Amanda Moreno, Ph.D. is a researcher for early learning as well as being a mother of a 5-year-old herself. The recently shared some of her profession views on the state of kindergarten classrooms and educators.
In her recent blog she addressed the growing concern of parents regarding their young children already showing disdain for school. The education specialist further explains “They are struggling with ambivalent allegiances, not wanting to be the over-protective parent who babies their child, but at the same time not being fully convinced that their child has a behavior problem just because they don’t enjoy sitting at a desk, independently going through worksheets for a solid hour.”
Perhaps standardized tests are to blame for the first year student’s reluctance. As it stands, children who are attending kindergarten are now expected to be a full year ahead in their scholastic learning progress than was the case twenty years earlier.
Moreno asks the question “Is teaching 5-year-olds really that complex an enterprise?” True, she says it the belief that five-year-olds are like sponges when it comes to learning but the standard classroom is much different than the learning that is done on a daily basis. A child will hear a word and add it to his or her vocabulary within the span of a day. But, sitting in a classroom and being told to memorize a list of vocabulary words does have the same outcome.
Dr. Moreno explains further the perils of so-called high stakes testing in the Denver Post online. Further information on her studies can be found here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amanda-moreno-phd/post_3023_b_1285135.html
