The DAP Monster.

There are not many topics I get fired up about. I am not an argumentative person. I avoid confrontation at all costs. Yet, here I am, stirring a pot in education. The fact is, some pots NEED to be stirred. Otherwise, things can get burned. 

Let's call this pot the "Developmentally Appropriate Practices Pot." For those of you who do not know what DAP means, stop and read basically everything on THIS website.

Sounds excellent, doesn't it? It's what you picture when your child is away at school. Let me tell you something terrifying--right now in early childhood education, what you picture couldn't be further away from the truth. 

As a society, we have believed the lie that "sooner is better," which results in a "shove it down their throats" teaching philosophy. (Think that's harsh? Stop by a local kindergarten classroom where most of the time children are all but told to sit down at a desk, shut up for hours on end, and complete worksheet after worksheet well above their development [often times academic, also] level. Oh! And if they don't finish in the allotted time. You'll see them still sitting at their desk while their classmates go out to recess. It's a shameful time.) This creates a big problem. If your child does not meet these ridiculous requirements at extremely early ages, you are told something is wrong with them--they need: 
(1) to be put on an intervention plan, 
(2) more kill and drill style teaching while their peers move forward, and 
(3) more homework to practice the skills they're "behind" on. 

I beg to differ. They need more developmentally appropriate instruction.

Let's take a look into my personal experience as a student and then as an educator. After all, it is what I know best.

Well before Common Core or Oklahoma's lovely Reading Sufficiency Act, I went to school. I didn't attend pre-kindergarten. Why? They didn't exist. (I LOVE pre-k! When early childhood education is done correctly, it's a BEAUTIFUL thing. I'm not knocking pre-k, not if it's a developmentally appropriate environment). The first time I stepped into a public school was for a half-day kindergarten program. (How old school!!! No, how APPROPRIATE!) I did not receive any formal reading (or any other kind) instruction in Kindergarten. I played with my friends and sang lots and lots of songs on a rug. 

At home I had two incredible parents who read to me often. My mom says I loved books. I initiated the interest and what do you know? I began to read in kindergarten. (Plot twist?! Nope. Just reinforcing that learning happens best when DAP lead). My parents were not teachers. They actually did not attend college. They just followed my lead with learning. I continued my love for reading throughout school. I scored a 34 on my ACT in Reading. Can you even believe I did not complete a reading worksheet until first grade? What a genius! (Actually, by today's standards I learned on time--then I was early!) No, it's called developmentally appropriate learning. 

More formal reading instruction was introduced in first grade, although I would point out it honestly is what we see the first semester of kindergarten now. First grade is where my sister learned to read. She would be considered a late bloomer, like Leo, today. My parents and her teacher did not panic. They let her learn on her pace. Guess where she is now! Kicking rocks? I mean, she did learn to read "late." What a failure! NO! She's kicking tail in a doctorate program. 

Fast forward to college where I was instructed by the queen of DAP and student taught under an expert. It took me a while to get the hang of it, because it is not natural. Natural is taking the easy route. Natural is asking for a teacher guide to a curriculum and living in the copy machine room. The easy route is glorified babysitting, where you attempt to look like you are teaching through DAP--your students are playing with last month's centers and you are sitting on your rump.

A teacher in a DAP classroom is never still. He/she is busy finding HANDS-ON activities that meet standards, resetting the dramatic play center with new props, and making new sensory items for the sensory table. When students are at these learning centers, she is up walking around to not only manage the classroom, but to question and encourage children. He will lead them through questioning to think deeper. She will point out problems and offer solutions. Students' creativity, problem solving skills, and confidence will soar. Instruction is individualized for each child's needs, therefore the teacher must not just create engaging activities for the majority of the class, but turn the same activities into enrichment for some yet be able to simplify it for those struggling with the concept (The key to DAP in the classroom is the teacher meeting children where they are--some setting the curve, some well-above the curve, and some not even hitting the chart.) The teacher will observe and informally assess students day in and day out. This is difficult. It takes a lot of hard work. The outcome is worth it. The teacher will know more about each child--their social, emotional, and academic levels--than ANY test score would ever share. 

I was SHOCKED to find these practices are not prevalent in the average early childhood classroom. I had lived in the perfect DAP bubble and thought it was unanimously accepted. POP. Teachers who believe wholeheartedly in DAP are thought of as crazy, behind the times, hindering their student's growth with trivial play time. That thinking could not be more wrong. As Fred Rogers said, "Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood."

I can already hear the doubters. "What do you know? You only taught for 3 years." 

Research proves this over and over (I've linked some of my favorite articles throughout. They should show up as bright green words). Although, I don't need science to convince myself of what is right. I saw the effects of inappropriate instruction every single day of my short-lived time in the classroom. Students cried because they did not want to come to school. They lacked imaginations and had no problem solving skills. The littles' and their parents' stress levels were over the top. They did not enjoy learning and what they did learn was not lasting--that is the saddest part of all. 

My first year I threw out the lesson plan when a student spotted a spider in the doorway on our way to recess. We studied spiders the rest of that day. I followed their lead often after that--incorporating their new interests into lesson plans and using their excitement to meet various standards. On the last day of school, most of them could read/write simple sentences, really KNEW most of their sight words, and recognized the numbers 1-20 (all perfectly acceptable for kindergarteners) despite my frequent breaks from the cultural norm. (They came to me on very different levels and left all further along than where we began.) That wasn't my favorite part, though. My favorite part was their excitement when they saw a spider and started rambling off facts about orb webs months later. Learning, true learning through DAP, is fun, yes, but most importantly--lasting. 

Some may say Oklahoma has the 3rd grade reading test and RSA laws because of ideas like mine or our country, as a whole, is behind countries like Finland because of these silly ideologies. I dare to say our problems began when we deviated from Developmentally Appropriate Practices. It is well passed time to return. 

Who's with me?! 

"Every child has a right to his fifth year of life, his fourth year, his third year. He has a right to live each year with joy and self-fulfillment. No one should ever claim the power to make a child mortgage his today for the sake of tomorrow."