Nancy Carlsson-Paige, professor emerita at Lesley College and eminent defender of childhood, recently was honored with the Deborah Meier award by Fairtest. She is a founding member of Defending the Early Years, which commissions research about early childhood education and advocates for sane, kind, loving policies for young children.
It may be superfluous, but I would like to take this opportunity to name Nancy as a hero of American education for her fearlessness, integrity, and deep understanding of children.
Nancy was honored along with Lani Guinier, professor if law at Harvard Law School.
This is Nancy’s speech, accepting the award:
“Thank you FairTest for this Deborah Meier Hero in Education Award. FairTest does such great advocacy and education around fair and just testing practices. This award carries the name of one of my heroes in education, Deborah Meier—she’s a force for justice and democracy in education. I hope that every time this award is given, it will allow us to once again pay tribute to Deb. Also, I feel privileged to be accepting this honor alongside Lani Guinier.
“When I was invited to be here tonight, I thought about the many people who work for justice and equity in education who could also be standing here. So I am thinking of all of them now and I accept this award on their behalf—all the educators dedicated to children and what’s fair and best for them.
“It’s wonderful to see all of you here—so many family and friends, comrades in this struggle to reclaim excellent public education for all– not just some–of our children.
“I have loved my life’s work– teaching teachers about how young children think, how they learn, how they develop socially, emotionally, morally. I’ve been fascinated with the theories and science of my field and seeing it expressed in the actions and the play of children.
“So never in my wildest dreams could I have foreseen the situation we find ourselves in today.
“Where education policies that do not reflect what we know about how young children learn could be mandated and followed. We have decades of research in child development and neuroscience that tell us that young children learn actively—they have to move, use their senses, get their hands on things, interact with other kids and teachers, create, invent. But in this twisted time, young children starting public Pre-K at the age of four are expected to learn through “rigorous instruction.”
“And never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that we would have to defend children’s right to play.
“Play is the primary engine of human growth; it’s universal–as much as walking and talking. Play is the way children build ideas and how they make sense of their experience and feel safe. Just look at all the math concepts at work in the intricate buildings of kindergartners. Or watch a 4-year old put on a cape and pretend to be a superhero after witnessing some scary event.
“But play is disappearing from classrooms. Even though we know play is learning for young kids, we are seeing it shoved aside to make room for academic instruction and “rigor.”
“I could not have foreseen in my wildest dreams that we would have to fight for classrooms for young kids that are developmentally appropriate. Instead of active, hands-on learning, children now sit in chairs for far too much time getting drilled on letters and numbers. Stress levels are up among young kids. Parents and teachers tell me: children worry that they don’t know the right answers; they have nightmares, they pull out their eyelashes, they cry because they don’t want to go to school. Some people call this child abuse and I can’t disagree.
“I could not have foreseen in my wildest dreams that we would be up against pressure to test and assess young kids throughout the year often in great excess—often administering multiple tests to children in kindergarten and even Pre-K. Now, when young children start school, they often spend their first days not getting to know their classroom and making friends. They spend their first days getting tested. Here are words from one mother as this school year began:
“My daughter’s first day of kindergarten — her very first introduction to elementary school — consisted almost entirely of assessment. She was due at school at 9:30, and I picked her up at 11:45. In between, she was assessed by five different teachers, each a stranger, asking her to perform some task.
“By the time I picked her up, she did not want to talk about what she had done in school, but she did say that she did not want to go back. She did not know the teachers’ names. She did not make any friends. Later that afternoon, as she played with her animals in her room, I overheard her drilling them on their numbers and letters.
“The most important competencies in young children can’t be tested—we all know this. Naming letters and numbers is superficial and almost irrelevant in relation to the capacities we want to help children develop: self-regulation, problem solving ability, social and emotional competence, imagination, initiative, curiosity, original thinking—these capacities make or break success in school and life and they can’t be reduced to numbers.
“Yet these days, all the money and resources, the time dedicated to professional development, they go to tooling teachers up to use the required assessments. Somehow the data gleaned from these tests is supposed to be more valid than a teacher’s own ability to observe children and understand their skills in the context of their whole development in the classroom.
“The first time I saw for myself what was becoming of many of the nation’s early childhood classrooms was when I visited a program in a low income community in north Miami. Most of the children were on free and reduced lunch.
“There were ten classrooms–kindergarten and Pre-K. The program’s funding depended on test scores, so—no surprise—teachers taught to the test. Kids who got low scores, I was told, got extra drills in reading and math and didn’t get to go to art. They used a computer program to teach 4 and 5 year olds how to Bubble. One teacher complained to me that some children go outside the lines.
“In one of the kindergartens I visited, the walls were barren and so was the whole room. The teacher was testing one little boy at a computer at the side of the room. There was no classroom aide. The other children were sitting at tables copying words from the chalk board. The words were: “No talking. Sit in your seat. Hands to Yourself.”
“The teacher kept shouting at them from her testing corner: Be quiet! No talking!
“Most of the children looked scared or disengaged, and one little boy was sitting alone. He was quietly crying. I will never forget how these children looked or how it felt to watch them, I would say, suffering in this context that was such a profound mismatch with their needs.
“It’s in low-income, under-resourced communities like this one where children are most subjected to heavy doses of teacher-led drills and tests. Not like in wealthier suburbs where kids have the opportunity to go to early childhood programs that have play, the arts, and project-based learning. It’s poverty—the elephant in the room—that is the root cause of this disparity.
“A few months ago, I was alarmed to read a report from the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights showing that more than 8,000 children from public preschools across the country were suspended at least once in a school year, many more than once. First of all, who suspends a preschooler? Why and for what? The very concept is bizarre and awful. But 8,000? And then to keep reading the report to see that a disproportionate number of those suspended preschoolers were low income, black boys.
“There is a connection, I know, between these suspensions and ed reform policies: Children in low income communities are enduring play deficient classrooms where they get heavy doses of direct teaching and testing. They have to sit still, be quiet in their seats and comply. Many young children can’t do this and none should have to.
“I came home from that visit to the classrooms in North Miami in despair. But fortunately, the despair turned quickly to organizing. With other educators we started our nonprofit Defending the Early Years. We have terrific early childhood leaders with us (some are here tonight: Deb Meier, Geralyn McLaughlin, Diane Levin and Ayla Gavins). We speak in a unified voice for young children.
“We publish reports, write op eds, make videos and send them out on YouTube, we speak and do interviews every chance we get.
“We’ve done it all on a shoestring. It’s almost comical: The Gates Foundation has spent more than $200 million dollars just to promote the Common Core. Our budget at Defending the Early Years is .006% of that.
“We collaborate with other organizations. FairTest has been so helpful to us. And we also collaborate with –Network for Public Education, United Opt Out, many parent groups, Citizens for Public Schools, Bad Ass Teachers, Busted Pencils Radio, Save Our Schools, Alliance for Childhood and ECE PolicyWorks —There’s a powerful network out there– of educators, parents and students—and we see the difference we are making.
“We all share a common vision: Education is a human right and every child deserves one. An excellent, free education where learning is meaningful– with arts, play, engaging projects, and the chance to learn citizenship skills so that children can one day participate—actively and consciously–in this increasingly fragile democracy.
Nancy is also a hero of mine, Diane. Sent you an email about interviewing you and her — my two favorite advocates — for BAM Radio. Would love to hear from you!
“It may be superfluous….”
Never. Not that I’ve done anything to earn any accolades, but if I were ever going to get honored, yours would be among the most cherished I could possibly get.
Two parts of Dr. Carlsson-Paige’s acceptance speech stood out for me, though I’ve reversed the order of their appearance.
“Most of the children looked scared or disengaged, and one little boy was sitting alone. He was quietly crying. I will never forget how these children looked or how it felt to watch them, I would say, suffering in this context that was such a profound mismatch with their needs.”
“Some people call this child abuse and I can’t disagree.”
As more and more parents become aware of what is happening to their children under the guise of “rigor” and as more and more teachers identify those aspects of the “Rheeform” movement as the abuses that they are, then perhaps there will increasing pressure to identify, stop and finally reverse the misguided, inappropriate and abusive practices our children are being subjected to.
Congratulations to Dr. Carlsson-Paige for her wisdom, compassion, expertise and continued efforts against those who would otherwise either take away or destroy our children’s childhoods.
Has anyone made a comparison of the curricula and methods used in the elite academies, attended by the children of those leading the hyper-test mania, to what they advocate for public, or charter, schools?
Heartfelt thanks to the owner of this blog for this posting.
😎
The whole commericialization of education has brought us to unsound instruction for young children. The vendors selling computerized “rigor” to preschools and early childhood education are not experts in child development. Schools are missing the opportunity to work with the child’s nature and develop the whole child, not just reading and math skills. Just as important as academics, children need to develop emotionally and socially. Our legislators and school administrators should go back and read Robert Fulghum’s “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” For all the hype about computers being “cutting edge,” they are really offering nineteenth century Skinnerian behaviorist ideology as the premise of their instruction. Young children learn through their senses. They need hands on experiences, not rote drill and kill instruction. As educators we have evolved so far beyond stimulus/response for early learners; a steady diet of computer instruction for young children is really and antiquated idea in flashy packaging.
Not even under communism in Hungary did we have such a ruthless and senseless push to standardize, perform, brainwash.
Communist countries wanted to show the rest of the world how much better their system was, so they did amazingly outrageous things like giving steroids to athletes.
In early years we went to a playground every day, danced, sang, painted, acted. Though Hungary consistently won top prizes in math olympiads, we started reading and counting only in first grade. Not a word about letters or numbers till then. Even in kindergarten, we had signs over our cubbies instead of our names—since most of us wouldn’t be able to read even our own names.
We didn’t have a single standardized test. Not one.
This was a system that trusted so little its citizens that it allowed them to visit Western countries only every 3 year, and even that after an interview. Still, teachers had the freedom to grade and test kids the way they saw fit.
Thanks, Máté, for the perspective!
US Department of Education promotes another specific online learning product on a government website. The product they’re promoting here is called Edgenuity.
“The main things the teachers are freed from at Village Green are quiz and test construction, grading, and designing core lessons. “However, they still have to plan the workshop and plan to re-teach Edgenuity in case a lesson is not grasped,” explained Pilkington.”
Is it ethical for the US Department of Education to be so aggressively promoting these ed tech products and services? Why the hard sell to push kids to online learning among ed reformers? Why are they so anxious to push online learning into low and middle income public schools?
This is indistinguishable from a marketing/ad campaign. That the US Department of Education has completely abandoned any pretense of being an honest broker or reliable source of unbiased information is just appalling. It was bad enough when they were aggressively marketing charter schools. Now they’re pushing ed tech product and “online learning” into every public school in the country.
http://sites.ed.gov/progress/2015/11/rhode-island-school-makes-learning-personal-for-students/
The government should consult research ocular muscular development in young children before signing on to anything. Young children are not meant to stayed focused on “near sight” for long periods of time. Too much screen time may cause myopia. http://www.allaboutvision.com/parents/children-computer-vision-syndrome.htm
“Playing with Clay”
On first school day
Kids used to play
With lumps of clay
And want to stay
“But not today!”
Deformers say
“They must obey
The Testing way!”
“Testing day trumps Piaget”
Piaget said ‘Let them play’
Coleman said “No way”
Duncan said “It’s testing day”
What more is there to say?
“Play is the highest form of research.”
– Albert Einstein
Also- “Play is the work of children.”–Piaget
“Play is the work of the child.”–Maria Montessori
“A Child’s Work: the Importance of Fantasy Play.”–book title,
-Vivian Gussin Paley, reknowned Early Childhood expert @ U. of C.
“Testing i(& testing & even more testing) is the new play of the child.”– said no Early Childhood expert… ever.
Thank you,Nancy Carlsson Paige! Thank you Dr. Ravitch for this post. I teach 1st grade. They need to play.
Congratulations to Nancy Carlsson Paige and the fine work done at DEY to help our children to be happy and capable!
Now, sorry to be a skunk at the garden party, take a look at the latest in nefarious doings by Gates Inc:
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.