My thoughts on Child Development

We may not be able to prepare the future for our children, but we can at least prepare our children for the future.”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt

This video is from Jimmy Kimmel Live. I chose this video because it shows that children at all different ages learn from people around them. Some are more resilient when they hear the news that their parents ate all their Halloween candy, and others are not.  Some use language, cognitive skills or gross motor skills to show their frustration with their parents. The last set of brothers give their mom a good lecture on why it is not healthy to eat so much candy. Children do listen to what we tell them, so always be mindful of what things you chose to say.

Testing of our Youth

I found this information very interesting.  I looked at how Brazil asses their students and what I found was intriguing.  What they do is they pass out surveys’ to all the public and private schools, to the children and teachers.  Throughout the survey they are asked about their home life situations and their study habits.   Many children from the early age of 7 are put into the labor force, and they go to work after school. This survey takes into consideration what students have to work, students that get to go home and study, and children that do not do either.  From these surveys they randomly select certain classrooms to take the standardized tests.

            It is very interesting that they only give out the standardized tests to random classrooms.  I am curious if the classrooms that are chosen are ones with the majority of students that work strenuous hours after school.

            But here is my question, if only a certain amount of students are being tested, what amount of students are being left behind? 

             I like the fact that students and teachers were asked to take surveys that reflected their home life situations and their study habits.  A child that has a rough home life might not have the ability to study at home.  Or a household that runs a family business, that child might have to work in the family restaurant.  Those are all possible situations that can happen to anyone in the United States.  I appreciate the fact that teachers are required to take a survey as well.  Every teacher in the 2^nd grade can have the same information to teach to their students, but most of them will not teach it in the same manner.  Based on the way that those teachers were taught or how they were mentored. 

            I am always concerned about students being left behind.  I worry that government sets these standards, and they do not see how students are actually functioning in their classrooms.  How do we fix this lack of communication?

Marcio Eduardo Bezerra, A. L.-K. (2007). The impact of child labor and school quality on academic achievement in Brazil. Population Association of America Annual Meeting, (pp. 1-38). Los Angeles.