Shop by Topic
Shop by Product
ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues
<< Previous Issue
| View Past Issues | | Next Issue >> 
Sooner and Faster
January 28, 2016
My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.
-Jane Austen
-Jane Austen
In the Washington Post, elementary teacher Emily Kaplan wrote about her experience in a no-excuses charter school:
"This school is obsessed with success.... The school's youngest students — children of color from predominantly low-income families — can do a lot. These 5-, 6-, and 7-year-olds who start each day by pumping their fists into the air while chanting about success are articulate in person and on the page; they are perspicacious readers and creative, rational mathematicians. The nine hours a day they spend in classrooms... enable them to attain academic milestones earlier than their peers in more traditional school environments."
But this arc to success does not continue. "Once children at this school reach adolescence, many struggle.... Existing evidence indicates that these students — who have spent their entire educational careers, from kindergarten onward, in classrooms named after four-year colleges, striving toward big long-term goals like 'excellence' and 'success' — aren’t graduating from college in large numbers. They aren’t excelling, and the extent to which they are even succeeding is debatable."
Kaplan concludes... "Maybe letting small children linger in childhood would endow them with more of the real skills necessary to STAY FOCUSED ON ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE. Maybe, in the long run, it would better enable them to MAKE SMART CHOICES."
Contributed by Zvia Dover
Beginnings Workshop Article Collections
on Social Emotional Development
Buy one, get one free for 48 hours!
Use code "BogoBW" when prompted.
on Social Emotional Development
Buy one, get one free for 48 hours!
Use code "BogoBW" when prompted.
Sale ends 01/29/16 at 11:59 pm PST.
May not be combined with any other offer.
Not valid on bulk purchase discounts.
PDF available for immediate download.
ExchangeEveryDay
Delivered five days a week containing news, success stories, solutions, trend reports, and much more.
What is ExchangeEveryDay?
ExchangeEveryDay is the official electronic newsletter for Exchange Press. It is delivered five days a week containing news stories, success stories, solutions, trend reports, and much more.
Comments (5)
Displaying All 5 CommentsRainbow River
Hermosa Beach, Ca, United States
Good look at over preparation for only one or two dimension of achievement. But them a random statement and opinion about how a whole child success could be encouraged is unnecessary.
Pennsylvania, United States
The article is written from the teacher's experience and not delivered as scientific research. As early childhood educators we know the importance of play, creativity, movement, and conversation for the development of the child in many domains. Children need support when they are little and they continue to need support as they grow---as the saying goes--bigger children--bigger issues. We need to support children and their families--it's not a race to some imaginary finish line, it's a journey with many twists and turns along the way.
Euclid, Ohio, United States
First of who are the researchers and maybe their outcomes are different than the educational program content and or structure they are trying to decide if the program has lasting affects...but did the researchers take in consideration the othe 13 of the influence environment...that is integrated in the childs life. A school with high expectations should never be faulted for being part of any failure..its a supplement...not the whole diet..reaeach. should also be culturally matching if its going to be effective to affect the african american educational comminiy...black children dont graduate for many reason...in contast to the aricles findings...
Sacramento State
Sacramento, California, United States
Hello,
What current research shows is the early start is not the issue. The issue is the support that is lost in the later years and the atmosphere and policies of the educational institutions of the later years.
United States
The article grasped at a conclusion that did not make any sense. If the students started having trouble in adolescence then look there for causes. Are they bored? Unsupported? Battling between to worlds, home and school? I am surprised that you would print an article that so strongly blasts a school that is clearly trying to give kids a strong start. Maybe you should be blasting the lack of strong middle schools across the nation. Like preschool, middle school is an extremely vulnerable time where students need encouragement to begin defining themselves as young adults. Your newsletter looses credibility when you print these sort of articles.
Post a Comment