Excerpts from Time and Timing in the Classroom
It was January of third grade. Billy and Joseph were nine and a half years old and they still couldn't read even the easiest of words. After two years of providing remedial help the veteran reading teacher was discouraged and I was getting worried. Then it happened, almost like a switch being turned on. Simultaneously, both boys began to read. I remember thinking that at best we adults could take only minimal credit for this change of events but I didn't know why.
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The developmental approach found itself constantly in danger of being suddenly swept away by the whim of a principal, superintendent or school board. It did not take much controversy over the developmental approach to spook those in power. And when frightened or in doubt, the leaders all too often abandoned their own staff and unilaterally disbanded the program even in schools where the program had been successful for many years.
***
The veteran teacher came to my room after the staff meeting. "Rowland, what the boss is telling us to do is bad for the kids! We all know that!"
I knew what she wanted. As usual I was supposed to lead the opposition. Too often in the past, however, I had gone out on a limb, looked behind and found no one else there. This time I suggested an alternative.
"Why don't you go to the boss and tell him that? Or bring it up at the next staff meeting?" She recoiled. "Oh, no! I can't do that," she said and left the room.
***
Assume every child is normal and an educational sponge until proven otherwise. This means that when a child learns immediately, the skill chosen to be studied and the practice being used is correct. On the other hand, incorrect adult choices are revealed by inefficiency, excessive struggle and failure. In general, learning is a natural and interesting activity. When a task is avoided regardless of enticement, something is wrong but probably not with the student. These principles are true regardless of gender, religion, economic or ethnic background. Doubters will be tempted to state that there never is a simple solution to a complex problem. Yet, every individual classroom or school that has taken even the smallest step in individualizing its program has shown immediate and dramatic student improvement.
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The success of proper timing and use of time (accidental or not) should not be a surprise for educators because there are many recorded examples of this. Students from well-adjusted families, who were kept out of school or were not able to enroll (e.g. missionary children) and then entered two or three years late, had no trouble once enrolled. They found the initial parts of the curriculum easy and quickly reached the level thought appropriate for their peers. In many cases they continued to soar beyond.
Other examples of educational momentum abound in reading instruction. Normal students who were introduced to formal reading later than usual quickly reached the level of those who were instructed because of their grade placement. Then, as a rule, the late starters went beyond their peers.
***
The primary grade teachers had just about completed an open discussion with a group of parents about child development. We had emphasized that if you want to ensure school success, you give a child enough time to learn. It is better to graduate later successfully than to struggle through at the regular age or worse! to fail. One father had not made one comment all night but his body language said it all. He didn't buy a word of it. Finally, he spoke.
"If my child doesn't graduate on time at eighteen, that means he will earn one year's salary less during his lifetime!"
*** The history of education is a study in ironies. One of the greatest is the call for higher educational standards and accountability even as the personal conduct and discipline of many adults in society is declining. While schools are supposed to model and teach the ideal, they still reflect society at large where children imitate the adults.
A second irony is the use of standardized tests as the main and often sole way to judge students, educators and schools. This attempt at accountability is itself "uncreative" and discourages innovative teaching and learning beyond what might be on THE test.
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