Symbol-Brained

[Bekah]

Well,  age is important in determining when to send the kiddos to 
school and what to expect from your child in pre-school and 
kindergarten etc.  Setting goals which are developmentally 
appropriate and in accord with current learning theory and research 
is important for teachers, parents and ,at the moment,  state 
legislators.    Right now we have to teach 4 1/2 year old Spanish 
speaking boys to read and write in complete sentences in English (!) 
by the end of kindergarten or they don't pass to first grade. 
That's a steep learning curve they have to progress from reading at a 
level 4 ("The dog is swimming in the ocean" with pictures. and write 
"I see a cat. The cat is in the tree. The cat can clim."  with 
punctuation.)  And first grade gets much harder.

We need to know what the kids *can't*  do yet,  at this or that age, 
or we'll end up being required to teach them and they'll be expected 
to learn it!  That for sure is setting them up for failure. 
Conducting tests for research is one thing,  conducting tests to 
determine who goes to first grade is quite another.

Bekah





At 3:06 PM +0000 8/12/05, Ghetta Life wrote:
>I think what is so interesting and really the point of the study is 
>that the *symbolic function* is one of the FIRST tools needing to be 
>developed to proceed with learning, not the AGE at which that 
>happens.
>
>And "setting them up to fail" really sounds pejorative, and is 
>really only the negative side of the "can they do this?" question. 
>The kids didn't know thwy were failing to do something, they were 
>just being themselves, and what limits that might entail in their 
>perceptual ablilities is just the measure of who they are.
>
>Ghetta
>
>>From: Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
>>
>>Seeing symbolically is a developmental thing.  The study did show 
>>that. It showed that what 2 year olds were not able to do,  3 year 
>>olds were.  
>>There was some vital info missing in the report,  but basically I 
>>think that was the thrust.,
>[...]
>>So the answer to the above is yes,  the kids were set up to fail 
>>because they were not developmentally ready for what they were 
>>supposed to do,  but getting to precise ages is interesting (albeit 
>>probably flawed).
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's 
>FREE! http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/