What the Experts Won’t Tell You.
A group of “experts” recently published a study stating that early childhood education was a necessity to keep our country competitive in the world of education. They threw a bunch of facts and figures out there, obviously reaffirming their belief that all children need to learn things like reading and writing by the age of 3 or 4. Somehow, this study showed that our children would benefit.
Question: Where are the REAL experts when you need them?
The only study that I’m interested in is the one of parents and grandparents over the age of 65. I want someone to ask them how best to raise a child. I want to hear directly from them, the things they’ve learned in all their years of parenting. What mattered? What didn’t? When should you sweat the small stuff and when should you relax? What were the things you wished you had done with your kids, and what wouldn’t you change for the world?
Where’s that study?
I have 5 children and I couldn’t disagree more with the results of the “expert’s ” study. I’m not basing my feelings on scientific date, merely maternal observations, but I’ll take my feelings over their study any day.
I took out some home videos of my kids when they were small , and struggled not to cry as I watched my little cherubs with their small, sweet voices and pudgy cheeks. My four year old son was sitting in his sister’s crib on this particular day, playing with her before going off to 3 hour preschool. They were giggling, singing songs, when he looked at the camera and uttered, “Mommy, can I stay home with YOU today? I don’t want to go to school; I want to be with you.”
I don’t remember if he got his wish that day or not, but I hope he did. I hope I was able to see that my four year old needed me more than he needed school that day. I hope I cherished those words, and didn’t cast them off as the mutterings of a child. I hope I listened.
You see, in my estimation, kids don’t need to learn to read earlier. They don’t need to tear up the trigonometry tables before the age of 6. In my limited experience, kids need the first 5 years of their lives to learn all the things you DON’T learn in organized school; they have plenty of time to learn the three “R’s.” The years at home are the years they learn the good stuff: they learn to feel safe; they learn that someone is there for them when they get sick or hurt; they learn to say “thank you” and “I’m sorry” ; they need to fight with their siblings and learn that sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose; they need to be, if possible, with the people who love them most in the whole world.
It’s called “Building a Foundation.” It’s what makes the rest of their lives stable.
The studies of these “experts” can’t measure the stress of a child. They don’t determine how many children, forced to sit and read at age 3 will be popping Ritalin at age 10. They don’t measure a correlation between unfulfilled expectations in some preschool kids to their need for anti-depressants in later years.
Where are those facts?
I don’t want the government telling me that my 3 year old has to go to school. I don’t want the government testing my 4 year old’s math skills. Come to my home and test their kindness. Come over and test their ability to share. Test their sense of security. Send me those tests.
The earlier the government gets involved in our kids’ lives, the earlier our children pay the price.
My motto: Mother knows best. (Fathers too.)
lsm
Tags: children, education, foundation, parenting, ritalin, study
