Quotes about child development

Children Learn What They Live - Dorothy Law Neite
If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shy.
If a child learns to feel shame, he learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement he learns confidence
If a child lives with praise, he learns to appreciate.
He a child lives with fairness, he learns justice.
If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval, he learns to like himself.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship, he learns to find love in the world.

"We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today."
- Stacia Tauscher

"Children are like wet cement. Whatever falls on them makes an impression.
- Dr. Hiam Ginnot

"Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand."
- Chinese proverb

"The secret of teaching is to appear to have known all your life what you just learned this morning."
- Anonymous

“Since the earliest period of our life was preverbal, everything depended on emotional interaction. Without someone to reflect our emotions, we had no way of knowing who we were.”
― John Bradshaw

“The path of development is a journey of discovery that is clear only in retrospect, and it’s rarely a straight line.” ― Eileen Kennedy-Moore

Testing for Intelligence

As a preschool teacher in a developmental day school I use a variety of assessments to ensure that I know the ability levels of each child so that I can gear my lessons and facilitate learning to meet the needs of all my children.  At my center we use the LAP assessment that assesses the developmental milestones in all the domains. 

As a mother with children in the public school system I know that the school system assesses the basics on reading, writing, and math at the end of every year starting in the third grade to the fifth grade.  This is called the end of grade assessment and the teacher start teaching the test the last semester of the school year.  The older classes have an end of course test where children take the test as they finish each course.  These tests are very confusing for me as a parent.  I feel that they add a lot of stress to our children’s already stressful lives and to the teachers that are held accountable for their learning.  These tests do not take in account that a child may be a bad test taker or having a rough day the day the assessment was given.  They do not let current teachers know where children are at the present time and how to best meet their needs.  My son is in tutoring now for his end of course exams because he is prone to score at the low end of the passing grade every year that he has taken the test. However, my son is an A-B student in all his classes.

I know that these tests are so they can hold schools accountable for the education of children, but shouldn’t assessments of children be so that schools and teachers can meet the needs of their students?  These assessments are only for cognitive levels however, I feel it does not assess the whole child and does not truly demonstrate what a child knows or does not know.  These tests tend to be multiple choice questions except the writing test so students have one out four chance to get it right if they guess. The writing exam may or may not demonstrate students’ skills because they are given a topic to write about.  If they are not interested on know little about the subject their writing will not be so great.

Education in the Netherlands is different than in the USA.  The elementary grades are from 4 years to 12 years or 8^th grade.  At the end of the eighth grade students are given a standardized test to determine if they have reached their attainment targets.  This exam helps determine the secondary school that best fits each child.  Schools have free choice in their teaching methods and parents can choose where their child attends school.  All schools are free public and private.  I found this article very interesting the fact that schools are held accountable, however they are allowed to choose how they teach children there are no set way.

Dykstra, T. (2006). High Performance and Success in Education in Flemish Belgium and the Netherlands. National Center on Education and the Economy. Retrieved from http://www.skillscommission.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/HighPerformance-and-Success.pdf