Education for High Achievement
By nature, children are attracted to and choose tasks that allow them to improve their performance and skills (McClellan, 1987). They want to learn, grow and develop. They want to get better at things; it is a part of their genetic makeup. Furthermore, it informs their sense of competency and self-worth. If tasks are too easy, children become bored and seek other domains in which they can become competent. If tasks are too difficult, children avoid engagement and once again seek other tasks at which they can be successful.
For those parents and educators who recognize the importance of academic development, the implications for schooling are quite obvious: school curriculum must provide appropriate academic challenge, that which gives children the sense of development and accomplishment. We hope our children will see the world of learning and academic achievement as their world. But even if the implications are obvious, the task is daunting. The hardest job for the school is keeping children on an instructional level –academic work is neither too easy nor too hard, but always providing sufficient challenge. This requires three efforts.
First, the school cannot be limited by grade-level standards. All academic ceilings must be removed. The question for teachers is not merely what should fifth grade students learn, but rather what levels of achievement is this fifth grader capable of.
Second, assessment must be continuous. The learning slope is not linear. It occurs in spurts, at which times children are capable of considerable learning in a short time. Afterwards the learning capacity levels off until the next spurt. This means that teachers (and parents) should be on the lookout for such times and provide curriculum accordingly.
Finally, parents and teachers need to work together. One the one hand, it is physically and mentally impossible for teachers to individualize the curriculum for every single student. However, if parents are willing partners with teachers, together they can develop academic plans that extend regular classroom work at meet individual needs. Also, parents and teachers need to work together to assess student achievement. Accurate placement requires the observations of both parents and teachers.
By Charles Debelak
