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SOCIAL STUDIES A VICTIM OF NO CHILD LAW
ROBERT TOWNSEND, AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSN BLOG - A new study by the
Center on Education Policy offers hard evidence that the social studies
are being squeezed in America's schools by test-driven pressures imposed
by the No Child Left Behind Act.
English Language Arts and Math - the two subjects that are regularly
tested under NCLB - are taking up an increasing amount of student time.
In a survey of 491 school districts they found that 58 percent increased
the amount of time in the elementary schools allocated to ELA, and 45
percent increased the time devoted to math.
The CEP found that over the past five years 36 percent of the
departments surveyed decreased the time allocated to the social studies,
more than science (cut by 28 percent of school districts), art and music
(cut by 16 percent), and even lunch (cut by 20 percent). . . .
http://hnn.us/roundup/41.html#41399
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THE CASE FOR DISORGANIZED KIDS
PETER WILBY, GUARDIAN, UK - Once I would have been able to answer
questions about the families in my street because I would have seen and
even talked to the children playing outside - skipping, kicking balls
around, chasing each other - and I would have seen and heard the
parents, too, popping out to call their offspring for a meal or bedtime
or to admonish a child who had upset or injured another. Now children
are invisible and so, as a consequence, are most adults. We catch
glimpses of our neighbors as they pile into cars, always in a hurry to
get somewhere else. . .
Laments for lost paradises may be enjoyable, but they can be unhelpful
and sometimes inaccurate. There is no bringing back the central England
country life of Thompson's childhood, nor the northern working-class
city life of Hoggart's, even if we accept their somewhat idealised
accounts. Nor can we abolish the many counter-attractions to street play
- televisions, computers, iPods - that can be enjoyed by the modern
child.
What we can do is give children more space and stop treating them as
though they were an alien species, to be corralled into organized
activities in designated locations. The street and the neighbourhood,
not supervised playgrounds approved by health and safety officers, are
the child's natural environment. That is where they should learn how to
rub along with each other and with adults from outside the family; where
they should learn the limits of acceptable social behavior; where they
should learn to climb and fall out of trees, to explore abandoned
buildings and scrubby bits of unused land in which they can invent games
and let off steam. . .
Engaging with children has become a function within the division of
labor: it's something for parents, schoolteachers, the police and a few
volunteers in organizations such as the Scouts. We have, therefore, lost
the art of properly socializing the young. The dominance of traffic in
the streets is only part of the story, and the introduction of
traffic-free zones only part of the solution. . .
The more conscientious parents, afraid of drug pushers, bullies,
pedophiles, speeding cars, or just "bad company", think it safer to keep
their children indoors and fully occupied. . . The streets become
dominated by children from the more antisocial and dysfunctional
families, and they are restrained only when somebody calls the police .
. .
According to Play England, many of us wouldn't even move a car 50 meters
to allow children more space for games. Children themselves come to
think of the streets as dangerous places, and gather in ever larger
groups for protection. Adults, in turn, feel more threatened and the
police - who once patrolled the streets on foot, dispensing the
occasional word of caution or warning - feel more impelled to take
heavy-handed action. The Victorians thought children should be seen, but
not heard. We don't even want to see them.
Though traffic restrictions would help, there aren't any simple
solutions. The ones that won't work are to increase the number of
organized youth activities, to open more designated play areas, to
expand sports centers, or to keep schools open for longer hours.
Children are fed up with being organized, and required to perform in
order to meet someone else's targets. If there's money available, don't
give it to bureaucracies, still less to commercial providers. Give it to
any neighborhood that can come up with a plausible idea to improve the
quality of the environment for itself and its children. Just for once,
tell people that the welfare of the next generation is in their hands.
Give me, in short, a reason to get to know my neighbors.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2138798,00.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SOCIAL STUDIES A VICTIM OF NO CHILD LAW
ROBERT TOWNSEND, AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSN BLOG - A new study by the
Center on Education Policy offers hard evidence that the social studies
are being squeezed in America's schools by test-driven pressures imposed
by the No Child Left Behind Act.
English Language Arts and Math - the two subjects that are regularly
tested under NCLB - are taking up an increasing amount of student time.
In a survey of 491 school districts they found that 58 percent increased
the amount of time in the elementary schools allocated to ELA, and 45
percent increased the time devoted to math.
The CEP found that over the past five years 36 percent of the
departments surveyed decreased the time allocated to the social studies,
more than science (cut by 28 percent of school districts), art and music
(cut by 16 percent), and even lunch (cut by 20 percent). . . .
http://hnn.us/roundup/41.html#41399
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
THE CASE FOR DISORGANIZED KIDS
PETER WILBY, GUARDIAN, UK - Once I would have been able to answer
questions about the families in my street because I would have seen and
even talked to the children playing outside - skipping, kicking balls
around, chasing each other - and I would have seen and heard the
parents, too, popping out to call their offspring for a meal or bedtime
or to admonish a child who had upset or injured another. Now children
are invisible and so, as a consequence, are most adults. We catch
glimpses of our neighbors as they pile into cars, always in a hurry to
get somewhere else. . .
Laments for lost paradises may be enjoyable, but they can be unhelpful
and sometimes inaccurate. There is no bringing back the central England
country life of Thompson's childhood, nor the northern working-class
city life of Hoggart's, even if we accept their somewhat idealised
accounts. Nor can we abolish the many counter-attractions to street play
- televisions, computers, iPods - that can be enjoyed by the modern
child.
What we can do is give children more space and stop treating them as
though they were an alien species, to be corralled into organized
activities in designated locations. The street and the neighbourhood,
not supervised playgrounds approved by health and safety officers, are
the child's natural environment. That is where they should learn how to
rub along with each other and with adults from outside the family; where
they should learn the limits of acceptable social behavior; where they
should learn to climb and fall out of trees, to explore abandoned
buildings and scrubby bits of unused land in which they can invent games
and let off steam. . .
Engaging with children has become a function within the division of
labor: it's something for parents, schoolteachers, the police and a few
volunteers in organizations such as the Scouts. We have, therefore, lost
the art of properly socializing the young. The dominance of traffic in
the streets is only part of the story, and the introduction of
traffic-free zones only part of the solution. . .
The more conscientious parents, afraid of drug pushers, bullies,
pedophiles, speeding cars, or just "bad company", think it safer to keep
their children indoors and fully occupied. . . The streets become
dominated by children from the more antisocial and dysfunctional
families, and they are restrained only when somebody calls the police .
. .
According to Play England, many of us wouldn't even move a car 50 meters
to allow children more space for games. Children themselves come to
think of the streets as dangerous places, and gather in ever larger
groups for protection. Adults, in turn, feel more threatened and the
police - who once patrolled the streets on foot, dispensing the
occasional word of caution or warning - feel more impelled to take
heavy-handed action. The Victorians thought children should be seen, but
not heard. We don't even want to see them.
Though traffic restrictions would help, there aren't any simple
solutions. The ones that won't work are to increase the number of
organized youth activities, to open more designated play areas, to
expand sports centers, or to keep schools open for longer hours.
Children are fed up with being organized, and required to perform in
order to meet someone else's targets. If there's money available, don't
give it to bureaucracies, still less to commercial providers. Give it to
any neighborhood that can come up with a plausible idea to improve the
quality of the environment for itself and its children. Just for once,
tell people that the welfare of the next generation is in their hands.
Give me, in short, a reason to get to know my neighbors.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2138798,00.html
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