Nancy Carlsson-Paige, an expert in early childhood education, recently visited Nova Scotia, Canada, and returned excited about what she saw there.
She realized that Nova Scotia has the right framework for ECE, and the United States is heading in the wrong direction.
In this illuminating article, she describes the Nova Scotia program.
For starters, the program was written by experts in early childhood education, unlike the Common Core standards, which did not include anyone from the field and produced developmentally inappropriate standards and curriculum for young children.
An excerpt:
The Nova Scotia Framework focuses on the whole child — on cognitive, social, emotional and physical development — and the importance of a holistic view of the child that includes personal, social and cultural contexts. The U.S. approach is to teach bits of information and isolated skills.
The Nova Scotia Framework emphasizes dispositions for learning such as curiosity, creativity, confidence, imagination and persistence. It emphasizes processes such as problem solving, experimenting and inquiry. The U.S. approach emphasizes memorization and expects all children to learn the same things at the same time.
The Nova Scotia Framework views the child as a participant in her or his own learning — a co-constructor of knowledge who contributes to shaping the learning experience. The U.S. approach consists of telling children what they should learn, with activities and outcomes predetermined.
The Nova Scotia Framework describes play as one of the highest achievements of the human species. It emphasizes the critical role of play in learning and the increasing recognition by researchers and policymakers of the role of play in fostering capacities such as investigating, asking questions, creativity, solving problems and thinking critically. Play is seen as vital to building a wide range of competencies such as language development, self regulation and conflict resolution. In the U.S. approach, play is minimized and considered secondary to acquisition of academic skills.
Read the rest of this article for yourself.
Early childhood educators know all of this. It is what they believe. It is what they teach and practice, when they are allowed to do so.
Yet in every state, the standards for early childhood education violate the basic principles of learning.
Get out the pitchforks, parents and teachers.
Change is needed.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Early Childhood Education should not exist! For those of you who think that the PISA test is good and that we should emulate Finland then ECE is not needed. The do not start educating their children until the age of 7 and not 3 or before. Play should be done naturally and the child should be using his or her own imagination unstructured as in a school.
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Children’s behavioral experts speak often about the need for human children to simply play with others: so much is learned trough early interactive play which cannot be brought to kids later.
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The New York City guidelines for pre-K are very close to these and equally good. The problem is Kindergarten through 3rd grade are not governed by early childhood standards as they should be, so pre-K gains are seriously undermined.
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“The Nova Scotia Framework describes play as one of the highest achievements of the human species.”
“Play or Pay?”
“Pay” is highest goal
For humans, doncha know?
And “play” is just absurd
Though Einstein never heard
“Play is the highest form of research” — Albert Einstein
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“Pay is the highest form of research” — Bill Gates
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Good one!
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All these wonderful quotes! Apparently, Einstein didn’t say it! It is a paraphrase from N. V. Scarfe in a 1962 article in “Childhood Education” titled “play is Education.” Einstein seemed to me to be talking about playing with ideas.
Phooey! I got caught a few months back on a quote attributed to Socrates(?), a pleasanter version for teachers of the old saw, “Those who can, do; those who can’t…” I almost want my pre-Snopes innocence back. Now I have a bank of fact check sites bookmarked. This attribution would have passed me by, SDP, except my daughter questioned me as to the veracity of a bunch of fun history facts that I had forwarded to her. I had to admit to her that I really had no idea if the author of those particular email tidbits was a credible source; they were just fun.
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You may be right that Einstein never said it, but it certainly encapsulates his philosophy.
Just as “Pay is the highest form of research” encapsulates Gates’ philosophy.
We’ll see how long it takes for people to start passing around the latter quote in emails.
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“She realized that Nova Scotia has the right framework for ECE, and the United States is heading in the wrong direction.” Is anyone surprised we are going in the wrong direction? Several years ago my state sent a panel of “educational stakeholders and leaders” to Finland to study the education system there. They returned with high praise for Finland’s programs….and then the state proceeded to make educational policy that was the direct opposite. Research findings are often ignored if they cost too much.
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