Put the fun back into first
lessons?
08/10/07 10:25 | Permalink
We don't
normally read the Observer but
Dunk
wanted the free
Talking Heads CD. Yesterday's edition had a small article titled as above
which as usual demonstrates the narrow attitudes of those who run
the school system. The National
Primary Headteachers' Association has done a
review of 40 years of primary education and concludes that young
children should not be rushed into 'formal' learning, but allowed a
slow transition from the nursery stage, and their schooling should
use much more directed play until at least 6 years of age. (I'll
try and stay on topic here but the whole concept of 'directed play'
is an extremely questionable one as well.) It is certainly the case
that in the rest of Europe, and particularly Scandinavia, they
don't do any formal schooling until the age of 7, and that
children's long term academic progress is actually enhanced by this
approach. So what response do we get from the DfCSF? A very
predictable one; "The formal school starting age of five has served
children well for decades". So the question that springs to mind
is; it serves *who* exactly? Methinks it serves the system very
well, nothing about it is designed to serve the needs of any five
year old.