Saturday, December 01, 2007

British Stealth curriculum is `threat to all toddlers'

This is rather hysterical but imposing a single uniform government requirement on every kid in the country, regardless of mental age or maturity, is nonetheless objectionable. It actually makes the Hitler Youth look tolerant. You could opt out of that. Applying the system to State-educated children only would be some improvement



A new national curriculum for all under-5s will cause untold damage to the development of young children, a powerful lobby of academics says today. The highly prescriptive regime for pre-school children, which is due to become law next year, has been introduced by stealth, they say. It will induce needless anxiety and dent children's enthusiasm for learning, according to the group of experts in childhood development. They say that the severity of the compulsory measures, which will apply to an estimated 25,000 nurseries across the private and state sectors, has gone virtually unnoticed and risks an array of educational and behavioural problems for the country's children.

A letter signed by the group, and seen by The Times, is highly critical of the Government's drive to make children aged 3 and 4 write simple sentences using punctuation, interpret phonic methods to read complex words and use mathematical ideas to solve practical problems. The group, including the leading child psychologists Richard House, Dorothy Rowe and Penelope Leach, and Sue Palmer, author of Toxic Childhood, are today launching a campaign called Open Eye to promote the message that babies and young children learn most naturally and effectively through free play, movement and imitation, rather than formal teaching.

"An overly formal, academic and/or cognitively biased `curriculum', however carefully camouflaged, distorts this learning experience," they say. "An early `head start' in literacy is now known to precipitate unforeseen difficulties later on - sometimes including unpredictable emotional and behavioural problems."

The new early-years foundation stage framework (EYFS), which becomes law next autumn, will affect all nurseries and kindergartens in England. The system requires children to be continually assessed according to 13 different learning scales, including writing, problem solving and numeracy. It could also have profound implications for thousands of non-mainstream preschool organisations, such as Steiner kindergartens, where formal learning is not introduced until children reach 6«. Montesorri schools, which also have a less academic approach, will also be affected.

Richard House, senior lecturer in psychotherapy and counselling at Roehampton University, southwest London, said that the element of compulsion surrounding the new legislation been introduced "by stealth". Unlike the national curriculum for schools, which does not apply to independent schools, the framework will apply to all pre-school settings - state, private and voluntary. "What is most objectionable is that the framework is compulsory. The central State is defining what child development is. It means that a pre-school would have to pursue the Government's defined view of healthy child development, even if it contradicts their own view," Dr House said. "Some people do not want their children doing synthetic phonics or quasi-formal learning at 3 or 4 but they could be left with little choice. There would be a very strong case for mounting a legal challenge under the human rights legislation," he said.

Experts believe that the legislation will impose a system of "audit and accountability" on children that will profoundly affect the way in which teachers interact with them. Margaret Edgington, a leading independent early-years consultant, said: "We are going to end up with lots of children who can read and decode print but who haven't got the skills to understand what the words mean."

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Missouri State U Reverses Decision About Removing Christmas Tree

A Christmas tree that had been removed from the atrium of Strong Hall at Missouri State University will return, along with other religious holiday symbols in that building, school president Michael T. Nietzel said in a news release Thursday morning. A meeting that had been scheduled Friday to discuss appropriate MSU holiday decorations has been canceled, he said.

"We decided this is the right thing to do, and I am glad there was widespread agreement about it," Nietzel said in the release. "Missouri State is an institution at which many different religions are represented, and we try to be sensitive to the many views people hold." "After having had a chance to air this out a bit more and consider the various perspectives of our campus community, I am happy that the Christmas tree will be back up along with the many others that were already on campus. I hope we can have it on display before the end of the day."

The 20-foot artificial tree had been taken down Monday after Lorene Stone, dean of the College of Humanities and Public Affairs, was told by the co-chair of the president's diversity commission that a Jewish faculty member said the tree showed "a lack of sensitivity" to those of other religions. Courts have ruled that Christmas trees are secular symbols, along with the Jewish menorah.

Stone, who put the tree up the day before Thanksgiving, said she didn't use any religious symbols on it. Stone said Jewish faculty members were invited to put up a menorah display but declined, telling Stone they were worried the display would be stolen.

Daniel Kaufman, a philosophy professor, said he didn't have a complaint about the tree but has had issues with the university scheduling major events during important Jewish holidays when Jews can't participate. In the past, the school has held a major conference on the Middle East during Passover and an Ozarks Festival during Yom Kippur. Kaufman said the school "shouldn't just recognize one religion." "It's a matter of being nice," he said. "It would be nice to publicly display something (for other religions)."

Jana Estergard, who heads MSU's Office of Equity and Diversity, said the courts have held that a Christmas tree is a secular symbol "unless it has crosses on it and a baby Jesus." Earle Doman, dean of students, said the student union is decorated for the holidays but not with religious symbols. "It's not a big issue," he said. "Some people raised the question about the tree and the best way to approach it was to take it down to discuss it."

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