Stressed out in first grade (update)
When I quit my job at UNM-Los Alamos, I felt like I needed a backup plan in case my nonprofit turns out to be a total bust. I looked at the different kinds of things I could do on a part-time basis and ended up signing up on Wyzant (wyzant.com), a website that helps parents find tutors for their kids. Nothing really happened for a while but then I got my first job with a lively six-year-old.
Yesterday we had our first lesson. I went with the plan to get to know the child and see what kinds of things we would need to work on. Just as I anticipated, I learned a lot.
I met a funny, friendly little girl who couldn't wait for the lesson to end so she and her mom could go get "ballet stuff" for the classes she would soon be taking. Her mom, however, was the typical post-parent/teacher conference parent who fears that her little girl will be put into special education classes because she is having trouble with reading and math.
It isn't the kid who worries about their own learning, not at that young age; it's the parents. As if they don't already have enough to worry about. Who has trouble with reading and math at the age of six? Seriously.
I'm sorry but this is unacceptable. We cannot let parents go on like this, thinking they have to become teachers themselves and spend all their free hours helping their kids with school. We can't let them go on thinking there is something wrong with their children because they can't read at the level that test publishers and ignorant politicians set.
It was hard to get this kid to sit still for long and her mom worried, too, about that. My first instinct also was to try to settle the child down but then I thought, this is a six-year-old. Of course she's fidgety and distracted. She wants to go get her ballet stuff already!
Over the years, as I've grown my own belief system about learning, I have come to believe that we need to quit fighting the forces of nature and just go with them. I'm sure there is a way learning can take place without this kid having to go against her nature and sit still for any length of time.
They are already talking about ADHD and dyslexia but I think that being six is what is happening here. However, many will go with the ADHD theory, which works out nicely for big pharma, I guess, and really, that's all that matters, right?
We worked on phonics a little and reading a little. I asked her to learn to spell "ballet" by our next lesson. I think she liked that.
So this is what I decided. I will build her lessons around her love of dance for now. We will also work on her homework that her teacher assigns each week. And I will find a way to help this child learn in her own fidgety fashion. Let's make it about the kid. Let's make it about learning.
Yesterday we had our first lesson. I went with the plan to get to know the child and see what kinds of things we would need to work on. Just as I anticipated, I learned a lot.
I met a funny, friendly little girl who couldn't wait for the lesson to end so she and her mom could go get "ballet stuff" for the classes she would soon be taking. Her mom, however, was the typical post-parent/teacher conference parent who fears that her little girl will be put into special education classes because she is having trouble with reading and math.
It isn't the kid who worries about their own learning, not at that young age; it's the parents. As if they don't already have enough to worry about. Who has trouble with reading and math at the age of six? Seriously.
I'm sorry but this is unacceptable. We cannot let parents go on like this, thinking they have to become teachers themselves and spend all their free hours helping their kids with school. We can't let them go on thinking there is something wrong with their children because they can't read at the level that test publishers and ignorant politicians set.
It was hard to get this kid to sit still for long and her mom worried, too, about that. My first instinct also was to try to settle the child down but then I thought, this is a six-year-old. Of course she's fidgety and distracted. She wants to go get her ballet stuff already!
Over the years, as I've grown my own belief system about learning, I have come to believe that we need to quit fighting the forces of nature and just go with them. I'm sure there is a way learning can take place without this kid having to go against her nature and sit still for any length of time. They are already talking about ADHD and dyslexia but I think that being six is what is happening here. However, many will go with the ADHD theory, which works out nicely for big pharma, I guess, and really, that's all that matters, right?
We worked on phonics a little and reading a little. I asked her to learn to spell "ballet" by our next lesson. I think she liked that.
So this is what I decided. I will build her lessons around her love of dance for now. We will also work on her homework that her teacher assigns each week. And I will find a way to help this child learn in her own fidgety fashion. Let's make it about the kid. Let's make it about learning.
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