(From the blog of Mister Journalism: Reading, Sharing, Discussing, Learning)
By Jeff Salisbury https://misterjournalism.wordpress.com/
Source: Reading Readiness Has To Do With The Body
Reading Readiness has to do with the body
By Laura Grace Weldon
“Today’s kids sit more than ever. Babies spend hours confined in car seats and carriers rather than crawling, toddling or being carried. As they get older their days are often heavily scheduled between educational activities and organized events. Children have 25 percent less time for free play than they did a generation ago, and that’s before factoring in distractions like TV or video games.
Left to their own devices, children move. They hold hands and whirl in a circle till they fall down laughing. They beg to take part in interesting tasks with adults. They want to face challenges and try again after making mistakes. They climb, dig, and run. When they’re tired they like to be rocked or snuggled. Stifling these full body needs actually impairs their ability to learn.”
Read more of this report here: http://lauragraceweldon.com/2012/08/07/reading-readiness-has-to-do-with-the-body/
How Finland broke every rule — and created a top school system
By William Doyle
Spend five minutes in Jussi Hietava’s fourth-grade math class in remote, rural Finland, and you may learn all you need to know about education reform – if you want results, try doing the opposite of what American “education reformers” think we should do in classrooms. Instead of control, competition, stress, standardized testing, screen-based schools and […]
As Pasi Sahlberg has pointed out, “If you come to Finland, you’ll see how great American schools could be.”
Finland’s education system is hardly perfect, and its schools and society are entering a period of huge budget and social pressures. Reading levels among children have dropped off. Some advanced learners feel bored in school. Finland has launched an expensive, high-risk national push toward universal digitalization and tabletization of childhood education that has little basis in evidence and flies in the face of a recent major OECD study that found very little academic benefit for school children from most classroom technology.
But as a parent or prospective parent, I have spent time in many of the most prestigious private schools in New York City and toured many of the city’s public school classrooms, in the largest public school system in the world. And I am convinced that the primary school education my child is getting in the Normaalikoulu in Joensuu is on a par with, or far surpasses, that available at any other school I’ve seen.
I have a suggestion for every philanthropist, parent, educator and policymaker in the world who wants to improve children’s education. Start by coming to Finland. Spend some time sitting in the back of Jussi Hietava’s classroom, or any other Finnish classroom.
If you look closely and open your mind, you may see the School of Tomorrow.
Read more of this report here: http://hechingerreport.org/how-finland-broke-every-rule-and-created-a-top-school-system/
Note: William Doyle is a 2015-2016 Fulbright Scholar and New York Times bestselling author from New York City on the faculty of the University of Eastern Finland, and father of an eight year old who attends a Finnish public school.