Considering the fact that the test-prep pressures of No Child Left Behind have already wreaked havoc on developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood classrooms, the impending common-core standards will do nothing but add further damage. These proposed standards come with the federal Race to the Top funding. States must agree to adopt these standards – or else they can not qualify for the RttT money. Some states (such as Texas) and some districts have already realized that losing further control of their schools just isn’t worth it, or that the funds offered by RttT may not even cover the changes they need to make or the added hoops they’ll need to jump through.
I’ve looked at the common-core standards for kindergarten. It is the grade my sons are currently in, and it is the grade I have the most experience teaching. After reviewing the ludicrous lists for math and language arts, I can tell you there will be even less time for playful learning in the states that adopt these new standards. Here are some highlights (or low lights!) from the kindergarten math common-core standards:
Students understand that:
A two-digit number is some tens and some ones. For example, 29 is two tens and nine ones.
Breaking apart a group can be recorded in an equation such as 8 = 5 + 3. Breaking apart a group in more than one way can be recorded in an equation such as 7 + 6 = 10 + 3.
Students can and do:
Rank three objects by a shared attribute (especially length), and use transitivity to compare two objects indirectly.
Move shapes using translations, reflections and rotations.
Do you know how to “use transitivity to compare two objects indirectly”? If Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has his way, our 5 year-olds will need to. There are many more standards listed, and one of my favorites is “Students understand that names refer to shapes regardless of orientation or overall size.” I love that one, because in the real-life of a kindergarten teacher, one knows that turning a triangle will inspire great debates about what the shape is now! As my friend wrote recently, “I teach 30 first graders math and when presented with an equilateral triangle with a “point” facing down, half will insist it is not a triangle. Wellesley [MA] is hardly an uneducated town…”
Simply put, you can’t regulate what a young child will understand. Why is our federal government trying? You can, however, learn a great deal about how young children understand the world by listening to them play. For more on that, check out this previous post , Taking Time to Listen and Learn.
Time to investigate, ask questions, discover, mess around, get dirty, and debate what a triangle “turned-upside” is. That’s what we need. That’s what I’m fighting for.
For some related posts see: