One of the things that I didn't get to do was attend Liam's kindergarten curriculum night last week. I was sorry to have missed it for a number of reasons. Last year (pre-K 4) I really didn't have any idea what curriculum night was supposed to do and I was very new to the whole issue of how I as a parent am supposed to relate to the school I send my child to. This year I have more complete views on both of those things and I have spent some time educating myself on the whole issue of what should be covered in a core curriculum. There is as little consensus on this as there is on the whole question of what environment children learn best in. If you're interested - I found the book "What Your Kindergartner Needs To Know" by E.D. Hirsch Jr. and John Holdren to be a great resource. It fits with my growing sense of how involved I need to be in Liam's education in order for it to be as fully rounded as I want it to be.
That doesn't mean I'm looking to front up at school and start double guessing the teacher. One of the most interesting aspects of last year was that Liam was put in a class with a teacher that was widely renowned as being God's gift to children - and for several months I didn't like her at all. On one of my first interactions with her I took Liam to class and watched as she told him his "sleep toy" was too big and he should have brought a smaller one that would fit in his cubby. He was so excited to bring that toy because it was a gift from someone special and her tone had his lip trembling and his eyes leaking within seconds. The next week I spent some time talking with the teacher's aide as I dropped Liam off, only to have her interupt and admonish the aide from the back of the room. She was altogether so unfriendly at drop off time that I stopped even trying to interact with her. At that point I thought "well she's certainly something that begins with B but it's not brilliant."
But as the year went on I saw what a wonderful teacher she was and how Liam was blossoming under her instruction and learning about things I never would have expected to see in a pre-K curriculum. Modern art, Greek mythology, French history. I also learned that my one on one interactions with my son are nothing like what a teacher who was 16 5-year olds in a class is dealing with. By most measures Liam is an extremely easy going kid - that's not true of all of them. A key aspect of what kids learn in school is how to operate effectively in group situations. And as a parent I learned that what I initially think of the teacher is far less important than I once thought.
But that doesn't mean the teacher is always right - or that you can abdicate responsibility for your child's education to any teacher or any school and then take the approach of criticizing when it is not what you want. Hence my greater interest in understanding exactly what the class will be covering in the pre-K curriculum. A few weeks back the mother of another child in Liam's class ran into me at a local store and asked what I thought about the educational content of an upcoming field trip. She clearly did not see the value of it and it overlaid a more general lack of comfort with the whole school approach to education. (Liam's school is at the crunchy granola, whole child, non-competitive end of the spectrum.) To be honest I hadn't even thought about the field trip but I am an advocate of the "learning through play" concept and the need for shcool to be fun and engaging for 5 year olds if it is to instill a lifelong love of learning.
And so I was happy when the following paper was included in the packet of information that Liam's teacher sent home because I missed curriculum night. It doesn't cover the content of the year's lessons - but I think it describes the approach pretty effectively. I like the distinction between wisdom and knowledge. Remember - knowledge is recognizing that a tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable. Wisdom is knowing you still don't put it in fruit salad.
