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I thought that the article for this week, “Diverse Perspectives…” was a nice synthesis of a lot of the things that we have learned in this course. I have to admit, though, with the Kidwatching Project hanging over my head, I haven’t analyzed this article as thoroughly as I have others.
With my mind on Kidwatching, I appreciated that this article had bold titles for its sections, making it really user friendly. Since this article is an essay on a book review, almost a Cliffs Notes for the book, I really enjoyed it. I don’t enjoy reading things that I feel are bogged down in unimportant information, and this article definitely was not. It was right to the point…fabulous. Side note… Sometimes I really feel as though my generation is unamused and almost annoyed by things that are not fast-paced and user friendly. I feel like an old person saying that, oh you know, those young whippersnappers don’t have patience for anything, but I do feel like that. I fit into that stereotype of the “me” and “technological” generation. Imagine what these kids in our classrooms will be like in the future…they have never known a time with no computers, ipods, nintendo DS, internet, and lots of colorful, stimulating toys. I think that in itself makes our job a little harder, it is really hard to compete with pokemon or whatever they like. Its like, ooooh pay attention to me, I have books and pencils, when at home they have way more entertaining things to look at on TV. I like that it keeps me on my toes, but reflecting on that makes me want to raise a simple child. Side note done….
The biggest thing that I took away from this article is INTERVENTION. So important, and it gives a child the best hope for overcoming and compensating for differences. We really have to identify these kids early who may need some type of differentiation, and modify our instruction to that. I like how the author called the home life the “situation variable”. What a nice euphemism. Throughout this class I have been searching for a way to not use deficit thinking, but to address the obvious home situations. SITUATION VARIABLE! That is so key in understanding, helping, and intervening for a child. You have to know the home situation first and foremost in my opinion, because at 5, kids are a TOTAL product of what they have been exposed to. It’s not deficit thinking, its recognition thinking.
