“Early Education is More Demanding Than Ever, and Experts Have Concerns”
According to Moyer (2019), early childhood education is today more demanding than ever, and there is a need to be concerned. She observes that the approach taken by the system is rigid and stressful, and these factors contribute to young children being disengaged and frustrated. Living in the same society with Moyer, it is easy to see why she feels so, and there is so much evidence in the society concerning the same. Agreeing with Moyer’s article is also based on information gathered on social media, where parents are everyday complaining of their young ones getting frustrated and depressed because of the system.
Moyer observes that pressure on young children is one of the issues where a child is expected to know her letters before she enters kindergarten. She compares the period around 1998 and that of 2010, where her analysis confirms that in the later period, about 62 percent of teachers agreed that kids should know the alphabets before kindergarten as compared to the same survey in 1998 where 29 percent had agreed of the same. The above trend goes further to confirm that today early childhood education is becoming more demanding.
The article also focuses on the changing school trends for kindergarteners, where earlier there was fewer worksheets and more time was spent on art, music, theater, and dance. Today there are more teacher-led instructions than child-led activities. According to Moyer (2019), more academic instructions are being observed in early childhood education, and today’s tutors expect more from a child than it was witnessed earlier. The above is true, especially in this age where parents know the job markets are based on education performance; that is, the better the child performance at school work, the more likely they are to get into a well paying career. This mentality has led parents to focus on education performance from the early ages putting pressure both on the teachers and the kids.
Moyer’s article gives the “No Child Left Behind Act” as one of the reasons why the above trends and changes in early childhood education occurred. According to Moyer, the Act necessitated that schools that were not performing according could not get funding. This led to the prioritization of tests score, putting everything else behind. Since school administrators did not want to lose on funding, the education atmosphere changed and become more inclined towards learning certain skills and facts by a certain age. Numerous studies back the above claim by Moyer; researchers confirm that the Act may have brought in more harm than good to the education system as more emphasis was laid on academic excellence, leaving other essential activities as second options.
Moyer concludes her article by highlight that the problem is not in the increased focus on education. She observes that a problem arises when the planned lessons are offered in a manner that is not developmentally appropriate to the young kids. For example, children are expected to sit for long hours and do piles of worksheets. The above statement is true when one considers the rigidity, stress, and the approach of the lessons. The whole process ends up stressing the child, and they become frustrated and disengaged. There is also the risk of mental health problems. As the pressures continues to mount on to the kids, there is the risk of becoming depressed and worse cases of anxiety among the children.