What’s Developmentally Appropriate and Who Cares?

John and Kim

I’m sorry, but I’m objecting seriously to a pendulum swing in our elementary education philosophy that says we must set objective standards that measure how and what our kids are learning.  We seem also to have adopted a rigid curriculum that all schools not only have to teach and test on, but have to stay in lockstep with each other. Now I’d support that for the sake of consistency and accountability if all kids were robots or clones containing the same genes as each other.

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As it is, if some kids haven’t yet developed at the same rate as others, they are expected to “get it” anyway. And how we insure that, of course, is by “drill and practice.”  The teacher drills the kids and drills them and they practice and practice more until the kid either finally “gets it,” or she doesn’t.  If she doesn’t, there are serious consequences to the child and the teacher and the school, including the kid’s realization that she is dumb.


Regardless of whether the child gets it or he doesn’t, if he’s one that had to have it hammered into his head, what do you think the whole process does to   his love of learning? Most, if not all, kids enter kindergarten and even first and second grade with wonder filled eyes and a genuine desire to absorb and learn. Ask any kindergarten teacher about that. It’s one of the delights of teaching.


So, let’s hammer these kids who aren’t quite ready to read chapter books by third grade, or to recite the alphabet sounds, sing the alphabet song, and count to 100 by the time they are in kindergarten; let’s make them feel they aren’t quite up to snuff. Then let’s watch as they turn away from learning, dislike and distrust school, and later abandon any thought of college.


Before this particular pendulum swing, teachers, at least creative ones, were more intent on celebrating a child’s successes than emphasizing his failings. They understood that sooner or later each child’s light bulb would flash on, that each kid learns and “gets it” at a different time than his peers, but ultimately their learning is enhanced and they love being there.


I suspect that many teachers who are less creative actually like the new swing. It’s easier, more familiar and they don’t have to worry about merit performance. Most creative teachers, on the other hand, are frustrated with the “one size fits all” concepts. It seems to me these teachers are leaving the profession in droves—at least those too old and too experienced to cow-tow to the pendulum swingers.


It’s sad for me to watch. I was sitting with a little five year old boy the other day. His speech is not as developed yet as some of his more verbally blessed peers, but his mind, his experiential development is way ahead of many of them. Consequently, he’s developed a little shyness. An adult came up to us and remarked that, “I can’t get this boy to talk to me at all,” even though the man was barely more than a stranger to the boy. “Well, he’s a little shy still,” I remarked. The man informed me, in front of the boy, that this was something “I’d really worry about if I were you.”  Typical! The guy didn’t mean to be mean. He’s just got an old timey picture of what a 5 year old ought to look like and, by golly, if the boy doesn’t fit the mold, we all should be doing something about it.