Driver’s Ed for Toddlers? Nurture Shock. Part 2.
This week I’m continuing my review of Nurture Shock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman.
One chapter that really captured my attention is called “Can Self-Control Be Taught?” It’s all about whether and how pre-school children can be taught self control. According to the authors, and much to my surprise, “toddler self-control” is not necessarily an oxymoronic phrase. Really? We have three kids, five and under. Tell me more!
Bronson and Merryman introduce the chapter with an analogy to Driver’s Ed. According to recent studies, it’s not working. In fact, one study at Johns Hopkins reported that nine school districts that eliminated driver’s training altogether experienced a 27% decrease in accidents. Graduated licensing programs have been far more successful. So, that’s interesting. But what, you ask, does that have to do with my toddler? I’m not planning to put her behind the wheel of my minivan anytime soon.
Well, for one thing, it demonstrates that our assumptions about the effectiveness of a traditional educational approach can be wrong. For another, it shows that some of the best training comes from hands-on experience.
Which leads us to the main focus of this chapter: Tools of the Mind — an emerging curriculum for preschool and kindergarten classrooms. In addition to some interesting alternative pedagogical tools for teaching things like letters and time (letters are grouped by sounds and days of the month are organized in a linear fashion rather than a grid), The Tools techniques, developed by Drs. Elena Bodrova and Deborah Leong during the 1990s, include extensive role playing and “play plans”. During one week the children may be taught about firefighters. Then, during the following week, the class will be divided into different zones: a fire station and a house that needs saving, for example. Children choose a role — truck driver, firefighter, 911 operator, family member that needs rescuing — and write a play plan (a simple “sentence” made up of pictures, letters or words depending on their ability). Then they’re off to play according to their designated roles. When they stray from their roles, teachers ask “Is that in your play plan?” and it sets them back on track. Kids become consumed in their activity, and can play with little interruption for 40 minutes.
There’s a bit more to the curriculum than this, and while it varies from traditional curriculum, according to the authors, who visited Tools schools in both affluent and more impoverished communities, it did not seem strange in any way. The results, on the other hand, they described as “jaw-dropping”. After a semester in the Tools curriculum, students were performing almost a grade level ahead of children in regular classrooms, and that’s with many of the Tools students having started with limited-English proficiency. But the results were even more dramatic in terms of the kids’ behaviour ratings. Children in the Tools classes didn’t participate in the kind of disruptive behaviour that’s so common at this age (kicking, biting, hitting, cursing or throwing toys). Tools kids were not just well behaved, they were also self-organized and self-directed.
The big question is why is this program so successful?
Bronson and Merryman suggest that the answer may lie in neuroscience. Studies already suggest that the curriculum helps to develop the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for executive function — things like planning, controlling impulses and predicting outcomes. Kids in the program, between the ages of 3 and 5, are able to focus and concentrate much longer than others. They don’t discuss what impact this experience may have on the children’s long-term development and potential, but I can’t imagine it would be bad.
I have an inordinately high number of friends and family who teach kindergarten, and all of this leaves me wondering whether any of them have heard of the Tools curriculum and what they think of it, and if not, what their first impressions might be. What would it take to try out this curriculum in their own classrooms? I’m going to send this post directly to them and I hope some will add their comments below.
And who knows, maybe with Tools of the Mind, my kids will be ready to chauffeur me around by the time they’re 10 or 11.
This just in:
The Tools of the Mind website has just added some new resources, including some tips for parents.
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Thanks for your comments, Audrey. I think some of these techniques are used in our kindergartener’s classroom, too. I’ve been reading about this second hand in Nurture Shock. If you get the Tools book and come across the alphabet charts that are used, I’d love to see them and try them out on our 3 year old (I prefer not to post their names on a public forum). Grouping letters by sounds makes a lot of sense to me, but I haven’t been able to find it online.
It looks like this approach is based on the theories of Lev Vygotsky, a psychologist whose name came up often in my Early Ed. classes. The way I remember it (and it has been a few years) he concluded that children learn to understand abstract concepts of the world around them through play. The adult’s role (teacher or parent) is to play alongside them and identify the child’s level of understanding with the intent of moving them to the next level of understanding (”scaffolding”). I use this approach in my classroom all the time and it really is effective.
I haven’t heard of Tools of the Mind or “play plans” but will be picking the book up soon. Sounds like it’s backed by solid child developmental theories.
I wish my kid’s current toddler class would have a curriculum like this. Most of the time it seems like they have a load of playtime. I don’t know why. It’s been a while since I read the book. I think I’ll have to reread it.
That is very interesting. We have a chicken or the egg scenario here. We have a school that does some hands-on, non-traditional education for their students and the the students seem to do better with testing and scores. Some parents say it is because the children are “high-testers” to begin with. And my argument would have something to do with your post. They are probably doing better because the teaching style and content are not what everyone else is doing. I’m all for tradition but sometimes you need to flip the script to get the desired result.
Heck, I’d be happy if they just remember to change their underwear every day. Cheers and happy FF!