The Pressure to Achieve: My Mea Culpa
A big focus of the article was why literacy rates in this country have barely budged in forty years, and the expert I interviewed--Reid Lyons, who until recently was the top literacy expert in federal government-- argued it was because so many schools teach reading poorly.
He argued that instead of focusing on social skills, preschools should be teaching kids basic literacy skills--phonemic awareness (which sounds letters make), letter recognition, etc.
Well, this parent confessed to me that after reading the article, she had dashed home and tried to play an ABC game with her 3 year old, who refused to focus. "It was a miserable failure," she said.
That's when I really felt guilty. I've read those articles ], which told me all the things I needed to be doing to make sure my kid didn't develop emotional problems, dangerously low self esteem, or poor academic habits. I never wanted towrite one of those stories that sensationalized, or made parents fret and worry.
Here's the problem: The parents who are neglecting their kids and are failing to give them a nurturing, enriching home environment probably aren't reading my articles in Child magazine. And the parents who are reading them probably aren the ones who don't need to. Does this make sense?
Not too long ago, I also interviewed Kathy Hirsh Pasek about her book, Einstein Doesn't Use Flashcards (think that was the title). Her basic argument: Parents need to just encourage their kids to play---and stop force feeding children "educational" toys, like those dreaded flash cards. This cult of achievement is driving parents, and kids, crazy.
And today I apologize for inadvertently contributing to that.
Stumble It!
posted by pam at 6:23 PM
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