Education and Child Development

By GARDNER GREEN

My experience as a schoolgirl and teenager in the underprivileged neighborhoods of argenteuil made me deeply indignant: i saw our education system stifle the light and the unique talents of many comrades every year. Many then found themselves in great difficulty at school. I felt already an unacceptable number of children in this situation, but i was still far from imagining the figure given by the 2007 report of the high council for education: "each year, four school children out of ten, that is approximately 300 000 pupils leave cm2 with serious shortcomings: nearly 200,000 of them have weak and insufficient skills in reading, writing and arithmetic; more than 100,000 lack basic skills in these areas. […] their shortcomings will prevent these students from pursuing a normal schooling in college. This proportion was confirmed in the 2012 report. Thus, each year, 40% of our children enter college with very great fragilities.

This surprising figure mainly denounces, in my opinion, the fact that our educational system does not take into account the natural mechanisms of human learning. Our school is essentially based on traditions, intuitions or values, but not – or very little – on knowledge of the laws of learning. It also ignores the main principles of fulfillment. This is quite understandable since cognitive psychology and neuroscience, which study how human beings learn and develop, are relatively recent. And, due to a lack of information, we made many mistakes: the school environment and the demands we addressed to children are most of the time unsuited to their way of functioning, and although wired to learn effortlessly, they struggle in class and lose confidence in themselves. Their teachers, determined to help them, are also exhausted.

As long as we impose on our children a system of learning that does not consider the natural levers of their mind, we will place them in situations that generate great suffering. Teachers will also continue to work in extremely difficult conditions: they will have to constantly push demotivated children and end their days exhausted. Imagine driving a car in fifth gear with the handbrake on. The car does not move forward, emits strange noises; you try in vain to have it repaired at different garages, but you have to face the facts, the machine is malfunctioning, it clearly lacks power. Remove the handbrake, and you'll be amazed at the power of the motor and the quality of the trip. In the same way, we are constantly holding back our children's powerful learning ability with inappropriate methods. They learn with difficulty; we think they need outside help, and we take them to specialists, themselves overwhelmed by the increasing number of children they have to take care of. Provide them with a suitable classroom environment, and the vast majority of them will surprise you with how quickly, easily and joyfully they will suddenly be able to learn.

• Language: English
• Publisher: GARDNER GREEN
• Release date: Jan 20, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201832148

Book preview

What If We Rethink School Based On The Natural Laws Of Learning?

My experience as a schoolgirl and teenager in the underprivileged neighborhoods of Argenteuil made me deeply indignant: I saw our education system stifle the light and the unique talents of many comrades every year. Many then found themselves in great difficulty at school. I felt already an unacceptable number of children in this situation, but I was still far from imagining the figure given by the 2007 report of the High Council for Education: "Each year, four school children out of ten, that is approximately 300 000 pupils leave CM2 with serious shortcomings: nearly 200,000 of them have weak and insufficient skills in reading, writing and arithmetic; more than 100,000 lack basic skills in these areas. [...] Their shortcomings will prevent these students from pursuing a normal schooling in college. This proportion was confirmed in the 2012 report. Thus, each year, 40% of our children enter college with very great fragilities.

This surprising figure mainly denounces, in my opinion, the fact that our educational system does not take into account the natural mechanisms of human learning. Our school is essentially based on traditions, intuitions or values, but not – or very little – on knowledge of the laws of learning. It also ignores the main principles of fulfillment. This is quite understandable since cognitive psychology and neuroscience, which study how human beings learn and develop, are relatively recent. And, due to a lack of information, we made many mistakes: the school environment and the demands we addressed to children are most of the time unsuited to their way of functioning, and although wired to learn effortlessly, they struggle in class and lose confidence in themselves. Their teachers, determined to help them, are also exhausted.

As long as we impose on our children a system of learning that does not consider the natural levers of their mind, we will place them in situations that generate great suffering. Teachers will also continue to work in extremely difficult conditions: they will have to constantly push demotivated children and end their days exhausted. Imagine driving a car in fifth gear with the handbrake on. The car does not move forward, emits strange noises; you try in vain to have it repaired at different garages, but you have to face the facts, the machine is malfunctioning, it clearly lacks power. Remove the handbrake, and you'll be amazed at the power of the motor and the quality of the trip. In the same way, we are constantly holding back our children's powerful learning ability with inappropriate methods. They learn with difficulty; we think they need outside help, and we take them to specialists, themselves overwhelmed by the increasing number of children they have to take care of. Provide them with a suitable classroom environment, and the vast majority of them will surprise you with how quickly, easily and joyfully they will suddenly be able to learn.

Rethinkingoureducationsystemonthebasisofthemainprinciples of learning and development would not only be beneficial for the 40% of children in great difficulty. Think of the other 60%: they pass through the label of failure, but are they really fulfilled? Are they happy? Has school been a place of joy and emancipation for them? Did she allow them to develop self-confidence, autonomy, a spirit of initiative, a feeling of freedom, as well as fraternal impulses? Because by not cooperating with the natural laws of learning and development which require that the child realize the experiences that motivate him and benefit from a rich social life, the beautiful values ​​- freedom, equality, fraternity - on which our educational system has been erected have difficulty penetrating the minds of our children. We want them to understand the idea of ​​freedom by imposing our own wishes on them from kindergarten, and by evaluating their ability to respond to them. We make them docile and submissive, and we want them to feel free? We want them to adhere to the idea of ​​equality, but we impose on them one of the most unequal education systems in the world, where differences in level quickly arise between children: the international Pisa study, measuring every three years the performance of the different education systems of the OECD, and we would like them to feel free? We want them to adhere to the idea of ​​equality, but we impose on them one of the most unequal education systems in the world, where differences in level quickly arise between children: the international Pisa study, measuring every three years the performance of the different education systems of the OECD, and we would like them to feel free? We want them to adhere to the idea of ​​equality, but we impose on them one of the most unequal education systems in the world, where differences in level quickly arise between children: the international Pisa study, measuring every three years the performance of the different education systems of the OECD,

indeed indicates in 2012 that France breaks records of injustice. That his school, supposedly for everyone, is first made for an elite, but proves incapable of making the less privileged succeed. She is even less and less capable of it, we read in Le Monde on December 3, 2013³.

Finally, how can we decently claim to sow in the hearts of our children a feeling of fraternity, when we persist in wanting to separate them from each other? From kindergarten, we traditionally isolate them by year of birth, as we would classify objects by year of manufacture, depriving them of a varied social life, where everyone would benefit from the positive and cooperative emulation generated by the presence of children. younger and older? What place for fraternity when, conversely, classified by age, children allow themselves to be compared and competed much more easily? We offer them conditions which contribute to the growth of misunderstandings and individualism, and we would like them to be full of fraternal feelings?

Very early on, my deep intuition was that a pedagogical approach based on knowledge of human development would not only make it possible to considerably and quickly reduce the rate of school failure, but also to bring out naturally and effortlessly all these beautiful values. We will not be able to effectively solve the difficulties of the school – even with new programs or pretty tablets – without directly attacking the cause which generates them: our system imposes its own laws by trampling those of the child. And, by operating in such a brutal way, the school itself creates the difficulties which it then tries to correct through reforms.

In 2009, I made the decision to check my intuition. Would an environment adapted to the natural mechanisms of learning reduce the difficulties of all, children and teachers? To answer this question, I needed a class. Since the research already clearly explained that inequalities are built and deepened from an early age, I wanted to conduct this experiment in kindergarten. And, in order to thwart the entirely logical and admissible argument that would have been opposed to me if I had carried out my experience within a private structure - It only works because the children have been selected, or come from favored backgrounds; and the conditions are not those of a public school – I decided to implement it in a public school located in a priority education zone (ZEP). Finally, to objectify the results, I wanted an annual scientific follow-up: the children would take so-called calibrated tests each year, which would allow their progress to be assessed in relation to the standard. So, if the results were what I was hoping for, no more excuses for anyone who wouldn't want to see the obvious.

This idea proved to be very useful: the results were so extraordinary from the first year that it would have been difficult to believe them without objective measurement – ​​at least for those who did not rub shoulders with the children. In such a setting, all the cognitive and social intelligence of children began to spring up with such force and such depth that we lost our bearings. Because that's what it is: by ignoring the mechanisms of learning, we also ignore and trample the power and greatness of human intelligence. Our potentials are continually hampered in their development by unsuitable environments; they then flourish at the minimum of their possibilities, and we end up believing that this minimum is the norm. However, the experience of Gennevilliers shows it,

To carry out this experiment, I had to enter the system, and therefore pass the school teacher competition, which I did in 2009. "But, I am often asked, how did you manage to obtain, if quickly, a ministerial agreement, with educational carte blanche, expensive equipment and annual scientific monitoring of children? My answer is simple: because nothing, absolutely nothing, could have deflected me from my objective. The outrage and sadness over this waste of human potentials was too deep. Regardless of the nature of the obstacles that were going to stand in front of me, it was clear that I was going to try to circumvent them, one by one. Whether financial, human, hierarchical or administrative – there had to be a solution. The surprising coincidences of life have also brought me great help: I ​​have sometimes found myself in the right places at the right times, and in these situations, I seized my chance without hesitation. Most importantly, I had nothing to lose, I was there to try, I had no career to protect, so I wasn't afraid to short-circuit the ladder to address myself directly to its highest authorities.

Carte Blanche To Gennevilliers

Two years after being accepted for the school teacher competition, I therefore obtained the support of the Ministry of National Education, which agreed to give me a pedagogical carte blanche for three years from September 2011, within a kindergarten class in Gennevilliers, in a priority education zone and violence plan. The Ministry also authorized and encouraged me to carry out tests, with the help of scientific partners, to assess the children's progress.

The experiment started with twenty-five children aged 3 and 4 (first and second year of kindergarten). We had a lot of didactic material developed by Dr Séguin and Dr Montessori, and I was able to rearrange the class to allow the children full autonomy: the material was placed at children's height, so that they could easy to use and store; many tables had been removed, making room on the floor for activities on small mats. The children were autonomous, they could work alone or in small groups, with the material that had been presented to them; they could exchange freely with each other all day long, and repeat as much as desired the activity that interested them. The class operated from 8:20 a.m. to 4 p.m., with of course a break for lunch, as well as a daily collective regrouping time. There were also recreation times, but not systematic: we only went out when the

children needed it, and as much time as they needed.

Within this experimental framework, the Academy of Versailles, which I sincerely thank, authorized me to choose the person who would assist me in the class. Anna Bisch therefore took on the role of the ATSEM (territorial agent specialized in nursery schools), a role that she helped me adapt to this class functioning based on the autonomy of the children. For this position, it was a question of modeling broader functions and more educational than hygienic. Despite having obtained all these conditions, I still had to obtain the Holy Grail for the experimentation to take place peacefully: an official document, recognizing this class as experimental, explaining the conditions of experimentation, and, incidentally, committing the ministry for three school years despite the recurrent changes of minister – one of whom may no longer support a project initiated by his predecessor. As fundamental as it is, and despite my perseverance, I had great difficulty in obtaining this document. In September 2011, although the experiment had started, no document had been signed.

An Educational Heritage

Icannot go on without specifying that my approach, which is based on the knowledge of the natural mechanisms of learning, as innovative as it may seem, takes up a torch lit in the 18th century by the doctor Jean Itard ⁵ whose work was taken up and continued by his disciple Édouard Séguin. The work of the latter was in turn developed by Maria

Montessori who often recalled, through his lectures, having taken up the

didactic material left as a legacy by Séguin and having enriched it with the contributions of German experimental psychology. These three doctors, belonging to different generations, each in turn enriched the work of their predecessor with their own experience and the scientific knowledge of their time. Maria Montessori thus created in 1907 what she called the children's houses, which brought together around forty children aged 3 to 6 years: the essential pedagogical principle of these places of life and learning was autonomy accompanied and structured. The work of Dr. Maria Montessori, which results from these multiple contributions, is today largely validated by scientific research.

Nevertheless, rather than preserving her work as it was, Maria Montessori invited us to complete or modify it as knowledge of human development progressed, just as she herself had done with that of her predecessors. She believed that her work was a scientific contribution to the full development of human potential, and that this contribution, by definition, was intended to be taken up and developed. In the opening lines of her last book – published two years before her death – she was crystal clear: I look to you today as a family that must move on. This desire was unfortunately not heard by his most fervent admirers who, even during his lifetime, did the opposite: his works were sacred, transformed into fixed pedagogy and erected into untouchable dogmatic principles; that's exactly what she wanted to avoid. Renilde Montessori, the granddaughter of Maria Montessori, said that her grandmother, in the last years of her life, when she thought she was alone, repeated in Italian: Propio non hanno capito niente, propio non hanno capito niente . Which would translate into French as: They really didn't understand anything. They really didn't understand anything. » Which would translate into French as: They really didn't understand anything. They really didn't understand anything. » Which would translate into French as: "They really didn't understand anything. They really didn't understand anything. »

When I discovered the writings of Dr. Montessori, they quickly fascinated me precisely for this non-dogmatic and evolutionary scientific approach. They were also breathtakingly accurate, visionary, anddeeply human. I then studied his work daily for more than seven years, which I enriched with the contribution of current scientific knowledge on human development and French linguistics.

It is on this basis that I carried out my research, focusing my reflection on the development of the executive skills of children, very strong at this age – we will come back to this point at length –, on the language activities that I adapted to the particularities of the French language, as well as on the essential moments of regrouping for the consolidation of the fundamentals. Finally, and above all, I limited the number of activities offered to the children to favor and strengthen the social bond: the presentations of activities were moments of meetings, lively and warm, rather than rigid and didactic presentations. And we have done everything so that children can really be connected, laugh, discuss, express themselves, help each other, work and live together.

First Results

In the first year, despite the absence of an official institutional framework, the minister's office and the academy authorized tests aimed at measuring the children's progress. The latter were carried out by the CNRS of Grenoble. The results did not fail to surprise us. I had been warned by the experts that it was impossible to obtain a positive effect in the first year, that it needed more time. However, in June of the same school year, the test report said quite the opposite: "All the pupils, except one, are progressing faster than the norm, many are experiencing very significant progress. The student who is not progressing in relation to the norm is the one who has

been the most absent in the year⁶. Some of the children who were months or even years behind the norm at the beginning of the year not only caught up to the norm but also exceeded it on certain fundamental dimensions and cognitive skills.

This was the case of a child who, at the beginning of the year, was eight months behind in working memory. We will see later that this skill is often predictive of academic success. Tests showed that by the end of the year, this child had caught up and was twenty-eight months ahead. The tests also indicated that most 4-year-olds had entered reading, exceeding the alert level of CP. This alert level corresponds, according to experts in the prevention of illiteracy, to the minimum level of reading that must be acquired by children in CP in January, at the risk of finding themselves in a situation of failure thereafter. In June, 57% of children in the second year of kindergarten had exceeded this alert score.

The parents, for their part, noticed great changes: the children became calm, independent; they showed self-discipline and spontaneous benevolence towards other children, they were always ready to help when needed. Their relationships with others were soothed

surprising. The testimonies we filmed are very telling⁷ : the parents explain their initial reluctance, as well as the evolution of their posture as the behavior of their children changed. All make the same observation: calm, speed of learning, enthusiasm for going to school, order, autonomy, level of language, and above all, development of significant generosity and great empathy. The parents were disconcerted: their children watched less television, wanted learn, help their siblings or cousins, and read constantly. They were eager to know and learn, which sometimes posed unexpected problems: for example, they had to stop in the street at each sign to take the time to decipher it, or often go to the municipal library to satisfy their needs. burning to read new books every night.

My emotion was great. I was not mistaken: by modifying the learning conditions on the basis of the natural mechanisms of the child, reading, writing, counting, again became rapid and happy conquests; and what are called non-cognitive skills – mutual aid, cooperation, empathy – flourished without any attempt to provoke them. The human being conceals unsuspected potentials, which are just waiting to be revealed.

The Second Year

The following school year, in 2012-2013, we kept the same group of children: initially in the first and second year of kindergarten, all moved on to the next section. The class therefore consisted, for this second year, of children from the middle and large sections of kindergarten. We have also added a third level by welcoming new little ones. The class thus brought together three age levels. The positive results continued with an astonishing progression curve: the more advanced trained the others, the emulation between the ages naturally did its job.

Nevertheless, the institutional framework document still not having been drafted by the ministry, and this despite my incessant reminders, the academy decided this time to refuse the scientific tests as long as the administrative situation was not regularized. I hoped that this blockage would work in our favor, forcing things a little. Unfortunately, the end of this second year was coming, the situation had still not been resolved, we were on the verge of losing the objective measure of the children's progress.

It was impossible for me to envisage this scenario. The little miracles that I was given the opportunity to see daily had to be objectified, and I made the decision – which later cost me dearly – to still have these tests taken outside of school hours, with the complicity of parents and teachers. an independent psychologist. We only had very little time, so we made the choice to test the children of medium and large sections as a priority, all of whom were finishing their second year in the class. Only fifteen children could thus be tested this second year.

Nevertheless, the results were edifying, revealing a very positive trend. The psychologist's report indicates, for example, that children in the Grande section show an understanding of the text they have just read at least as good as an average CE1 pupil. In complete and unified representation of the numerical code, "only two children do not obtain the maximum scores on the two tests. The oral numerical decision test is passed in full by children in the large kindergarten section and by one child in the middle kindergarten section. However, this test is calibrated for children of CE2. Children who obtain a score of 12/12 on this test not only have the best results in their age group but also those in the CE2 class. In comparison to numbers,

again suggesting astonishing mastery numerical magnitudes for their age.

Finally, the general conclusion indicates that "it appears that in the two essential learning areas of schooling, reading and arithmetic, the children of this class show skills that often exceed their school level. This remark is particularly true with regard to children's reading skills. Indeed, contrary to what is expected at the age of six, all the children in our group can be considered as readers. The only child not to decipher a text is only in middle section and nevertheless manages to decipher the letters. The children's arithmetic skills are also surprising. Again, they exceed the expectations that we could base on them. You have to realize that all the children are at least a year ahead of what is expected. »

This second year, we had also received the visit of many scientists. Stanislas Dehaene, an internationally renowned cognitive psychologist, and in charge of the chair of experimental cognitive psychology at the Collège de France, came to the class accompanied by his colleague and remarkable researcher Manuela Piazza. After their visit, of which I have excellent memories, Stanislas Dehaene shared his impressions of the class with the Ministry of National Education, by e-mail:

"My colleague Manuela Piazza and I observed in this class, all morning, truly remarkable progress. This experience mixes all levels (small, medium and large kindergarten section). The children, extraordinarily fulfilled and focused, dedicate themselves to their work with enthusiasm, and teach each other informally, stimulated by the educational material made available to them. Above all, half of them know how to read, one or two years before CP. They include base 10, positional number notation, 4-digit addition. I have often said that the traditional school underestimated the potential of children – after visiting this class, I no longer have any doubts. »

François Taddéi, director of research at Inserm, and director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Paris, also sent a letter to National Education after his visit; as well as Joëlle Proust, director of research at the Jean-Nicod Institute.

"I also had the pleasure of visiting this class as well and I was just as impressed as Stanislas and his colleague by the results, because it is a class where the students are numerous (27) and clearly come from backgrounds that are not those of private. In addition, the children are calm, fulfilled, curious, collaborate spontaneously and know how to read children's literature alone or in groups. If we want to rebuild the school and allow the success of all as the government wishes, the challenge is to make it possible to generalize what we can observe in this class. Francois Taddei. »

"My message aims to report to you on my visit, today, to Mrs. Céline Alvarez's class. This visit introduced me to a group of around thirty children who were calm, happy to be at school, deeply involved in the cognitive tasks they had chosen, and deliberately carrying them out until their terms. , alone or in groups of two to three children. Ms. Alvarez's work, inspired by Maria Montessori, takes advantage of a sufficiently rich, structured and motivating environment of tasks for children to appropriate them and thus acquire not only basic skills, such as reading, writing and mastering the operations arithmetic, but also attentional and metacognitive skills, fundamental for the rest of their schooling, such as the ability to concentrate on a cognitive goal, evaluate their mistakes independently, and possibly design alternative solutions. Children also acquire particularly valuable social skills: they learn to respect the autonomy of their peers in a learning situation on certain

tasks, and to collaborate on others. The children of the 3and section help the youngest, and

transfer their knowledge