Systematically prepared to disengage

Whether you live in urban or rural America, everywhere you can see the results of an educational design that cripples learners who aren't advantaged or nurtured, writes Bob Sornson of the Early Learning Foundation on the Center for Michigan's Bridge website. Under our system, young children come to school with vast differences in nutrition, oral language skills, motor skills, and home routines around academic and social readiness.  Poor children more often attend preschools or have childcare of lesser quality. Even in the early grades, most public American schools use curriculum-driven instructional systems in which teachers are expected to "cover" long lists of content expectations. A group of children with different ages, genders, experiences, and developmental readiness are placed in a classroom with 25 to 35 other children. The classroom is organized using an old industrial model, in which this wildly diverse group of children receive similar instruction within the allotted time. Children with less-developed skills can quickly disengage from learning, even though they have incredible potential to succeed. For poor children, the rates of learning success are abysmally low. Unsuccessful early learners are consigned to live without the skills that open the doors to opportunity and success. We are systematically preparing them to be disengaged learners and low-wage earners. More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

Published by LEAP

Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) is an education support organization that works as a collaborative partner in high-poverty communities