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What you are missing is that kindergarten and first grade requirements have been raised in response to the dummying down of education. Our solution to get kids to learn more is to try to get them started earlier. You can't look at just the first two grades. You need to compare high school diplomas today to high school diploma's of yesteryear.
In the past, the average graduate could do things like make change
Kids may be starting school farther along BUT by the time they graduate, they have fallen behind.
It has been my experience with my two youngest that the material they are learning each year is more advanced each grade than it was when my oldest attended school. I don't think it stops after K and 1st, I just think it's more noticeable in the younger grades.
Teachers are required to teach more advanced material and more material than ever before. There is simply not time to spend any appreciable time on basics such as making change. The kids are too busy solving the quadratic formula. In many instances, the kids are not even developmentally ready for either the curriculum or the responsibilities thrust upon them in school, and it starts in K and continues all through their schooling years.
My youngest two are very close in age. After my dd finished K I knew there was no way my ds would fare well in K if he started at 5, as he had a late summer b'day. He was smart enough and was already reading, but was not developmentally ready for the demands of today's K, i.e. sitting and working all day, lots of writing exercises and just the level of maturity required, so I held him back.
This is in contrast to his cousin whose parents were not aware of the changes and who also had a late summer b'day. He's a smart kid but has struggled ever since. His parents wish they knew then what they know now and say they would have delayed his start of K.
I quite clearly remember learning to make change in school. Not sure what grade, but probably not too early or I wouldn't still remember it. I remember we set up a stores and took turns being the buyer and the seller. It was AT LEAST a week long thing and late enough in my education that I remember it clearly! Some may feel that kids should be able to translate what they learn to every day life situations, but it just doesn't work like that. Children are concrete thinkers, and as such need concrete examples.
Current curriculum look good on paper, thy just don't translate well to real life.
Yes, I agree that content is pushed into lower and lower grade levels. A teacher friend has an idea for a bumper sticker: Every Fetus A Reader. I know high schoolers often can't perform the most simple tasks. It's just that, as an early childhood teacher, it makes me tear my hair out to be lectured at about dumbing-down when for us, the bar is much higher than a generation ago.
That's so funny! You're teacher friend should be careful though...some will take that bumper sticker quite seriously!
It has been my experience with my two youngest that the material they are learning each year is more advanced each grade than it was when my oldest attended school. I don't think it stops after K and 1st, I just think it's more noticeable in the younger grades.
Teachers are required to teach more advanced material and more material than ever before. There is simply not time to spend any appreciable time on basics such as making change. The kids are too busy solving the quadratic formula. In many instances, the kids are not even developmentally ready for either the curriculum or the responsibilities thrust upon them in school, and it starts in K and continues all through their schooling years.
My youngest two are very close in age. After my dd finished K I knew there was no way my ds would fare well in K if he started at 5, as he had a late summer b'day. He was smart enough and was already reading, but was not developmentally ready for the demands of today's K, i.e. sitting and working all day, lots of writing exercises and just the level of maturity required, so I held him back.
This is in contrast to his cousin whose parents were not aware of the changes and who also had a late summer b'day. He's a smart kid but has struggled ever since. His parents wish they knew then what they know now and say they would have delayed his start of K.
I quite clearly remember learning to make change in school. Not sure what grade, but probably not too early or I wouldn't still remember it. I remember we set up a stores and took turns being the buyer and the seller. It was AT LEAST a week long thing and late enough in my education that I remember it clearly! Some may feel that kids should be able to translate what they learn to every day life situations, but it just doesn't work like that. Children are concrete thinkers, and as such need concrete examples.
Current curriculums look good on paper, thy just don't translate well to real life.
We start kids earlier but we teach less year over year. As I said, you need to look at where they are when they graduate.
With that said, some students will be where they should be depending on choices that were made in middle and high school. However, most will be under the bar if you set the bar at a 1950's diploma. The top 10% seem to do well no matter what system you put them in so you have to discount them and look at the 90% below them.
What I have seen is a pull down of some more advanced topics BUT for every topic pulled down, something else had to be thrown out to make room for it. What they're throwing out, all too often, is foundation work. That results in the foundation crumbling later. And kids often simply don't get the material that has been pulled down. My dd did mitten math and made pareto charts out of leaves in kindergarten but didn't learn a thing doing them. All that was accomplished is something else was not taught because the time was used on these activities.
Every year, what we teach gets shallower and shallower because we don't have time to go into depth. That's what happens when you keep pulling things down. We'd be far better off to follow the Asian model and teach fewer topics per year but teach them in depth. It takes Singapore until 8th grade to hit all the math topics we've hit by 4th grade but when we compare our kids in 8th grade we find that their kids have mastered the topics while ours know little.
Yes, we're throwing a lot of topics in there but we're giving them superficial treatment. Instead of digging in and teaching to mastery, like they do in Singapore (they have one of the best math programs in the world), we gloss over things and waste even more time spiraling back to it later because our kids never got it the first time. It is our spiraling technique that is really killing us. In Asian countries, they review topics for 1-3 years and then never come back to them while we review topics for 3-7 years!!!! We'd need year round schools and an 8 hour school day to try and do everything we try to do in 175 6 hour days!!! And the end result is a disaster.
The first thing I noticed when I moved here from overseas (in the fifth grade) was how rude, noisy, rowdy, disruptive, and disrespectful American kids are. It blew my mind.
When I moved from California to Texas, it got a lot better, but it was still a big difference.
And it's only gotten worse as that next generation of parents set a record for the most permissive, lazy-ass parenting in generations.
Yes, I agree that content is pushed into lower and lower grade levels. A teacher friend has an idea for a bumper sticker: Every Fetus A Reader. I know high schoolers often can't perform the most simple tasks. It's just that, as an early childhood teacher, it makes me tear my hair out to be lectured at about dumbing-down when for us, the bar is much higher than a generation ago.
Our solution to dummying down education is a pull down into kindergarten and even pre-school. What you are describing is in response to dummying down not part of the dummying down, although it plays into it because it does no good to teach kids things they are not yet ready to learn. Ironically, some of the most successful countries don't start their kids in formal education until they are 7. As usual, we refuse to look at what works in other countries and insist on reinventing the wheel. It's not earlier teaching that works. It's teaching to mastery that works. THAT we don't do at any level. Not even in college.
What the OP describes is exactly why my husband and I work our a$$ off so that our kids can attend a private school. Teachers are not afraid to discipline, and if the parents won't make sure the kids are well-behaved, they are asked to leave. Education is a privilege....I wish that parents and kids would understand this.
What the OP describes is exactly why my husband and I work our a$$ off so that our kids can attend a private school. Teachers are not afraid to discipline, and if the parents won't make sure the kids are well-behaved, they are asked to leave. Education is a privilege....I wish that parents and kids would understand this.
No, education is now a right, even if you are not here legally.
And that is why there are waiting lists for private and charter schools.
Has anyone considered that the high schoolers they come across that can't do "simple tasks" are not the norm and the better students have better jobs or are so heavily involved in sports, etc. that they don't have jobs? Everyone complains about kids that can't count change, etc. but I can tell you that every single one of the high school kids I know CAN do that, but they aren't the ones working at the grocery stores, etc. because they have "better" jobs or are busy doing other things and don't have jobs. I still want to know where all of you live that these high school kids can't even tie their own shoes let alone read a book or anything because from these posts, that is the impression you are giving. Go spend some time in your high schools and see if this is really how bad the kids are or if you are basing your judgement off the ONE kid you saw at the store.
If your schools really are this bad, VOLUNTEER to make them better.
No, education is now a right, even if you are not here legally.
And that is why there are waiting lists for private and charter schools.
A privilege can be revoked..a right cannot.
I was speaking more metaphorically. Compared to the rest of the world, what kids receive in the public schools is a privelege- one that taxpayers have been silently funding for 200+ years, but has now detriorated into a massive money grab with few results. The educational system of most countries world-wide is pitiful. You would think that American families would grasp that fact, and treat their educational system as a privilege, but they do not. With the current economic environment, this is one "right" that may very soon move into a legal "privilege".
The top 10% seem to do well no matter what system you put them in so you have to discount them and look at the 90% below them.
This is very true, and explains a lot, from how my siblings and I were able to excel, and go on to keep up with and succeed in comparison to our college classmates from wealthier, more privileged suburban districts and elite prep schools, when we hailed from a tiny, consolidated rural district with little funding, little ability or incentive to hire and retain dynamic educators, and comparatively few programs. It also explains the odd Fulbright scholar who is a product of an underperforming, lowly ranked urban system more famous for campus drivebys.
Regardless of the quality of the school or system, you have a certain percentage that excels regardless of the system, and you have to look at WHY. Are they just lucky? No. They are the ones who aren't solely dependent upon the school for their learning. They are the ones whose learning is supported and inspired elsewhere, outside of whatever crappy school system they're doing time in. They are the ones where there is somebody, or lots of somebodies, in their life outside of the walls of the school who encourages, promotes, and supports their excellence. They are the ones who participate in a wide range of activities that enrich their lives and learning. They are not the slackers. They are NOT the ones with parents who rant that "I pay the teachers to educate my kids...it ain't MY JOB."
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Ironically, some of the most successful countries don't start their kids in formal education until they are 7. As usual, we refuse to look at what works in other countries and insist on reinventing the wheel. It's not earlier teaching that works. It's teaching to mastery that works. THAT we don't do at any level. Not even in college.
