My Granddaughter and Educational Reform

My granddaughter is really smart. I am not saying this to brag, but I repeat, my granddaughter is really smart. I am saying this to try and make the point that what matters when it comes to how well a child will do in school has everything to do with how that child approaches the task of learning. Children who have been born to mothers who were able to provide them with nine months of nourishment, protection and a sense of comfort, will undoubtedly enter the world better equipped than children who lack this while in the womb. Children born to parents equipped intellectually, emotionally and financially to care for them will be kept from physical and emotional harm, and will have the provisions necessary for physical and mental growth. Children who have been given the opportunity to explore their world, to have their natural thirst for knowledge quenched and to therefore seek more learning, to have felt safe on this journey, will upon entering school have a greater chance of finding immediate academic success then children who have not been so lucky. To have immediate success fosters the desire for more success, and this transfers to a feeling of accomplishment that enhances self-esteem. Having a good feeling about yourself allows you to take risks, taking risks results in learning. So why is my granddaughter really smart? Well she definitely was well taken care of while she developed beneath her mother’s heart. She came out healthy and strong. Her parents are educated, mature, and have enough financial security to provide her with the necessities of life; food, shelter and clothing. Her parents and her extended family also know the importance of books, music, talking, playing, hugs, kisses, questions, answers, seeking, finding, laughter, comfort, boundaries, feelings, caring, and literally can’t get enough of her and she us. At five, she has a sense of self that is allowing her to soar as she enters the world of school. She had her Kindergarten screening the other day and yes siree, she is ready to begin. Her status at this point has everything to do with the fact that she was born into a family with the means to foster her development. She is ahead of the game, ahead of her same age peers who haven’t been as fortunate. I am not bragging. I am trying to make the point that our government refuses to recognize the fact that a child’s beginnings plays a vital role in how well that child will perform academically in Kindergarten, and if nothing damages them, all through school. Perhaps I should say that our government refuses to legislate so that all children will have the beginnings that my granddaughter has had. It is far easier for them to sell our children and grandchildren to the highest bidder and let special interest groups who will then finance the campaigns of the current officials who would let our children and grandchildren be sold down the river, make a profit than it is to do the right thing. It is always harder to do the right thing. When you hear those in power say that our children come first, don’t you believe them because if they did, all of the children of this state, of this country, would have their Kindergarten screenings show them ready to begin. Instead, our state and our country, have more and more children not ready to begin and if their circumstances don’t change they will most like always struggle to just catch up. Our legislators would have you believe that if they just mandate a more “rigorous curriculum” (which by the way is creating a profit for numerous business people), and give parents more choices for their children’s educational experiences (like charter schools that make money for numerous business people and on-line opportunities which again are providing a profit to numerous business people), and evaluate teachers based on their students’ tests scores (which provides a profit to testing companies, evaluation consulting firms, and software moguls while it decimates careers and wrecks havoc in schools on a daily basis), that the achievement gap will close and all children will graduate high school college or career ready. None of these “reforms” will make up for poverty, a lack of parenting skills, basic needs not being met, or living in an environment that is unable to stimulate a child’s natural curiosity and enable the child to gain the sense of self needed to soar. Now here is the real frightening part about the changes taking place in education today that those in power would have you believe are in the best interest of our children, they will, in my opinion, do the greatest harm to those children ready to begin! How? By making school not a place of discovery and exploration on a path to formulating thinking skills but factories whose only goal is to turn out “human capital,” thus taking the brightest of our children and reducing them to automatons. This is how I perceive so many of the reforms being pushed on today’s students, I see George Orwell’s 1984 happening fast in 2013. It scares me to death and it should scare you. I am not going to let some politician, who has come to like his job too much, sell my granddaughter down the river. If you have children or grandchildren, I hope you will really educate yourself and not be blindly led down the reformers’ path. Rosemary