School Days

Follow my train of thought here for a minute. I do have a point.
Although I only tutor five or six third graders in math, I know that most of the class isn’t very far ahead of them. For instance, only one boy was able to complete the entire assessment test in December. Most of the children barely made it half way. The most complex question on the test was 17-9=_.
That seemed odd to me because I distinctly remember doing those type of math problems in second grade. I got out my old school pictures, counted the number of students. My second grade class had twenty four students, one teacher, no volunteers. The third grade class that I am tutoring has twenty two students. So much for overcrowded classrooms.
I have been asking a lot of people what grade they were in when they learned basic subtraction, and almost always get the same answer. Most people don’t remember much of anything before fourth or fifth grade. Even the rocket scientist I knew (sent a space capsule to the moon) didn’t remember second grade at all. Many successful, intelligent people don’t.
With what we know about brain development, that isn’t surprising. The brain doesn’t reach adult size until age thirteen. It doesn’t finish maturation until the early twenties. Children under ten years old are whizzes when it comes to learning language and mimicking behavior, so no surprise that they can memorize 2+2 and eat with a fork, but more complex memories are beyond their reach. Following a series of instructions or connecting ideas into a sequence is extremely difficult.
Now here is my point. If second and third graders don’t remember complex ideas, why is so much school time being spent on complex subjects and/or subjects that go far afield? They will not remember that Native Americans used cedar root to tie things a century ago or that dairy cows are fed magnets. (More about this later. I have already strayed too far.)
I hate to think of myself as opposed to new-fangled ideas, but sometimes I am. Teach second graders how to read, write, subtract, and wash their hands after going to the toilet. Leave the more abstract concepts for older brains.
Nancy Sherer