As an early childhood educator with 37 years of experience, I am very concerned about the developmental inappropriateness of our Common Core standards for children in Universal Pre-Kindergarten all the way up to third grade.
The “drill and grill” approach to learning not only pushes innovative and play-based learning out of many primary classes, it also goes against everything we have learned about how children’s brains grow and develop.
Put simply, children’s brains are not like adult brains. They continue to grow and change through stages all the way up to adulthood.
Dr. Megan Koschnick’s presentation at Notre Dame University echoed what many early childhood educators, psychologists, pediatricians and researchers have been saying all along. Common Core asks children to behave like adults and get to higher levels of critical thinking when in reality their brains are not “wired” that way.
When the Common Core lead writers excluded some of the best experts in the field of child development, could we expect anything different than the poor results we got?
I would strongly suggest you listen to Dr. Koschnick’s full presentation online as well as read the “Joint statement of Early Childhood Health and Education Professionals on the Common Core Standards Initiative” atwww.allianceforchildhood.org
As educators, parents and taxpayers struggle to understand the federal government’s Race To The Top initiative and mandates, I would suggest you read Kenneth Mitchell’s informative essay “Federal Mandates on Local Education: Cost and Consequences – Yes It’s a Race, But is it in the Right Direction?” atwww.newpaltz.edu/crreo.
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