“Tweet, tweet, tweet!” chirped the kindergartners in Jennifer Aaron’s class last week, as they settled onto the multicolored carpet and began to consider what they would like to send out into the Twitter universe that day.
Three days a week, as the school day draws to a close, the children in Ms. Aaron’s class sit down to compose a message about what they have been doing all day. They then send it out to their parents and relatives through Twitter, the stamping grounds of celebrities and politicians, where few kindergartners have been known to venture.
» via The New York Times
Little Maya was all curly brown hair, doe-like dark eyes, and adorable in her shiny pink nightgown. I wanted to squeal, “Maya, you’re so cute! Look at you! Turn around and model that pretty ruffled gown, you gorgeous thing!”
But I didn’t. I squelched myself. As I always bite my tongue when I meet little girls, restraining myself from my first impulse, which is to tell them how darn cute/ pretty/ beautiful/ well-dressed/ well-manicured/ well-coiffed they are…
…Try this the next time you meet a little girl. She may be surprised and unsure at first, because few ask her about her mind, but be patient and stick with it. Ask her what she’s reading. What does she like and dislike, and why? There are no wrong answers. You’re just generating an intelligent conversation that respects her brain. For older girls, ask her about current events issues: pollution, wars, school budgets slashed. What bothers her out there in the world? How would she fix it if she had a magic wand? You may get some intriguing answers. Tell her about your ideas and accomplishments and your favorite books. Model for her what a thinking woman says and does.
writing prompts about personhood
Many adults are put off when youngsters pose scientific questions. Children ask why the sun is yellow, or what a dream is, or how deep you can dig a hole, or when is the world’s birthday, or why we have toes. Too many teachers and parents answer with irritation or ridicule, or quickly move on to something else. Why adults should pretend to omniscience before a five-year-old, I can’t for the life of me understand. What’s wrong with admitting that you don’t know? Children soon recognize that somehow this kind of question annoys many adults. A few more experiences like this, and another child has been lost to science.
There are many better responses. If we have an idea of the answer, we could try to explain. If we don’t, we could go to the encyclopedia or the library. Or we might say to the child: “I don’t know the answer. Maybe no one knows. Maybe when you grow up, you’ll be the first to find out.”
“
| — |
Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as the Candle in The Dark
“I don’t know the answer. Maybe no one knows. Maybe when you grow up, you’ll be the first to find out.” carl sagan, hero forever
|
It is probable that there is no one thing that it is of eminent importance for a child to learn. The true object of juvenile education, is to provide, against the age of five and twenty, a mind well regulated, active, and prepared to learn. Whatever will inspire habits of industry and observation, will sufficiently answer this purpose.
“
| — |
William Godwin, The Enquirer: Reflections on Education, Manners and Literature in a Series of Essays, 1797
|
my 2nd graders love using word substitutions from vocab lists more than anything. everything that happens to them is “delighful” or “overjoyous” now.
some lady commenting on this saying she’s against removing cursive from public schools because how will we ever read the declaration of independence or handwritten notes? GET YOURSELF ACQUAINTED WITH THE INTERNET AND SIT DOWN.
this is from last year, but so happy to see massachusetts on the list of (2) states who’ve realized how much time we WASTE spending kids to write print letters “correctly” (touching top and bottom lines, etc… when is this ever useful? could we surpress personality any more directly / needlessly?) and then teaching them how to correctly write the cursive alphabet. waste of time. waste waste waste.
teachers tell me they have no time for math or reading groups or pre-assessments, but give out handwriting worksheet after handwriting worksheet like it ain’t no thing.
Raskolnikov’s inbox by Jimmy Chen of HTML Giant
how cute of an option would creating a character’s inbox be on a book report menu?
King said in an interview that this photograph was taken as he tried to explain to his daughter Yolanda why she could not go to Funtown, a whites-only amusement park in Atlanta. King claims to have been tongue-tied when speaking to her. “One of the most painful experiences I have ever faced was to see her tears when I told her Funtown was closed to colored children, for I realized the first dark cloud of inferiority had floated into her little mental sky.”
totally sharing this with my second graders during our mlk day breakfast tomorrow
The educational system in one image.
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will spend the rest of its life thinking it’s an idiot.” -Albert Einstein
seriously
wolfheadedconjurer:
“I like my Brain, because I’m SMART! also, I’m SMARTER than 1st grade! BOOM!!!”
HAHAH
ahhahaahahahaha my 1st graders rule. i die.
