Wednesday, 4 February, 2004

Developmentally appropriate practice My youngest sister has two children (nephews Grant and Raine) just entering the school system where she lives. I this school system and at their particular elementary school they are considering something called the arts integrated curriculum. It sounds nice, but I've never hear of it before at least not presented this way. It makes use of insights that were born in Gardner's book Frames of Mind. At the moment I am still in an information acquisition mode on the subject so I can't explain it. If any one out there knows anything - drop a comment. Like anything it is a point of contention at the local PTA. Some parents just want reading, riteing, and 'rithmatic with barbed wire fences between. I thought of an NPR report I heard last year that pointed out that boys tend to fall behind in K12 education often further in further behind with each year. This eventually stabilizes but often too late, and this is reflected in college enrollments. Boys it is thought do not take at an early age to 'linguistic (reading, speaking) learning' as well as girls, and so their attention wanders. This probably explains why I spent all of third grade watching trains go by out a back window. I recall all through the first six or seven years of school teachers saying "boys, boys settle down - the girls are behaving". And amongst each other we would say: "sure, behave, that's what girls do. Big deal." Eventually I learned women also misbehave. But at that moment I was experiencing the learning differential, and could have benefited from an arts integrated curriculum. 11:51:36 PM    comment [];trackback [];

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