I’ve been inspired by an article in a newspaper to have a quick end of year rant.
Toby Young is displaying his educational ignorance in the Independent.
As the father of three boys under five, I share the Government’s concerns. My oldest boy, four-year-old Ludo, started in reception last September and is finding it more difficult to master the basics of reading and writing than his sister did at the equivalent stage. Sasha is now six and has a reading age of nine. Ludo has to be dragged, kicking and screaming, past each developmental milestone – and his two younger brothers are the same. If the discrepancy between them remains, Sasha will start secondary school with a huge advantage over her male siblings.
If all six year olds had reading ages of nine, a reading age of nine would be a reading age of six. Which makes about as much sense as the rest of this article. How can anyone talk of dragging children past developmental milestones? They aren’t requirements for pity’s sake. It reminds me of the health visitor who told a friend of mine that her child’s weight had to be at least average. (And if you can’t see what is wrong with that, I suggest that you may want to brush up on your maths skills 😉 )
Mr Young goes on:
In my experience, the most effective way of kick-starting boys’ development is old-fashioned rote learning. At the beginning of 2009, I hired a tutor to teach Latin to Ludo and Sasha and the results have been remarkable. Ludo was three when he started these daily, half-hour sessions and couldn’t even count to 10, let alone write his own name. Almost 12 months later, he can count to 20, write simple words like “mum” and “dad” and recite his times tables up to five. As for his six-year-old sister, I’m convinced she could achieve a passing grade in GCSE Latin.
Toby Young’s experience is very limited. I have a son too. At the age of three I doubt very much that he could count to 10 or write his own name – he’d only just begun to speak. I certainly didn’t panic and engage a Latin tutor. (A Latin tutor for a three year old? Is this man completely barking mad?) Instead we went on with child led learning both at home and at the montessori nursery/ school he was attending two days a week. At 5 he still couldn’t read his alphabet and I was beginning to get a little nervous. At 5 and a half he was reading Harry Potter. Without a single rote lesson in sight.
So, based on my extensive experience (which is more extensive than Mr Young’s it would appear, as I’ve spent two terms teaching in a Montessori school as well as raising my children to age 9 and 6), I advise the government to drop their insistence on boys learning earlier, bin their nappy curriculum and move to a play based system where children don’t start any kind of formal learning until 7 and home educators are fully supported by being left alone to do what they do best, unless they ask for anything else.
There, sorted.
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