Week 8 When I think about Childhood.....

I think about how wonderful it is. I also recognize that by not being a child anymore I tend to romanticize childhood. I know that childhood doesn't always feel wonderful to the child and it stinks that as adults we don't remember it well.

One of my most favorite saying comes from Dr.Suess. He wrote, "Don't cry because its over. Smile because it happened".

I am glad I took this class even though it kicked my ass to Maine and back. (I am in central Virginia so Maine is far away) I learned a lot of information that I feel is useful to my life as it is and as my life will hopefully become.

Thanks for listening.
Sincerely,
Koni

Week 6

I believe in Multiple Intelligences. I have studied it in two different classes and every time I learn about it I think it is so important for adults to know about it because it helps the children not to feel dumb.

According to Howard Gardner’s theory there are several types of intelligences (Berger 2009).

-Linguistic

- Logical/Mathematical

- Musical

- Spatial

- Bodily/Kinesthetic

- Interpersonal

- Intrapersonal

- Naturalistic

- Existential

I like to think every person has a little bit of each one. 

In the United States we value (in school) linguistic and logic skills. If a person doesn’t have those skills then they are thought to be at a disadvantage. However, all the athletes in the NBA,MLB,NFL, and so on excel in kinesthetic intelligence and make more money than any of us ever will.  

As for testing/assessing children I don’t think there is a proper way to do that. No test can ever capture the human spirit. Humans are made up of too many facets to be put into a box.

 I feel like there is too much pressure on kids as it is – they really don’t need any more tests. I have seen kids stress out like crazy over the SAT and it can be scary. After all just because a test says you’ll do this way or that way doesn’t mean you will.

When children are suspected of having a disability – I wish there was a way to find out without the pressure of an assessment. I remember being in elementary school and being called out of the classroom to go take some reading tests (I don’t remember why) and I was so nervous. 

I found an article about testing sign language in deaf children in Italy using the Boston Naming test. I thought it was curious that other countries are using tools from the United States to measure children. Why can’t they develop their own? There was s thing mentioned in the text about cultural biases in tests and that is totally true.  I hope that the testers leave some wiggle room for culture.

Berger,K. (2009). The developing person through childhood. Ny,NY, Worth Publishers

Tomasuolo,E., Fellini,L., Di Renzo,A. & Volterra,V. (2010). Assessing lexical production in deaf signing

children with the Boston Naming Test. Language, Interaction and Acquisition (1)1 ,110–128