Mandated Curriculum Vs. Developmentally Appropriate Practices

Mandated Curriculum versus Developmentally Appropriate Practices
ECE 311 Early Childhood Curriculum & Methods
Instructor Patricia Sutton
September 1, 2014

Mandated Curriculum versus Developmentally Appropriate Practices
To all school board members, I am writing this letter to discuss with all the members of the school board about some of my concerns with the new state-mandated textbook-based curriculum for kindergarten. As a parent I want only the best kind of education for my children and I feel that this new curriculum is not the best. The fact that you went with a new curriculum is disturbing to me because the developmentally appropriate practice that was our old curriculum was working great for our children. Developmentally appropriate practice or DAP for short is an approach to teaching that is grounded in the research of how young children learn and develop by using what is known about the effective use of early education in children (National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2010). The framework of the DAP curriculum is designed to promote the optimal learning and development of young children (National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2010). I believe that the developmentally appropriate
program is the best form of education for my children because it supports the individual needs and interests of the children in accordance with what they are mentally and physically ready to learn (Jaruszewicz, 2012). The use of the new textbook-based curriculum is inappropriate because it does not support those needs.
The children in our school system need to be able to learn at their own pace because if they are not ready to learn the information that the teachers are trying to teach them, then the children can lose interest in learning very fast. Meaning that the textbooks that you will be using in this curriculum cover a lot of information on any given subject but they do not cover the information on specific literature that is appropriate for the age of the children. This literature is very affective in getting, keeping and maintaining the interest of our children and keeps them excited about learning the
information. The children in your school system will not be able to learn the material and maintain their interest in learning with the use of your new textbook-based curriculum. If our children lose their interest in learning then it will be very difficult to teach them anything. Every child learns in a different way and this means that if you are trying to teach every child by textbook then some of the children are not going to be learning the material all the way. Do to the No Child Left Behind Act our children will not be able to have all the knowledge that they need when they are ready to graduate. This is something that we need to fix because we need to make sure that our children are learning everything that they will need to know to be able to succeed in college and life. So in conclusion I believe that we should go back to the old standards of teaching. The developmentally appropriate program is a great learning curriculum that is perfect for teaching kindergarten children. There are three core considerations of DAP that help with the teaching process for these young minds. These three considerations are to know about child development and learning, knowing what is individually appropriate, and knowing what is culturally important (National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2012). If we continue to use these forms of teaching for our children then our children will learn all of the information that they need to know in order to be ready for grade school and then for their futures.

References
Jaruszewicz, C. (2012). Curriculum and Methods for Early Childhood Educators. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education.
National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2010). Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP). Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/DAP