Recent Articles
In the following section you will find recent opinion articles that have been written by Yolande Robinson as well as links to the text version of A Child's Life Podcasts, which is a weekly segment on Radio Turks & Caicos. The podcasts can be found on the podcast page of this website or in iTunes.
Removing K1 and K2 from Could Impact the Future of Our Children: A Concerned Educator and Mother Chimes In
Wednesday November 16, 2011
Although I am not one to usually listen to rumors, I have heard one lately that has been extremely disturbing to me. I have heard that as a cost cutting measure, the current administration is planning to eliminate K1 and K2 from public schools. If it is in fact a rumor, please let this information serve as just a reminder of the importance of early childhood education. If this rumor is indeed fact, I plead with you, the decision makers, as an educator and a mother, to take the time to look at the possible ramifications of this decision.
Prior to getting into the meat of this article, let me first lay a few things out. Although I believe that any parent or educator, regardless of gender, class, ethnicity, nationality or education is capable of pointing out the facts that I am going to outline in this article, I am going to provide you with my background in case there is a need to qualify my right to have this position.
I am a published McGill Alumna who holds a Bachelor of Education in Kindergarten and Elementary Education and a Masters of Education in Educational Psychology. I am a first generation Canadian of Caribbean descent, who is married to a local, and has been residing in the Turks and Caicos Islands for the last three and a half years. I have had the privilege of working as a Special Education Teacher at a distinguished government school and now work full time as an Educational Consultant and materials distributor. I am the host of A Child’s Life, which is a Wednesday morning segment on Radio Turks and Caicos that addresses positive parenting and teaching techniques, and last and perhaps the most important qualifier of all, I am the mother of an 18 month old who will be educated in this country.
Upon my arrival to the TCI, I quickly learned that the education system within the Turks & Caicos Islands is unique to this country. It is not for me to judge the quality of the system, but just to help to improve it, as every educator should ultimately strive to do, no matter which country they are from or presently teaching in. So the question arises, will removing K1 and K2 from the public education system improve the current education system?
Although I could cite a number of academic articles outlining the importance of structured early childhood education, and that countries that do not house kindergarten within their public system have stringent early childhood standards in place for the institutions that educate their young students, I am going to stick to the quick and dirty facts as to why this will not work well within the Turks and Caicos Islands.
If K1 and K2 are removed from the public system, parents will need an alternative. Are the private daycares and pre-schools equipped to handle the influx of students?
Do they have the appropriate educational materials? Do they have the appropriate classroom libraries? Are ALL the teachers in these institutions trained as early childhood teachers? Although some may say that you do not need to be a trained teacher to take care of a 4 or 5 year old, I would respond to that school of thought by saying you do not need to be to ‘take care’ of them, but to ‘educate’ them in this day and age, you need to have an appropriate background. Would you allow a non-trained individual to care for your child’s medical wellbeing? Chances are that you wouldn’t, but it would be okay to do that for the most important years of your child’s education? An early childhood teacher responsible for the kindergarten years should be well versed in areas such as expressive and receptive language development, fine and gross motor skills development, be up to date on educational technologies, and have a solid grasp of how to introduce numeracy and literacy. Such a teacher should also know how to address
essential social skills development topics and be able to run early intervention activities for students who show signs of having learning, developmental, emotional or behavioral difficulties or disabilities. Similarly, as a result of the skills training that occurs in teacher education programs, trained early childhood teachers are also best placed to discover language, hearing and other problems which children have and are often not picked up by parents until later in their child’s school career.
For argument sake, let us say that all the private pre-schools have trained teachers and manage to address my aforementioned concerns. What will happen to the children whose parents do not have the income to enroll them in pre-school or that choose not to do so and yet do not educate their children at home? The first 6 years of a child’s life are extremely crucial. I would argue that they are the most important, as it is when a child first learns how to learn. It is a time when they develop their attitudes towards learning and when they develop a like or dislike for learning. Any educator or psychologist can vouch for the fact that these crucial years are when a child’s foundation is laid. Is it really smart that the education in these foundation years only be available at paid institutions? Will this help to improve literacy rates within this country? Although I own one of these ‘paid’ institutions and might most likely benefit financially, I still feel that this is not right and is far from being educationally sound.
We all know that a home environment sets the tone for learning. Although we would like to think that every child is being read to and exposed to basic early learning topics at home, this is not the case. Therefore, some children that do not currently attend daycare or pre-school are exposed to these basic learning concepts only when they first enter school.
As a brief exercise, let’s look at two grade one students. Student A was enrolled in pre-school for the K1 and K2 years and Student B was not and did not have a parent or caregiver that ensured they were learning at home. Student A and Student B will be entering a grade 1 classroom at the same time.
Let us compare these two students:
Student A has parents who have set up a learning environment for them at home. They have their own personal library of which books are read to them and that they go through independently. Between home and pre-school they have been exposed to everything from early learning technologies, to sand and water play, to coloring and painting, to cutting. Their time in pre-school has exposed them to non- family social interactions and helped them to develop their language skills and their ability to play with others. They have been read to in pre-school and have had the opportunity to do arts and crafts and dress up in make- believe clothes and explore the ideas in their imagination which will in turn foster their creativity. They’ve learned their colors and shapes, numbers and letter sounds and their pencil grasp has been corrected. They have been exposed to routine and understand how the school day goes. This child will be ready for grade 1.
Student B did not go to pre-school and their home environment isn’t one that fosters learning. They may not know the basics such as days of the week or months of the year. They will have very little knowledge of how a book works and that each story has a beginning, middle and end. With this will come the likelihood that they do not know their letters, letter sounds, numbers, shapes and colors. Although Student B may have held a pencil or crayons before, they may not have developed their fine motor skills in order to be able to cut curved lines, or write letters correctly. They may be unable to write their name, tie their shoes, or even do their uniform buttons up after physical education class. Sitting still may be very difficult, as they have watched many more hours of television than recommended for their age and they are waiting for the ‘action’ in the classroom to occur as it does on the television. This will then perhaps cause them to seem inattentive, impulsive and hyperactive…which are the three elements of ADHD. If they have grown up in a household where English is not the first language, or the English that is spoken is broken and often grammatically incorrect English, they will have difficulties speaking in one tense. Their sentences will jump from present, to past, to future. “I goed to the store yesterday,” “ I to school.”
Now, let’s put these two students in the same grade 1 classroom. What’s the effect? Chaos. That is the only word to describe it. Who will be expected to teach these students? The Teacher. What resources will be given to make up for this developmental gap? I would venture to say none, as if K1 and K2 are taken out in the first place,
very few early childhood resources are likely to be stocked in the grade 1 classes.
I am sure by this point you are wondering what the long term effects will be? First of all, this will not only affect Student B. Student A will be just as affected as their teacher will be teaching to multiple levels to accommodate the amplified needs. Teachers will be faced with more classroom management issues than they already are, as
well students not being mentally ready for the work presented to them and therefore acting out. Students that resemble my fictional Student B may get discouraged very early in grade 1 and begin to feel at such a young age that school is not for them. Literacy rates are likely to be affected across the board. Students that begin reading in grade one after two years of pre-reading instruction may still need the same two years of pre-reading skills in order to become a reader. That would mean that some students may not be ready to start reading until grade 3. This will no doubt affect the ability of these same students to be successful in social studies, mathematics, and
science.
So how does this affect the society? This is where your statisticians would come in. I would challenge (while hoping this will not be necessary) those that are not right sized out of the Department of Economic Planning and Statistics to look at the present Grade 4 literacy and numeracy exams results and do the same thing again 5 – 6 years when the grade 4 students would be those that did not all have access to kindergarten education. I anticipate the findings should be quite interesting. A quick Google search on long term projections and literacy rates will give you an idea of societal problems that can occur when literacy rates are subpar. One disturbing fact that always sticks in my mind is that in some parts of America prison rates have been predicted based on grade 3 literacy rates.
As a special education teacher, I must mention the special education implications. There will be more students in the special education program, because learning
disabilities will arise as a result of the‘maturation gap’ phenomenon that those of us in education know occur when a child is exposed to something that they are
not ready for. For example, Student B that enters grade one and is learning sight words before they know their letter sounds, will not grasp the concept. Unfortunately, once they are ready to grasp the sight word concept, their teacher would have moved on. What happens as a result? The learning gap will get bigger and bigger as this happens over and over, and a learning difficulty becomes a learning disability that will now affect that child for the rest of his or her life.
So, essentially, what am I trying to get across in this article? It is clear to see that the skills taught in K1 and K2 can be taught at the pre-school level and do not have to be part of the government school system. The question is, is it realistic and beneficial to this society? Will it improve the standards of education within the Turks and Caicos Islands, or will it retard a system that is already functioning behind many of its Caribbean counterparts? These are all questions that the current administration needs to look at closely.
Every country in the world istrying to cut costs. The thing is…education costs money and many who refuse to do so, end up spending it later trying to correct the damage. No matter how you slice it, you have to spend money on education in order to get a return. The great United States of American is now blaming their cut backs in education
as the reason for their poor showing on international tests and an untrained workforce, leaving many to now cry out for an upgrading of the system, including among them increases in teachers'' salary to attract the brightest and best. The money spending does not start with scholarships; it starts from the time a child enters school. The children are the future of this country. Is this really the area that should be cut? Have the consequences of such a significant decision really been analysed?
I hope and pray it's still just a rumor!!
Yolande Robinson B.Ed, M.Ed.
Educational Consultant
Learn & Lead Educational Center
www.learnandleadec.com
Although I am not one to usually listen to rumors, I have heard one lately that has been extremely disturbing to me. I have heard that as a cost cutting measure, the current administration is planning to eliminate K1 and K2 from public schools. If it is in fact a rumor, please let this information serve as just a reminder of the importance of early childhood education. If this rumor is indeed fact, I plead with you, the decision makers, as an educator and a mother, to take the time to look at the possible ramifications of this decision.
Prior to getting into the meat of this article, let me first lay a few things out. Although I believe that any parent or educator, regardless of gender, class, ethnicity, nationality or education is capable of pointing out the facts that I am going to outline in this article, I am going to provide you with my background in case there is a need to qualify my right to have this position.
I am a published McGill Alumna who holds a Bachelor of Education in Kindergarten and Elementary Education and a Masters of Education in Educational Psychology. I am a first generation Canadian of Caribbean descent, who is married to a local, and has been residing in the Turks and Caicos Islands for the last three and a half years. I have had the privilege of working as a Special Education Teacher at a distinguished government school and now work full time as an Educational Consultant and materials distributor. I am the host of A Child’s Life, which is a Wednesday morning segment on Radio Turks and Caicos that addresses positive parenting and teaching techniques, and last and perhaps the most important qualifier of all, I am the mother of an 18 month old who will be educated in this country.
Upon my arrival to the TCI, I quickly learned that the education system within the Turks & Caicos Islands is unique to this country. It is not for me to judge the quality of the system, but just to help to improve it, as every educator should ultimately strive to do, no matter which country they are from or presently teaching in. So the question arises, will removing K1 and K2 from the public education system improve the current education system?
Although I could cite a number of academic articles outlining the importance of structured early childhood education, and that countries that do not house kindergarten within their public system have stringent early childhood standards in place for the institutions that educate their young students, I am going to stick to the quick and dirty facts as to why this will not work well within the Turks and Caicos Islands.
If K1 and K2 are removed from the public system, parents will need an alternative. Are the private daycares and pre-schools equipped to handle the influx of students?
Do they have the appropriate educational materials? Do they have the appropriate classroom libraries? Are ALL the teachers in these institutions trained as early childhood teachers? Although some may say that you do not need to be a trained teacher to take care of a 4 or 5 year old, I would respond to that school of thought by saying you do not need to be to ‘take care’ of them, but to ‘educate’ them in this day and age, you need to have an appropriate background. Would you allow a non-trained individual to care for your child’s medical wellbeing? Chances are that you wouldn’t, but it would be okay to do that for the most important years of your child’s education? An early childhood teacher responsible for the kindergarten years should be well versed in areas such as expressive and receptive language development, fine and gross motor skills development, be up to date on educational technologies, and have a solid grasp of how to introduce numeracy and literacy. Such a teacher should also know how to address
essential social skills development topics and be able to run early intervention activities for students who show signs of having learning, developmental, emotional or behavioral difficulties or disabilities. Similarly, as a result of the skills training that occurs in teacher education programs, trained early childhood teachers are also best placed to discover language, hearing and other problems which children have and are often not picked up by parents until later in their child’s school career.
For argument sake, let us say that all the private pre-schools have trained teachers and manage to address my aforementioned concerns. What will happen to the children whose parents do not have the income to enroll them in pre-school or that choose not to do so and yet do not educate their children at home? The first 6 years of a child’s life are extremely crucial. I would argue that they are the most important, as it is when a child first learns how to learn. It is a time when they develop their attitudes towards learning and when they develop a like or dislike for learning. Any educator or psychologist can vouch for the fact that these crucial years are when a child’s foundation is laid. Is it really smart that the education in these foundation years only be available at paid institutions? Will this help to improve literacy rates within this country? Although I own one of these ‘paid’ institutions and might most likely benefit financially, I still feel that this is not right and is far from being educationally sound.
We all know that a home environment sets the tone for learning. Although we would like to think that every child is being read to and exposed to basic early learning topics at home, this is not the case. Therefore, some children that do not currently attend daycare or pre-school are exposed to these basic learning concepts only when they first enter school.
As a brief exercise, let’s look at two grade one students. Student A was enrolled in pre-school for the K1 and K2 years and Student B was not and did not have a parent or caregiver that ensured they were learning at home. Student A and Student B will be entering a grade 1 classroom at the same time.
Let us compare these two students:
Student A has parents who have set up a learning environment for them at home. They have their own personal library of which books are read to them and that they go through independently. Between home and pre-school they have been exposed to everything from early learning technologies, to sand and water play, to coloring and painting, to cutting. Their time in pre-school has exposed them to non- family social interactions and helped them to develop their language skills and their ability to play with others. They have been read to in pre-school and have had the opportunity to do arts and crafts and dress up in make- believe clothes and explore the ideas in their imagination which will in turn foster their creativity. They’ve learned their colors and shapes, numbers and letter sounds and their pencil grasp has been corrected. They have been exposed to routine and understand how the school day goes. This child will be ready for grade 1.
Student B did not go to pre-school and their home environment isn’t one that fosters learning. They may not know the basics such as days of the week or months of the year. They will have very little knowledge of how a book works and that each story has a beginning, middle and end. With this will come the likelihood that they do not know their letters, letter sounds, numbers, shapes and colors. Although Student B may have held a pencil or crayons before, they may not have developed their fine motor skills in order to be able to cut curved lines, or write letters correctly. They may be unable to write their name, tie their shoes, or even do their uniform buttons up after physical education class. Sitting still may be very difficult, as they have watched many more hours of television than recommended for their age and they are waiting for the ‘action’ in the classroom to occur as it does on the television. This will then perhaps cause them to seem inattentive, impulsive and hyperactive…which are the three elements of ADHD. If they have grown up in a household where English is not the first language, or the English that is spoken is broken and often grammatically incorrect English, they will have difficulties speaking in one tense. Their sentences will jump from present, to past, to future. “I goed to the store yesterday,” “ I to school.”
Now, let’s put these two students in the same grade 1 classroom. What’s the effect? Chaos. That is the only word to describe it. Who will be expected to teach these students? The Teacher. What resources will be given to make up for this developmental gap? I would venture to say none, as if K1 and K2 are taken out in the first place,
very few early childhood resources are likely to be stocked in the grade 1 classes.
I am sure by this point you are wondering what the long term effects will be? First of all, this will not only affect Student B. Student A will be just as affected as their teacher will be teaching to multiple levels to accommodate the amplified needs. Teachers will be faced with more classroom management issues than they already are, as
well students not being mentally ready for the work presented to them and therefore acting out. Students that resemble my fictional Student B may get discouraged very early in grade 1 and begin to feel at such a young age that school is not for them. Literacy rates are likely to be affected across the board. Students that begin reading in grade one after two years of pre-reading instruction may still need the same two years of pre-reading skills in order to become a reader. That would mean that some students may not be ready to start reading until grade 3. This will no doubt affect the ability of these same students to be successful in social studies, mathematics, and
science.
So how does this affect the society? This is where your statisticians would come in. I would challenge (while hoping this will not be necessary) those that are not right sized out of the Department of Economic Planning and Statistics to look at the present Grade 4 literacy and numeracy exams results and do the same thing again 5 – 6 years when the grade 4 students would be those that did not all have access to kindergarten education. I anticipate the findings should be quite interesting. A quick Google search on long term projections and literacy rates will give you an idea of societal problems that can occur when literacy rates are subpar. One disturbing fact that always sticks in my mind is that in some parts of America prison rates have been predicted based on grade 3 literacy rates.
As a special education teacher, I must mention the special education implications. There will be more students in the special education program, because learning
disabilities will arise as a result of the‘maturation gap’ phenomenon that those of us in education know occur when a child is exposed to something that they are
not ready for. For example, Student B that enters grade one and is learning sight words before they know their letter sounds, will not grasp the concept. Unfortunately, once they are ready to grasp the sight word concept, their teacher would have moved on. What happens as a result? The learning gap will get bigger and bigger as this happens over and over, and a learning difficulty becomes a learning disability that will now affect that child for the rest of his or her life.
So, essentially, what am I trying to get across in this article? It is clear to see that the skills taught in K1 and K2 can be taught at the pre-school level and do not have to be part of the government school system. The question is, is it realistic and beneficial to this society? Will it improve the standards of education within the Turks and Caicos Islands, or will it retard a system that is already functioning behind many of its Caribbean counterparts? These are all questions that the current administration needs to look at closely.
Every country in the world istrying to cut costs. The thing is…education costs money and many who refuse to do so, end up spending it later trying to correct the damage. No matter how you slice it, you have to spend money on education in order to get a return. The great United States of American is now blaming their cut backs in education
as the reason for their poor showing on international tests and an untrained workforce, leaving many to now cry out for an upgrading of the system, including among them increases in teachers'' salary to attract the brightest and best. The money spending does not start with scholarships; it starts from the time a child enters school. The children are the future of this country. Is this really the area that should be cut? Have the consequences of such a significant decision really been analysed?
I hope and pray it's still just a rumor!!
Yolande Robinson B.Ed, M.Ed.
Educational Consultant
Learn & Lead Educational Center
www.learnandleadec.com
This article has been publised/aired by media within the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The Turks and Caicos Weekly News (Dec. 3 - 9)
The TCI Post
Radio Turks and Caicos (November 23rd)
People's Television (November 23rd) - See November 23rd Newscast for Interview
The TCI Post
Radio Turks and Caicos (November 23rd)
People's Television (November 23rd) - See November 23rd Newscast for Interview
