I hear it a lot.  “They’ll do X later, so we might as we’ll have them start now.” 

Standardized testing starts in third grade, so we’ll start “practicing” in kindergarten. 

Children rotate through teachers in junior high, so we don’t need to worry about issues like continuity of care in the early years.  They’re just getting ready.

We need proficient readers by the end of second grade, so let’s start using flashcards with babies.

I was sitting in a meeting recently where early childhood professionals were discussing this trend to push down curriculum, expectations, and standards and these were the types of answers they would get when they questioned practices that weren’t developmentally appropriate.

They’ll need to do it later, so let’s start now.

The backwards logic was striking to me.  They’ll do it later because that’s when it’s appropriate.  So I made this suggestion,“How about this.  The next time someone offers that as their reasoning, ask them if they want one of their preschoolers to give them a ride home.  They’ll probably need to drive later anyway, so we might as well start now.” [Read more…]