What Childhood and Teaching Means to Me

This is a quote by C.S. Lewis, who was a great theologian and author of the great children’s book series “Chronicles of Narnia”.  If there is one idea or concept about educating young children that is truly insightful it is always to remember that just because you are considered an adult never forget that being a young child is less important.  Children are just little people who have feelings and thoughts about life as well.  I believe if we treat children with the same “importance” as adults we will get the best and most positive experiences with our children.  The message from this quote has helped me realize that your childhood as the basis of who we are as adults is so important.  I will never stop singing in public places randomly because it is who I am as a person, I will keep things close to me because it is who I am as a person, and I will always love homemade popcorn off the stove because it is who I am as a person.  All of these things I just happened to realize as a child.

“Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” 
― C.S. Lewis

             I would like to say thank to all my colleagues who have help me gain insights in the development of young children.  In order to thank you I will leave you with one personal piece of advice from the musical the Broadway musical Peter Pan it is my one of my favorite songs from the musical called “I Won't Grow Up”

"The IQ Controversy"

   There is a great debate in society that testing a child's intelligence creates social/emotional conflicts for the child.  For one, if a child does not score high on a intelligence test that they begin to feel that they are not "smart enough".  Two, the child may the feel that they were not given the chance to prove themselves because he or she was not able to perform to the best if their ability on the "IQ Test" due to the environmental factors facing him or her each day.
    The next debate over intelligence is dealing with genetics.  Meaning could race or ethnicity being a factor into intelligence. For instance,  Jews and Asians have be know for years to be more successful in society due to the drive and mathematical intelligence of the two races.   Next, there is the studies that have been done between African Americans and Caucasians showing African Americans having lower scores on achievement test than whites.  However. that gap is steadily being closed.

For more information on the research of the IQ Controversy go to:

http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v09n1/eugenics.html

    I personally believe a child is going to excel in one area or another of intelligence.  For instance, one might have a child that is smarter in mathematical or visual/spatial reasoning, a child might be good with words, another child might like to get his or her hands dirty in the soil for nature, one might have a child who is good at dancing, and another child might be able to help a friend with their problems these areas just mentioned are part of Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Theory.  This means that people excel in certain areas of  intelligence more than others.  I feel that people should be tested to find what areas they excel at and than let them pursue that area of talent,  which is why I have no problem with magnet schools that provide this situation for children.   What magnet schools do is they take an area of  discipline like the arts, and provide students who are very cognitively inclined in that area and provide instruction in dance, music, acting, or writing while still maintaining the common   areas of Language Arts and Mathematics.

For more information on Magnet Schools go to:
http://www.magnet.edu/