C Stands for Catastrophe

February 14, 2013

Grade 1 to 3 we learn to read, from grade 4 on we read to learn. I have written about this a few times, most recently here.

Moving kids ahead before they have a grip on this year's skills defeats the whole purpose of getting up to go to school in the first place...no?

That doesn't mean holding the kid back to repeat the whole year over again, that never made sense. But it does mean identifying the problem and fixing it in the class, with outside resources, a code, a tutor, whatever is needed but it can't be left unaddressed.

I picture it like an avalanche - a bunch of new snow falls on top of old snow that hasn't had a chance to solidify, the new snow can’t get a grip and begins to break apart, there is nothing under it to support it and the slide begins.

It’s not hard to spot the kids who are caught in the slide - they sit in class praying they are not called on. They feel judged and stupid. And it just keeps getting worse. They feel more inadequate, more confused and frustrated every day. The place they go to everyday that promised learning is making them feel dumb.

This quote comes from Philip Regier, a dean discussing university courses, but it applies to little kids too, kids that get moved ahead sometimes with much less than a 70% grip on what they have been taught: 

“It’s the Swiss cheese effect. You can’t have a big hole in your knowledge. If you get a C, you know 70 percent of the material for one course. 

But the missing 30 is likely to be important to passing the next course.”  (more here)

And for the little ones getting their footing it’s reading and math  ...  “Mathematics, for example, is “ruthlessly cumulative” and so missing a chunk of it early on can cause big problems down the line.”  Annie Murphy Paul

It’s like the Renert brothers (creators of the Bright Minds math enrichment program) say; Moving kids ahead before they master the material is like giving someone a two wheeler after they spent a morning on a tricycle and fell off it half the time. 

But, unlike school, if they never master riding a bike they can park the thing forever and get through life just fine without out.