Too Much, Too Soon?: Early Learning and the Erosion of Childhood

by Richard House

Overview

How to nurture young children’s well-being and learning to reverse the erosion of childhood? Children’s lives have been speeded up by commercialisation, ‘adultification’, and the government’s ‘nappy curriculum’ which ‘schoolifies’ them and pushes quasi-formal learning too soon. Now, in twenty-three hard-hitting chapters, leading educators, researchers, policy makers and parents advocate alternative ways ahead for slowing childhood, better policy-making and, above all, the ‘right learning at the right time’ in children’s growth — learning when they are developmentally ready.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781907359231
Publisher:	Hawthorn Press
Publication date:	05/23/2013
Series:	Early Years
Sold by:	INDEPENDENT PUB GROUP - EPUB - EBKS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	376
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Richard House, Ph.D. lectures in Early Childhood Studies in the Department of Education Studies, University of Winchester. He is a Steiner kindergarten educator and founder-member of the Open EYE campaign, which has recently merged with Early Childhood Action. With Sue Palmer, he orchestrated the two Daily Telegraph open letters on ‘toxic childhood’ (2006) and ‘play’ (2007), and the open letter on the erosion of childhood in 2011. Richard writes extensively on childcare, education and psychotherapeutic issues, including regular columns in Teach Nursery and The Mother magazines. Too Much, Too Soon is Richard’s tenth book.

Table of Contents

Endorsements vi

Foreword Annette Brooke xii

Preface Steve Biddulph xv

Acknowledgements xvii

Introduction and Overview Richard House 1

Part I Policy-making and the Erosion of Childhood: The Case of the Early Years Foundation Stage 19

1 The EYFS and the Real Foundations of Children's Early Years Penelope Leach 21

2 Challenging Government Policy-making for the Early Years: Early Open EYE Contributions Margaret Edgington Richard House Lynne Oldfield Sue Palmer 36

3 Against the Government's Grain: The Experience of Forging a Path to EYFS Exemption John Dougherty 45

4 The Impact of the EYFS on Childminders Arthur Pat Adams 57

5 A Parent's Challenge to New Labour's Early Years Foundation Stage Frances Laing 67

6 The Tickell Review of the Early Years Foundation Stage: An 'Open EYE' Dialogue, The Open EYE Campaign 83

Part II The Foundations of Child Development and Early Learning: Perspectives, Principles and Practices 99

7 The Myth of Early Stimulation for Babies Sylvie Hétu 101

8 Current Perspectives on the Early Childhood Curriculum Lilian G. Katz 118

9 Physical Foundations for Learning Sally Goddard Blythe 131

10 The Unfolding Self -The Essence of Personality Kim Simpson 147

11 The Democratization of Learning Wendy Ellyatt 160

12 The Steiner Waldorf Foundation Stage ? 'To Everything There is a Season' Lynne Oldfield 181

13 Can We Play? David Elkind 189

14 Play - Transforming Thinking Tricia David 197

15 Challenging the Reggio Emilia Approach with Relational Materialist Thinking and an Ethics of Potentialities Hillevi Lenz Taguchi 210

Part III Advocacy, Research and Policy-making for Children's Early Years' Learning 227

16 'If I Wanted My Child to Learn to Read and Write, I Wouldn't Start from Here' Sue Palmer 229

17 Viewing the Long-term Effects of Early Reading with an Open Eye Sebastian P. Suggate 236

18 Early Childhood Research and its Political Usage: Some Cautionary Remarks Richard House 247

19 Does Not Compute, Revisited: Screen Technology in Early Years Education Aric Sigman 265

20 Margaret Edgington: Inveterate Campaigner for Early Childhood Margaret Edgington interviewed Richard House 290

Part IV Ways Ahead to Achievable Futures 305

21 Education and Paradigm Shift Grethe Hooper Hansen 307

22 Early Childhood: A Policy-making Perspective Barry Sheerman 316

23 Conclusion and Ways Ahead: Recommendations for Educators and Policy-makers Wendy Scott Richard House 323

Afterword Richard Brinton Gabriel Millar 334

Contributors 338

Index 344