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You missed what I think is the key point: 5. instead of making a big deal out of kids being "behind", they recognize that everyone learns at their own rate. K

You missed what I think is the key point: 5. instead of making a big deal out of kids being "behind", they recognize that everyone learns at their own rate. Kids don't get labeled as "dumb" or "incapable", they just keep being taught.

yardie 17y ago
^^^^^ As a parent you'd be amazed at how many people think their kid is special because they can do one thing that other babies at that age don't. Things like, "He walked before other babies","She started talking at a few months","She eats normal food and can hold a spoon". My wife fell into this trap when kids his age were walking or talking and he was just scooting along. I told her I'd worry about it if he's still crawling at 18. As long as the pediatrician tells me he's healthy that's good enough for me.
- lotharbot 17y ago
  As a new parent myself, I cannot agree strongly enough. My 3-month-old can say "hungry" (way ahead of the curve) but can't yet roll over (behind the curve). That's simply the nature of people -- we don't all learn every topic at the same rate. Trying to push kids into learning at the same rate simply means you'll be ineffective at teaching some fraction of them. Recognizing that some of them just aren't ready to learn such-and-such topic yet, and pacing their education according to what they are ready to learn, is a far better approach. Related: I've really been enjoying the book "Your Child's Growing Mind"[1], which makes this very argument in its first chapter. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Your-Childs-Growing-Mind-Development/dp/0767916158/ http://www.amazon.com/Your-Childs-Growing-Mind-Development/d...
  - btilly 17y ago
    I haven't read that book, but the best book on brain development in kids that I've seen is What's Going On In There? You may like it. (My kids are 2 and 5.)
- andreyf 17y ago
  This isn't just silly, but can actually be dangerous. The "checkpoints" we have for learning are determined by our third-party mental model of that activity, not by the first-person experiences of the learner. A child will learn to do something when they are mentally and physically prepared to do it in the first person, when a whole variety of variables we have no awareness of align. Even something which may appear isolated from other areas of development (walking, talking, holding a spoon) is an extremely superficial heuristic for the development of millions of interconnected systems within a child's body.
- radu_floricica 17y ago
  It's the difference between precocious and smart. Just reading the dictionary definition is enlightning - there is nothing about extraordinary capability there, only about normal capability unusually early.

yardie 17y ago

^^^^^ As a parent you'd be amazed at how many people think their kid is special because they can do one thing that other babies at that age don't. Things like, "He walked before other babies","She started talking at a few months","She eats normal food and can hold a spoon". My wife fell into this trap when kids his age were walking or talking and he was just scooting along. I told her I'd worry about it if he's still crawling at 18. As long as the pediatrician tells me he's healthy that's good enough for me.

lotharbot 17y ago
As a new parent myself, I cannot agree strongly enough. My 3-month-old can say "hungry" (way ahead of the curve) but can't yet roll over (behind the curve). That's simply the nature of people -- we don't all learn every topic at the same rate. Trying to push kids into learning at the same rate simply means you'll be ineffective at teaching some fraction of them. Recognizing that some of them just aren't ready to learn such-and-such topic yet, and pacing their education according to what they are ready to learn, is a far better approach. Related: I've really been enjoying the book "Your Child's Growing Mind"[1], which makes this very argument in its first chapter. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Your-Childs-Growing-Mind-Development/dp/0767916158/ http://www.amazon.com/Your-Childs-Growing-Mind-Development/d...
- btilly 17y ago
  I haven't read that book, but the best book on brain development in kids that I've seen is What's Going On In There? You may like it. (My kids are 2 and 5.)
andreyf 17y ago
This isn't just silly, but can actually be dangerous. The "checkpoints" we have for learning are determined by our third-party mental model of that activity, not by the first-person experiences of the learner. A child will learn to do something when they are mentally and physically prepared to do it in the first person, when a whole variety of variables we have no awareness of align. Even something which may appear isolated from other areas of development (walking, talking, holding a spoon) is an extremely superficial heuristic for the development of millions of interconnected systems within a child's body.
radu_floricica 17y ago
It's the difference between precocious and smart. Just reading the dictionary definition is enlightning - there is nothing about extraordinary capability there, only about normal capability unusually early.