It was good to read in Nursery World that 'more than 200 experts are calling for action to protect children from the "erosion of childhood"' (News, 20 September-3 October). Twenty-three of them have also set aside party politics and joined forces to write Too Much, Too Soon? (Hawthorn Press), which emphasises the sector's constant demands for a play-based curriculum in settings for children under the age of six.
Even with the best intentions, such as to prevent future failure, we in Britian frequently lose sight of our young children and their needs and strengths as they are now. As a result, undue pressure is placed on children, their families and their teachers, especially when it comes to reading. In a nutshell, children are constantly expected to get ready for the 'next phase' in their lives and to grow up too quickly.
This has been borne out in my many years of research and again in very recent conversations. As 'Honorary Elder' or Jacqui-Nan at my local Sure Start Centres, I have been able to listen further to four-year-olds and their families, and to 14-year-olds through a project at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth. Talking to these groups has made it very clear to me that we need to listen even more to children.
LISTENING TO FOUR-YEAR-OLDS AND THEIR FAMILIES
Just as they did on my first project in 1986, most four-year-olds continue to focus predominantly on the positives, such as the sheer joy of 'playing with friends - especially in the garden' and their love for all their teachers, who 'help us find out all sorts of things'. They are still very interested in 'beautiful' books and have a wonderful variety to choose from. They also go regularly to the library for 'stories'.
But, despite the reassurance of staff, a minority of the children and their families expect them to be able to read. One worried little boy became tearful when I offered to read him his story book. He had assumed I expected him to read it. Recently, anxious parents have asked me about teaching phonics, assuming that the sooner the better will prevent later problems with their children's reading. However, some parents were very aware of their children's often differing progress and abilities.
One mother, whose daughter was reading fluently at four, said, 'She taught herself ... always curious about words on packets and in her books. In the car she began to read the signs ... she kept asking what the words said. Suddenly one day I realised she was reading her story book ... I gave all the children in my family the same chance to become readers, but it didn't work like that. Her sister didn't start to read until she was six. Then she just flew with it as she was really interested.'
Another mother spoke of the real difficulties of one of her daughters, who did not manage to read fluently until she was almost eight, despite every encouragement.
Poignantly, she said, 'I wish we'd spent more time in chatting and playing ... her need to try so hard meant she simply wasn't ready. Her brain ... something hadn't developed yet ... I don't know how to explain it, but I think keeping on going over and over it like I did with her was stupid. I wasn't worried really, but she got very uptight. She reads perfectly now ... it suddenly clicked with her ... I think we put too much pressure on children to read too early. Some can and others can't ... and they begin to feel like they've failed ... that's a real problem!'
Others' stress was also evident. For example, more children seem to have picked up on the national or global concerns of adults about finance and lack of work. One boy, aged only four years and five months, said how worried he was about his family, 'cos daddy lost his job and mummy's been crying 'cos maybe we can't live here any more ... and I feel sad 'cos I love it with my friends.'
LISTENING TO 14-YEAR-OLDS
It is not an easy matter for an aged stranger to engage immediately with the young, and vice versa. So, I went back to some of the families who had already taken part in research with me and spoke to ten children, now aged 14.
I had just co-ordinated an early years project at Plymouth's National Marine Aquarium, so spent a day there with the group. They were joined by ten friends who were engaged in a project to redesign their school's science curriculum.
As we explored the aquarium and had lunch together, I hoped to find out what they remembered about starting school at the age of four and how they feel now about their own education and learning.
They all remembered their first days at school, especially their reception teachers, and spoke in depth about the excitement of their early learning in which favourite activities included 'playing with friends', 'digging in the garden', 'magnifying glasses for proper science' and 'beautiful story books'.
One 14-year-old still remembered spending a whole day with friends in the garden building a bridge out of wooden beams and blocks. 'Every time it collapsed,' he said, 'we tried again in a different way ... then it stayed up. I'll never forget that feeling!'
As might be expected, they compared all those early first-hand experiences with the 'boring' time they had spent at secondary school. That feeling of boredom was most noticeable with the highly intelligent and articulate group redesigning 'a more appropriate science curriculum for young people of 14+'.
They were sympathetic towards their lively young teacher but felt he was constrained by the system and the exam-driven curriculum. They all wanted to spend more time working with scientists and remembered well all the visits they had made to interesting places in their early years, especially the Science Fairs.
Though not asked directly about literacy or the process of reading, they introduced that topic. Six girls told how easy they had found learning to read. They did not remember any specific methods or stress but recalled bedtime stories at home and in a cosy book corner in the class. One spoke enthusiastically about playing a lot of phonic and word games.
Bucking the current trend, they remarked on how much they still enjoy reading, but also on how much more they did on their computers. They used computers or mobiles for information, but also said they knew they played too many games and that it caused a lot of family arguments.
Twelve boys who had struggled hard to start to read became very emotional and spoke heatedly of their early anxiety, sense of failure and embarrassment. They said it was their families and not their teachers who seemed to put pressure on them. Knowing that I have also worked across Europe, they asked why in Britain we need to justify play and expect children to read and write so young.
A girl said she had heard we come near the bottom of an international literacy league and suggested it was because we were too busy 'getting the young ones ready to read too soon!'
Based on his first-hand experiences of his youngest sister, one of the boys who read fluently by the age of five talked sensitively about her change in attitude about school and her daily unhappiness because she could not read. She had told him she was 'rubbish' at reading. He had to reassure her that 'some children need more time' and was upset that she felt a failure.The proposed testing of 'reading readiness' of children at the age of six was considered by this group of young people to be 'RUBBISH!' Children learn differently, they felt.
That sense of failure fed in to their comments on the recent inner-city riots. They recognised that there are no simple reasons or excuses for such behaviour, but the most significant thing they spoke about was 'they think nobody really cares about them so they don't even care about themselves or anybody'.
Other comments included: 'Some of the young people involved probably see themselves as failures ... they come on all tough ... join gangs ... nothing to lose ... families in trouble for years ... bored at school ... thrown out of everywhere ... no hope for the future ... maybe they felt failures right at the beginning ... getting ready to read too soon can set a pattern of failure ... did anybody have time to listen to them?'
Clearly, as a nation we have to give children proper time and show respect for their childhood. It is time for all of us to listen to young children even more.
Jacqui Cousins is the author of Listening to Four-Year-Olds (National Children's Bureau)
I have used the term 'teacher' throughout because that is how most young children refer to the adults in their settings irrespective of any academic qualifications
FURTHER READING
- A full version of this article is available here
- 'Campaigners speak out against "erosion of childhood"', www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/1095285