Quotes

These are the quotes I chose.  I chose them because I learned that children are programmed to develop by exploring the world and interacting with people, so what adults should do is making a lot of aspects of the world available to children to learn in this limited period by believing in their potentials.  I feel that the job of  teachers in early education is more like guiding than teaching.

1. "Free the child's potential, and you will transform him into the world."
- Maria Montessori

2. "Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed."
- Maria Montessori

3. "Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand."
- Chinese proverb

4. "Experts tell us that 90% of all brain development occurs by the age of five. If we don't begin thinking about education in the early years, our children are at risk of falling behind by the time they start Kindergarten."
- Robert. L. Ehrlich

Source

http://www.successdegrees.com/inspirationalquotesaboutearlychildhoodeducationandteaching.html

Below is a collage of pictures of my elder daughter (my younger daughter is in the bottom one too). I can see she has developed by exploring by herself while having me nearby.

To everyone,

Thank you very much for being a role model of a hardworking student and an early education professional.  I learned a lot by reading your posts in our discussions and the blog assignments.

Have a Wonderful Holiday Season!

Aya

Emotional Intelligence

I am interested in emotional intelligence. According to the website I read, self-awareness, managing emotions, empathy, communicating, co-operation and resolving conflicts are the examples to be considered.  I believe such social skills and morality should be measured because I feel that these are essential for people to live together with less trouble and conflicts. To me, these are what I want children to learn first and best.

In Japan, we have IQ tests and many subject-tests which are done nation-wide by private companies so that we know where each child stands.  This makes business sense because parents who try to enroll children into famous private preschools or elementary schools by training children for the entrance exams are increasing. So the parents pay to understand their child’s strengths and weaknesses.

As to the moral education, we do not have a test but elementary school has morality classes once per week. I personally like this approach since I think education that is focused on making children proper adults is more important to me than only teaching subjects.

Reference

McCluskey. A. 1997. Emotional Intelligence in Schools. Retrieved on December 8, 2011, from http://www.connected.org/learn/school.html