“Playing should be fun! In our great eagerness to teach our children we studiously look for ‘educational’ toys, games with built-in lessons, books with a ‘message.’ Often these ‘tools’ are less interesting and stimulating than the child’s natural curiosity and playfulness. Play is by its very nature educational. And it should be pleasurable. When the fun goes out of play, most often so does the learning.” ~ Joanne E. Oppenheim (child development expert, author).

I have always been a firm believer in children learning through play.  Playing should always be fun!  In my experiences, children obtain more information when they don’t realize they are learning.  Play exercises the imagination and allows children to solve problems and experiment with different ideas.

I have never done well at taking tests.  I always dreaded taking any type of test in school to rate my intelligence level.  There are many children who have the same problems.  Children should be tested in many different areas.  Most of these areas should not be “tested” by answering questions on paper.  Children learn in different ways and often take different approaches in showing their intelligence.  It is important to make sure children are where they should be at developmentally according to their age.  I feel there should be a separate list of what children should be able to do at their age.  An example would be an assessment that lists what a six year old can do socially, cognitively, physically and emotionally.  I think professionals should take time to speak to the individual child and perform a proper assessment on each individual skill.  The most important thing is to make sure that each child is properly developing according to their age.  Speaking with the child will help decide whether or not they need extra help and attention. 

In African countries, professionals use a holistic approach to assessment.  The holistic approach assesses the social and emotional well-being of children.  African countries unfortunately see a lot of things such as hunger and disease.  The negative experiences can cause many problems for children, affecting their development.  Professionals want to figure out why a child is having problems and get them help.  If a standard IQ test was done for these children, a lot of them could have low scores.  The reason for low scores could not be because they are not intelligent, there could be many reasons as to why the score was low. 

References:
PEAR. The Holistic Student Assessment. (2014). http://www.pearweb.org/tools/hsa.html

 

 

 

I went to Catholic School my entire school experience.  There was not much variety in the type of students that went to the schools.  Up until my Sophomore year of high school, there was never an African American that attended any school that I did.  This individual was a male. He was a very nice and well mannered young man.  There were many students that were very negative to this student.  I am sure it was because they have not been exposed to any other race or ethnicity before.  He became very shy and uncomfortable.  He never attended any sporting events or activities.  He ended up changing schools and had to be put in counseling due to all of the ridicule he was put through.  He lost a lot of confidence in himself.  I have since spoken to him on facebook. He is currently a school counselor.  He says that is the best decision he ever made.  He is very grateful that he is able to help children that go thought the same type of turmoil that he did.

The experiences for African American Women in the United States can be very negative.  The effects can be very riskful to their health.  “FOUR YEARS AGO, researchers identified a surprising price for being a black woman in America. The study of 334 midlife women, published in the journal Health Psychology, examined links between different kinds of stress and risk factors for heart disease and stroke. Black women who pointed to racism as a source of stress in their lives, the researchers found, developed more plaque in their carotid arteries -- an early sign of heart disease -- than black women who didn't. The difference was small but important -- making the report the first to link hardening of the arteries to racial discrimination” (Drexler, 2007).