Page 23 - Tracy Anderson Magazine - Fall 2021

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his fall more than 40,000 students in New York and much of first grade. Finger painting and story time
City will report to school, facing a rigorous cur- are long gone. When polled, 65 percent of kindergarten
riculum that includes language arts, math, sci- teachers strongly felt that children should be able to read
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ence, social studies, geography, history, civics before entering grade school. Unfortunately, the aggres-
T and government, economic systems, the arts, sive academic approach to early childhood is tearing kids
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and technology. They’ll work hard five days a week, mostly down and burning them out.
six to seven hours a day, to secure their place in the working
world of the future. Oh, and they’re 3 to 4 years old. Only a year after New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio
launched Universal Prekindergarten, parents were plead-
In 2014, New York City instituted full-day Universal Prekin- ing with him to move to a half-day schedule because their
dergarten in a move the media called “one of the nation’s children, barely out of their toddler years, were “exhaust-
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most ambitious experiments in public school education ed” from the daily grind and heavy workloads. They crit-
reform.” “Experiment” is the operative word here. Now icized the program’s claims, saying, “The mayor is not a
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the move to expose children to academic discipline much developmental psychologist.” At the same time, desperate
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earlier in life is becoming a trend across the country, parents with children in similar programs described their “IF WE INTEND TO
though it arises from several familiar yet unproven theo- once bright-eyed kids as distraught, listless, and irritable
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ries. It will help “close the achievement gap” for disad- because of the regular tests, drills, nightly homework, and FOSTER A LIFELONG
vantaged children, ensure American students “keep pace” struggle to learn material originally designed for children
with their classmates around the world, and raise “lagging one to two years older. 9 LOVE OF LEARNING IN
international achievement test scores.” It will also secure
their place in a “competitive global job market.” Really? Too Much, Too Soon CHILDREN, HOW
At age 3 or 4? THEY’RE INTRODUCED
According to the Education Commission of the States,
In spite of these claims, a rising tide of education and compulsory education beginning with kindergarten is TO LEARNING
healthcare experts is increasingly advising against expos- mandated in 19 states, with 17 requiring a full-day sched-
ing young children to regimented academic instruction. ule. Starting age varies. In the remaining 31 states, kin- BECOMES CRUCIAL.”
An overwhelming amount of research shows that doing so dergarten is offered full- or half-day but is not mandatory.
interrupts normal child development and changes the way 10 Overall, nine states require academic education begin-
children think, behave, and perceive the world. Schoolify- ning at age 5, 26 states at age 6, 13 states at age 7, and two
ing early childhood, and all the rigors and responsibilities states at age 8. 1.The City of New York Executive Budget Fiscal Year 2022; 2. New York State Education Department; 3. New York Daily News; 4. The Heritage Foundation; 5. The CATO Institute;
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that come with it, is damaging to children because their
minds, brains, and bodies are designed to learn and grow So 41 states feel children are ready for academic educa-
through unstructured creative play and exploration. tion between the ages of 6 and 8, and yet the idea that 6. AERA Open; 7, 8. The Wall Street Journal; 9. Newsweek; 10. Education Commission of the States; 11. Lawyers.com; 12. New York State Education Department
children as young as 3 and 4 are ready to learn the same • Asks questions, makes observations, and gathers in- What Education Crisis?
Not only does the evidence support this reality, but also material is mind-boggling. Someone decided that creative formation about a situation people want to change to
the fact that such programs yield no academic benefit. play for young children was just meaningless distraction define a simple problem that can be solved through the It was said that it was necessary to standardize education
Even the federal government finally had to admit that af- from “real” education, when, in fact, play is the process of development of a new or improved object or tool and introduce aggressive early-childhood academics be-
ter 47 years and $200 billion, Head Start, the low-income education itself. • Develops an understanding of how people and things cause American students were falling behind their inter-
preschool program for 3- and 4-year-olds, provided no change over time and how to relate past events to their national peers, but was that true? Christopher Tienken,
lasting benefit to children, even when they were tested Common Core, Common Problem present and future activities Ed.D., professor of Education Administration at Seton
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up to the third grade. In fact, the intrusion of academic • Develops a basic understanding of economic concepts Hall University in New Jersey, has studied the issue exten-
education in early life usually has the opposite effect of New York’s Universal Prekindergarten is based on Common within a community. Recognizes that goods and services sively and found that’s not the case.
causing children to not perform as well as they normally Core principles, a somewhat controversial set of standards Pexels, Yan Krukov 13. The Huffington Post; 14. Presented at Stop Common Core may be purchased using different forms of payment
would in grade school because by then they’re stressed out that was instituted in 41 states in 2010. One of the criticisms (e.g., coins, paper money, checks, electronic payment, Some of his research shows that prior to Common Core,
and no longer enjoy learning. If we intend to foster a life- of Common Core is that it forces complex concepts on credit cards, vouchers, food assistance programs) U.S. students were outscoring the world in all areas of the
long love of learning in children, how they’re introduced younger children who aren’t ready for them, setting them Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test
to learning becomes crucial. up for failure. Here are several of the pre-K learning stan- Former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education when comparing schools with the same level of poverty
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dards (there are well over 250) . Imagine a 4-year-old con- John King, Jr., conceded that high-stakes testing and the (less than 10%). Even without adjusting for poverty, U.S.
Baby Burnout templating concepts like these: way Common Core material is presented is designed so fourth graders ranked 7th in science and 8th in math out
that 70 percent of students will fail. According to public of 53 countries on the Trends in International Math and
This progressive pushing of academics on younger chil- • Demonstrates command of the conventions of aca- school advocacy group the Network for Public Education Science Studies (TIMSS) test. U.S. eighth graders placed
dren has led to a trickle-down effect—preschool now in- demic English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling in New York (NPE), setting students up to do poorly not only under- 7th and 9th out of 53. American students scored higher
cludes most of what used to be taught in kindergarten when writing mines public schools but creates a false narrative that the than students in 85 percent of all countries in the study. 14
system is failing children.
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