Common Core: Standard Children?
The Common Core Can't Speed Up Child Development
by Joe Ganem
Recent evaluations of the state's preschoolers have determined that only 47 percent
are ready for kindergarten, compared to 83 percent judged ready last year. This drastic
drop isn't the result of an abrupt, catastrophic decline in the cognitive abilities of our children. Instead it results from a re-definition of kindergarten readiness, which now means being
able to succeed academically at a level far beyond anything expected in the past.
For example, a child entering kindergarten is now expected to know the difference
between informative/explanatory writing and opinion writing. The concern is that
preschoolers without that knowledge will not succeed at meeting the new higher-level Common-Core standards.
However, I think a more pressing concern is: Why do we have educational standards
that are not aligned with even the most basic facts of human development? Clearly
these test results show that the problem is with the standards, not the children.
Educational attainment is part of human development, and fundamentally this is
a biological process that cannot be sped up. We cannot wish away our biological limitations because we find them inconvenient. Children will learn crawling, walking, listening,
talking and toilet training, all in succession at developmentally appropriate ages.
Once in school, for skills that require performing a physical task, that are in what
Bloom's Taxonomy classifies as the "psychomotor domain," it is understood that
children will only learn when they are physically and developmentally ready.
No one expects four-year olds to type fluently on a computer keyboard, play
difficult Chopin Etudes on the piano, prepare elaborate meals in the kitchen or drive a car.
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