. 2013 just 13 days after her 4th birthday. When I say school, I mean just that. Not nursery or kindergarten, proper, full time school. School uniform, homework and following the early years curriculum. If she were even 6 or 7 I could understand it, but not at 4. Are we raising a generation of geniuses, or will there be a reckoning to be paid down the line? I suspect the latter!

 

[TXchickmum]

Whoops I think the difference is probably that we are in the UK. Here there is a National Curriculum and it is both very prescriptive and very rigourous. It is not that I don't see the benefits of the system it certainly means that children, all over the country will be working at the same level and there will not be poor schools which provide a less than adequate education. I also think attainment should be measurable and I would argue that there is a big emphasis on problem solving and pupils developing their own ideas and extrapolating information from given sources, to better understand theories. We are after all educating the next generation to take their place in what is already a highly educated and competitive world.

My argument is that 4 years is too young. My granddaughter was 4 on the 21st of August 2013 and began school on 3rd Sept. 2013 just 13 days after her 4th birthday. When I say school, I mean just that. Not nursery or kindergarten, proper, full time school. School uniform, homework and following the early years curriculum. If she were even 6 or 7 I could understand it, but not at 4. Are we raising a generation of geniuses, or will there be a reckoning to be paid down the line? I suspect the latter!

That does make a difference indeed! The U.S. schools are an entirely different matter (and a complex/convoluted topic all to themselves). I support firm academic standards, but concur that reason and sense must be interjected. -think that you are spot on with the theory that "there'll be a reckoning to be paid down the line". -best wishes and luck to you grandchild and her family. -hope that the remainder of her school year goes well.