| Educating a child is starting earlier. For example, | | | | help children via mentors who are encouraging |
| parents are taking their three year old kids to | | | | families to engage in activities. |
| tutoring programs where they use flashcards and | | | | Other learning programs like Junior Kumon Math |
| have homework. Kindergarten students are doing | | | | and Reading Centers is now offering academic |
| the work that first-graders used to do, and | | | | tutoring for children as young as two, and they |
| middle school children are enrolling in algebra | | | | have gotten 28,000 children enrolled the United |
| courses a year or two earlier than ever before. | | | | States, in less than two years since they entered |
| These trends are happening for several reasons | | | | the U.S. Trends also indicate that introducing the |
| including: | | | | concepts of math and science in middle school |
| 1) Parents are afraid their children will fall behind if | | | | used to be called "acceleration" while now it is an |
| not pushed; | | | | "expectation." One reason is the Trends in |
| 2) There's frustration with schools that have failed | | | | International Math and Science Studies survey of |
| to gain achievement for disadvantaged students; | | | | 1995. This showed that American students were |
| 3) There is competition for college entrance and | | | | ahead in fourth-grade math but dropped to the |
| acceptance; and | | | | bottom in the 12th grade. |
| 4) There's an overall sense that America is losing | | | | The Los Angeles Unified School District made |
| ground in globally. | | | | passing algebra a graduation requirement. 48,000 |
| In fact, futurists like James Canton in his book | | | | ninth-graders took the course in 2004, and 44 |
| entitled "The Extreme Future" said about the top | | | | percent of them failed. Many went on to repeat |
| ten trends that will shape the future of America - | | | | the course several times and kept on failing until |
| "Quality public education, in crisis today, will either | | | | they gave up and dropped out of school. |
| propel or crash the future aspirations of the | | | | On the other hand, a program used in the |
| American workforce." | | | | Pittsburgh Public School districts for the middle |
| "Encouraging students to challenge themselves | | | | school curriculum called Connected Math was |
| and expand their horizons is always a good thing," | | | | designed to introduce math concepts in a way |
| said Sherry Cleary, assistant professor of | | | | that students could apply to real life. It has |
| education at Pitt and director of the University | | | | become as controversial as the reading wars and |
| Child Development Center. | | | | is now known as the math wars. Students who |
| Psychologist David Elkind published his landmark | | | | take the course for the first time in ninth grade |
| book in the early eighties, entitled, "The Hurried | | | | will have to score at or above grade level. Those |
| Child." "The pressure to grow up fast, to achieve | | | | who don't will have to take an additional tutorial |
| early is the very great in middle-class America. | | | | class each day. |
| There is no room today for the late bloomer" he | | | | The fact is that today, twenty percent of |
| said. | | | | youngsters are "flunking" kindergarten, and millions |
| Dr. Now Elkind is saying that this phenomenon is | | | | of children are medicated daily to make them |
| more prevalent than it was back in 1981. | | | | more "educable" and "manageable" in school and |
| It is one thing to offer college electives to high | | | | at home. |
| school teens, but the younger the children, the | | | | The answers may be found in what is going on at |
| more controversial it is. Most child development | | | | home as well as at school. If we had more |
| experts agree that young children learn best in | | | | programs nationwide to support students as they |
| rich play environments that stimulate the senses | | | | grow up, perhaps the results would speak for |
| in age-appropriate ways. | | | | themselves in future years to come. |
| Many exccellent community programs exist to | | | | |