Yesterday I spent a bit of time looking over the draft national standards for primary school children. I was horrified to see that after one year of school the standards expected children to be able to write a "creative" story. The sample given was an example of tortured writing that showed clearly the poor child had not yet mastered the use of the pencil.
As is to be expected, children of six (especially boys) typically have not yet developed the fine motor control to control a pencil with dexterity. Any writing attempted can be a slow, painful process. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, but if we are talking about a "standard", then one would assume that the standard is the level of competency aspired to by most pupils at that age. Apparently not, according to Anne Tolley.
Anyway, primary school principals are naturally alarmed by the upcoming standards and have protested that many children come to school being unable to hold a pencil at all, therefore achieving the standard could be nigh on impossible and reflect badly upon their schools.
I reiterate all this because rather than expecting my children to run before they can walk, I've taken the classical approach to education which expects alot, but at age appropriate times. I'm not even sure where "creative writing" fits into it.
So, I thought I'd post a much more succinct article on what a classical education is by Peter Kreft. According to Kreft, one of the functions of a teacher is to raise the dead. And Peter Kreft is very good at pointing out where a classical education leads. Probably away from what most securalists and Marxists want.
Read more: What is a Classical Education? ~ Memoria Press
As is to be expected, children of six (especially boys) typically have not yet developed the fine motor control to control a pencil with dexterity. Any writing attempted can be a slow, painful process. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, but if we are talking about a "standard", then one would assume that the standard is the level of competency aspired to by most pupils at that age. Apparently not, according to Anne Tolley.
Education Minister Anne Tolley said schools should not worry about making sure all children reached the required standards in their first year.Interesting. Why is the Government interested in how long it takes a child to get from a to b? Will have to file that one away ...
The Government was more interested in how much progress pupils made in that year and the rest of their years at school.
Anyway, primary school principals are naturally alarmed by the upcoming standards and have protested that many children come to school being unable to hold a pencil at all, therefore achieving the standard could be nigh on impossible and reflect badly upon their schools.
I reiterate all this because rather than expecting my children to run before they can walk, I've taken the classical approach to education which expects alot, but at age appropriate times. I'm not even sure where "creative writing" fits into it.
So, I thought I'd post a much more succinct article on what a classical education is by Peter Kreft. According to Kreft, one of the functions of a teacher is to raise the dead. And Peter Kreft is very good at pointing out where a classical education leads. Probably away from what most securalists and Marxists want.
The content of the curriculum of a classical Christian school, on primary, secondary, or college levels, is similar to the core of the "arts and sciences" core of a university, which was developed from the medieval curriculum of the "seven liberal arts" of the "trivium" and the "quadrivium," which was invented by Plato in Book 7 of the Republic. The sciences include mathematics, the natural sciences, and sometimes also the human sciences. The "arts," or humanities, include language (the trivium of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic or logic—in English, Latin, and Greek), literature, history, perhaps political science, and finally philosophy, theology, and religion.
Mathematics is to the sciences what the trivium is to the humanities. Any science program that ignored or despised mathematics, as modern "humanities" have largely ignored or despised the trivium, would have sunk like a torpedoed ship long ago, and been thoroughly discredited throughout academia.
Read more: What is a Classical Education? ~ Memoria Press