Charles Ungerleider, Professor Emeritus, The University of British Columbia
[permission to
reproduce granted if authorship is acknowledged]
We speak about whether children are “ready for school.” This often means that we expect children entering school to know their colours, letters, and numbers, and can arrange objects in a prescribed order. These abilities are the foundation for much of what they will learn in school. We expect that most children entering school will be school-ready and assume that the children who are not manifest deficiencies that will need to be addressed. We often assume that children from specific sub-groups in the population are less likely to be school ready.
We could consider entry to school from another perspective. We should ask: are schools ready for the range of children for whom they will be responsible? Other related questions are: what strengths do children entering school possess upon which the school can build? How might we recognize and validate the knowledge that students do bring to school?
I do not dispute the desirability of children learning their colours, letters, and numbers and being able to arrange objects in a prescribed order. But, taking the perspective of school readiness, we should plan that some children will not have learned those skills prior to coming to school, but also expect that those children almost certainly will know and be able to do things that other children do not know and cannot do.
Recognizing and validating a broader range of knowledge does several important things. It says that what you know and can do is important here. You should be proud of what you know and can do. As almost every teacher knows, children who believe they are successful are more persistent learners because they recognize that they have already learned things of value. Students’ expectations about their own success also influence learning. Having been successful learning in the past engenders confidence in learning things that are new to them.
The children who are ready for school in the conventional sense will learn that the knowledge they posses is not the only knowledge. They will see that there is a broad range of knowledge recognized and valued by the institution. True education is leading people (or learners) out from what they know to master things they do not know.. Those children will be less likely to stigmatize children who do not have the same skills at school-entry because the institution values the knowledge that all their peers bring to school.
Now, here is the tricky part. Schools cannot be content to simply recognize and validate the knowledge some children have and continue to prize the knowledge children who are ready for school possess. There is no question that those skills are important, but they are not the only valuable skills. The following anecdote illustrates the impact of false assumptions and one of the many skills people have that are not recognized in school.
On a trip with my spouse and friends, I was persuaded to go white-water rafting, an activity I would normally avoid. We assembled at the designated place and a young woman asked us to sign a release. After we read and signed the forms, she introduced herself as our guide. I did not expect that, imagining she would pass us along to her father. We boarded the raft. She gave a safety briefing and asked, “any questions?” I said, “this is my first time white-water rafting” and asked, “how old are you?” “16,” she replied, “but don’t worry I have been guiding since I was 12. I’ve made hundreds, maybe thousands of runs with newbies, and have never lost one.” At the time I was focused on my survival, but, in retrospect, was embarrassed about the assumptions I made about white-water rafting with a 16-year-old female. Moreover, it is illustrative of knowledge that people possess that is not typically recognized and valued in school.
Assumptions like mine are baked into the structure and practices of our schools, and into the perceptions about the students and families they are supposed to serve. The assumptions we teachers make influence how we teach and, in turn, the performance and the assessment of performance of the students for whom we are responsible.