Help! My kid skipped a class

May 07, 2006

MY four-year old daughter is very eloquent in English and is a very fast-learner. She is in top class and attends French lessons twice a week and is progressing well. We took her directly to top class after baby class last year because we thought she was not being challenged enough. Was this a good

Dear Jamesa
MY four-year old daughter is very eloquent in English and is a very fast-learner. She is in top class and attends French lessons twice a week and is progressing well. We took her directly to top class after baby class last year because we thought she was not being challenged enough. Was this a good decision?
Patricia


Dear Patricia, It is clear from your description that your daughter is a fast-learner. Fast-learners can be very challenging both to teachers and parents. Your daughter is at a critical developmental stage. It is at her age when the foundation of verbal communication is laid.

Her brain is consolidating the language concepts she has been acquiring since birth.

Language is the gateway to learning and acquisition of language skills should not be taken lightly. Psychologists believe that children think and form concepts in the language they understand best; their mother tongue. Your daughter needs to grasp concepts in her mother tongue first before she can learn a foreign language.

The child’s first language lays the foundation upon which other languages spring. Bright as she is, your daughter is still a child and should be understood as such. Making her learn a foreign language (French) before she masters a foundational language might be counter productive. Yes, she is very ‘eloquent’ in English but language mastery takes writing and listening skills that require years to master. French and English are quite different and learning both languages concurrently might paralyse her early childhood education.

Making her to skip top class wasn’t a wise idea though. Sometimes a child’s chronological age does not match the mental age. Some children experience an intellectual maturity that is either higher or lower than their chronological age. Age is an essential prerequisite in education.

In fact, educational curriculum is organised in such a way that children learn what matches their age and developmental stage. Every class is important in educational journey. However, bright a child is, skipping classes is not a good strategy. Education at every level entails more than just learning the subject content. Different classes give the child a different sociological experience that no child should miss.

There are alternative ways of helping a gifted learner that your daughter’s teachers should have applied.
Bright as she is, she remains a four-year-old child who is not socially-ready for a top class. Pushing her to top class deprives her of the sociological experience of the middle class. The consequences might not be seen right away, but will be reflected in her educational journey later.

Patricia, this analysis doesn’t mean you have failed as a mother. It simply means you are learning from examination results like other parents do! Success in parenting is a long journey.
Till next week!

jwagwau@newvision.co.ug
0772-631032

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