As promised, I’ll be answering a monthly question from my readers- anything you’ve always wanted to ask a teacher (or a parent!) This first one is from one of my personal Instagram followers, and it’s a good question, but a hard one! I hope I do it justice.
“Why is there so much pressure for children to read at such a young age? Why don’t we take pointers from places like Finland? This generation is going to be stress buckets with no coping skills.”
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
When I was in elementary school, about thirty years ago, I did not learn how to read until I was in second grade. This was not particularly rare or notable at the time. Apparently, I was (what I’d call now) a sight word reader, who had memorized a lot of words but had no real phonics skills or instruction.
As this reader asks above, why are things different now? What has changed?
As a parent, it may feel that the pressure to get children reading younger is coming from teachers, but actually, most of us are also concerned about the increasing expectations placed on young children to master academic skills at a young age. In other words, we agree with you. I’ve been teaching for thirteen years and in that time I’ve gone from teaching 15-20 “sight words” to kindergarten kids, to over 50 words. It’s not that I just woke up one day and thought “I’m bored with those 15 words- I think I’ll teach more” or even that I genuinely believe my students today are better off than they were 13 years ago. That’s what I’ve been asked to do by my administrators, and my district is definitely not alone in these increasing expectations.
One of the major reasons for the increasing expectations is high stakes testing. Many blame the “No Child Left Behind Act” passed in 2001 which required each state to have a measure of accountability to make sure schools and students were improving in order to receive more funding. In fact my school just recently sent out it’s “report card” to parents which basically lists how we are doing on testing. That, and the more newly adopted Common Core Standards have definitely added pressure for students to be in a certain place by the end of each school year. I myself (as a student) piloted the high stakes test that Massachusetts adopted called MCAS in the late 90s, so it was definitely around this time that rating schools and teachers based on students test scores began. As schools try to improve their scores each year, the pressure has fallen to teachers and their students. I completely agree it is sad, and I’m truly hoping we (as a society) swing back in the other direction soon.
Here is some good news:
We are now using a more balanced approach to literacy instruction which includes both instruction in sight words and also explicit phonics instruction, among other things. This means that kids like me, who probably could have learned to read earlier with a more balanced instructional approach, are not struggling for as long.
We also have a lot more support in our schools for students who are not meeting expectations, though some might argue that we need this because our expectations are so high.
Many great teachers are keeping learning to read fun in the early grades. They sing letter/sound songs, play sight word games, and help students develop a growth mindset so that they will understand that effort will lead to their success. Authors are also writing such fun, relatable and FINALLY more culturally relevant books for more students, which hopefully students are getting their hands on.
Everyone is starting to understand the crisis of social emotional learning this reader refers to when he says “this generation is going to raise a bunch of stress buckets with no coping skills.” Schools are now starting to prioritize what we call “social emotional learning.” Even my preschooler has been taught how to identify his feeling, and take a deep breathe to calm down. In kindergarten, we introduce more calming down strategies, practice proper breathing techniques for relaxing, and teach explicit problem solving steps for the common issues that come up in kindergarten. Kindergarten teachers everywhere are fighting for more play time in the classroom to practice these important social emotional skills we are teaching.
What can you do as a parent?
Choose a preschool for your child that focuses on learning through play. Since you will likely have a choice of your child’s preschool, do some research and pick a place that focuses on learning and preparing for kindergarten through play, music, and hands on exploration.
Advocate for and support play and decreased academics in the early grades. You don’t have to get involved politically necessarily or do anything drastic, just support teachers quietly when they do things to keep learning fun, make sure their kids get outside every day etc. Don’t ask for more of a “challenge” for your child or complain when your 5 year old doesn’t have enough homework 😉 Believe it or not, a lot of the pressure to increase academic expectations is actually coming from parents. It’s hard to keep everyone happy!
Help your child with academic concepts at home, but only in fun ways. Opt out of elementary homework if you have to. I’ll be talking about fun ways to help your child at home more on this blog, so stay tuned.
Keep reading aloud to your child even when they start to read on their own. The two of you can enjoy much better books with you reading, and this will help your child continue to enjoy books even on the days that reading itself might be hard. As a bonus this is a fun way to bond with your child that does not involve playing a kid invented game where the rules keep changing throughout.
Help your child develop coping skills at home too. Give them the gift of open time for play and less scheduled activities. Encourage them to manage things they can handle at a young age: chores around the house, conflict resolution with friends/siblings and even advocating for themselves with trusted adults like teachers. Again, I’ll be talking about all of this more on this blog.
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments or on social media. What do you think about children learning to read younger? How has this experience been for your own children?
Ask a Teacher Mom 