Speaking On Children

Self-esteem is the real magic wand that can form a child’s future. A child’s self-esteem affects every area of her existence, from friends she chooses, to how well she does academically in school, to what kind of job she gets, to even the person she chooses to marry.

STEPHANIE MARTSON, The Magic of Encouragement

The family is both the fundamental unit of society as well as the root of culture. It ... is a perpetual source of encouragement, advocacy, assurance, and emotional refueling that empowers a child to venture with confidence into the greater world and to become all that he can be.

MARIANNE E. NEIFERT, Dr. Mom's Parenting Guide

A Word of Thanks

I would like to thank all of my colleagues who gave me meaningful conversation and comments. Thanks for sharing your life's story with me a stranger to you in the beginning, but hopfully someone who you have grown to know and respect toward the end. Thanks to Dr. Myers for all of the help and support that she has given me throughout this course. I have enjoyed this classs and I have enjoyed working with all of you. May God bless you and keep you. Sincerely, Melanie

TESTING 1,2,3 TESTING 1, 2, 3...

During the spring the time will come for the schools to begin their yearly teating of the children. Here in Ashburn, the elementary school test all grades, although the test results doesn't count for all grades. From kindergarten through second grade  and fourth grade the tests are just a measure to see what the children know, but for third graders and fifth graders they have to pass the CRCT test(Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests ) before they can pass to the next grade. You wouldn't believe the stress and pressure that they put on thoses children (even the one's whos test score doesn't count) to pass that test. My philosophy is to test or study or even evaluate the whole child. Some children will pass a class with flying colors, but when it comes to taking a test they freak out and blow the test because of stess and anxiety I do not think that so much pressure should be placed on these youncg children these days about passing a test. I remember taking only one test that determined a pass or fail and that was my high school graduation test that had to be passed in order to graduate. Passed it with flying colors, there was not pressure on me at all to pass that test because we all knew that if we wanted to graduate then we had to pass that test, so that is what I did. My son was held back in third grade because he did not pass the reading part of the CRCT for the 2009-2010 school year. For the 2010-2011 school year he had to retake the CRCT and pass in order to go to the fourth grade and this time he exceeded in math  and was a few points away from exceeding in the rest of the subjects. The pressure of passing test has become overwhelmiong for some of the children who are required to take and pass those test. No test is good enough to serve as the sole or primary basis for important educational decisions. Readiness tests, used to determine if a child is ready for school, are very inaccurate and encourage the use of overly academic, developmentally inappropriate
primary schooling (that is, schooling not appropriate to the child’s emotional, social or intellectual development and to the variation in children’s development).

Japan implemented a new comprehensive guide to elementary education in April 2011, representing an attempt to maintain some of the benefits of the educational reforms of the 1990s and early 2000s while increasing the academic rigor of Japanese compulsory education. Shortly after the implementation of the new curriculum, Japanese students declined in their achievement on international comparative tests, especially the TIMMS and PISA studies. In response, a number of gradual changes were implemented designed to help improve the academic performance of Japanese students while maintaining some of the benefits of the earlier reforms. Key changes included a gradual increase in the required topics to be taught in the standard academic subjects, a gradual increase in the number of hours devoted to these subjects, and the implementation of national standardized testing at the end of the 6th and 9th grades. The tests were implemented with a desire to assess the skills of the students as a whole and target areas where there were needs for improvement in the system. The tests were met with significant concern that they would be used as a means of creating greater comparison and competition between schools as well as increase pressure on students. The tests, which included extensive student and teacher surveys, provide a rich source of data regarding not just the strengths and weaknesses of Japanese students, but also rich data regarding other factors that can effect learning as diverse as the amount of time spent reading independently each day, student breakfast habits, and student use of cell phones to send e-mails each day.