Comments for EarlyStories

Comment on Who needs pre-school anyway? The BBC wants to know by Amy

Amy — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:53:19 +0000

This is what I observed within my career as well as what I have heard for other ECE’s.

Comment on Who needs pre-school anyway? The BBC wants to know by Amy

Amy — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:52:08 +0000

I am a Registered Early Childhood Educator in Canada. While a child is developing in their early childhood years (ages 1-5), they learn the social skills better understand the needs of others to respectfully listen and take turns. With consistancy and the right information, children can also learn these skills while not in a childcare facility. By the end of Kindergarten, the majority of children learn to build more patience to do this for a longer length of time.
Therefore, with Early Childhood Education involved, children learn to be ready by age 6.

Comment on Group work: A venue for bullying, or a way to prevent it? by TONY

TONY — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 07:25:34 +0000

Collaborative learning is fine unless you have a child who is ‘different’ and the higher thinking, higher achieving teenage girls seek to isolate in order to make themselves look good then the teaching staff tell you it is better for your child to learn to manage their own bullying even though they don;t call it bullying (even after she has self harmed). The problem with collaboration is that pupils are allowed to choose their own groups and nobody wants the different child in thiers- try experiencing having a child with a difference before assuming the collaborative shoe fits all or at least sparing a moments though for how differentiation fits into collaboration.

Comment on When Evidence is Inconclusive: Does Pre-K Work? by Superior Court Judge: I’ll Write The State Budget « Tarheel Red

Superior Court Judge: I’ll Write The State Budget « Tarheel Red — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 02:12:57 +0000

[...] is no proof that pre-k educational programs impact learning past 3rd [...]

Comment on Kindergarten Rebellion: Let Five Year-Olds Be Five by Maria

Maria — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 02:33:57 +0000

As a long-standing primary teacher here in Australia I watch with dismay as more and more counterproductive, competitive measures and pressures are foisted on both parents and children of kindergarten. Whatever happened to the experiential approach where students in kindergarten could learn and grow and develop in an atmosphere of trust? Experience tells me that children who learn without threat and pressure go on to become confident learners. I hope we don’t look back on this era with one of regret and shame. I think we might!

Comment on As Indiana pushes ed reform, pre-k lags by Happy Elf Mom

Happy Elf Mom — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 02:46:03 +0000

Hello! Popped over here from Joanne Jacobs’ blog.

Currently I have two children in special needs preschool in the Kansas City metro area. One is mostly non-verbal autistic. (Well, he’s completely autistic, but mostly non-verbal. Ha.) We LOVE the preschool. I can’t say enough good things about it. Though I don’t imagine that children who are *not* disabled need formal education of any kind at the age of four. I have an older child who missed preschool entirely and is quite literate, able to work with numbers, and aside from being 17, a pretty well-adjusted young lad.

In your article, you wrote that “Indiana’s state laws don’t EVEN require children to begin school until the fall when they turn seven,” (emphasis mine) as though this were some sort of shocking thing. I should imagine attendance requirements and funding could be two different animals. Missouri has had public school kindergarten AND a compulsory education age of seven for years and years, at least. I can’t imagine children in Indiana can not go to school until they are seven??

Perhaps I’m reading way too much into that comment about attendance requirements, but the phrase struck me as quite odd.

Comment on Teaching parents to talk to their babies to close the achievement gap by J. Celia Harlan

J. Celia Harlan — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 01:01:29 +0000

I just quit a job where the day care teachers talked “at” the children and they barely interacted with the two-year-olds in their care. It was awful for me to witness these women running their two-year-old classes like they were detainees in toddler detention facilities. The women sat at their desks and just barked orders at these groups of two-year-olds. Each Day Care teacher had ten children to manage and they did so with no assistant. These women were given alot of privacy in their little classrooms; no cameras to monitor the interactions and no audio recording to “listen in” for quality control. The children weren’t allowed to talk. They were supposed to listen to the day care teacher while she “clapped out” a few early childhood “cheers” and a few songs. (The songs were called out in a “cheer” type fashion instead of being sung. The day care teachers sound like they’re drill seargents leading a group of GI’s during their indoctrination process). The children were expected to follow orders and stay quiet. It was horrible for me to witness this emotional abuse. I quit and made reports to the proper authorities.

Comment on What does a good early start look like? by Shonda W. Reaves

Shonda W. Reaves — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 18:12:34 +0000

It may seem as though the children are just playing but actually they are learning at the same time.

Comment on Should gifted pre-schoolers be isolated, nurtured? by Shonda W. Reaves

Shonda W. Reaves — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 17:58:13 +0000

I believe gifted preschoolers should not be isolated but they need to be together so everyone will have a chance to learn together.

Comment on The news is bleak in New Jersey by Ann Hawkins

Ann Hawkins — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 17:00:43 +0000

I would like to communicate with a special education teacher from another state or country about their advise for a new special education teacher and about teaching girls vs boys or collaboration with general education teachers.
Do you have any suggestions for finding interested teachers?

Ann Hawkins