I have a couple of elementary aged school kids. They attend a charter school that focuses on different teaching methods and emphasizes the arts and playful learning. My kids love it and like engaging in dance, band and maybe even a little acting, on top of their daily school activities.
I was not overly concerned about them learning to read early, unlike most parents. My reasons come from personal experience: I didn’t learn how to read English until I was 8 or 9. I did learn how to read Spanish fairly early, but this wasn’t because I was pushed to do so. I wanted to learn to read badly and remember sitting in the dining room looking at my dad’s newspaper and getting frustrated when I could not work through certain words. I must have been 4 or so. My mom tells me I used to cry when I couldn’t figure things out and I kind of see that in my kids, so I don’t push them.
My oldest, with no pushing
or prodding, learned how to read seemingly overnight. She was a good reader by age 6 and now she can read and write fairly well for someone under 10. She likes to sit in her room and read. She asks me for books often and I either order them or buy them for her Kindle. Once she gets them, she’ll finish them in days, occasional asking us to help her with difficult passages. She doesn’t like picture books, which I find adorable, and even has a growing collection of favorites, among them the Goosebumps series.
So with this frame of mind, I find myself agreeing with an article published today, March 3, on the NPR website titled:
Let’s Stop Requiring Advanced Math
I know this sounds controversial, but I agree. As I always tell my wife, as long as my kids know how to read and perform basic arithmetic, aka numeracy, they can learn and do anything they want.
The article makes some good points, but something I found interesting was this:
When it comes to engineers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we’re producing all the engineers we need. The skills shortage is a myth. The chief shortage is getting people who will work for low wages. That’s why companies in California want to bring people in on H-1B visas who will live eight in a room and do coding for a small amount above minimum wage.
That sounds a little bleak and I know this is the trend, as I work in the IT field and live in California. I don’t know that that’s the field I want my kids trying to compete in. I will teach my kids basic coding, as I think this is becoming the new norm and the benefits of understanding code will continue to grow.
However, I tell my kids that they can do whatever they want and, also unlike most parents, I encourage them to quit and quit often. If they don’t like something, there is no reason to stick with it besides that silly notion that quitting is bad. I say quitting is good! Do something you like and finding that may take a while, so quit and quit some more until you find what you want to do.
Loving what you do almost assures that you will do it well. – ME!
I wish someone had told me that early on.
Further reading:
