Why is there a need to plan for children's curriculum? Why is there a need for child-centred curriculum?
547676
Children need to be able to explore their own abilities at a young age.  There are some experiences that we just can't give our children at home.  Most families are headed up by single parents these days and very few of us have the luxury of being home and doing things with our kids that would allow them to learn and grow in such a way they'd have confidence in their skills when they began school\nKids need to know that when you stack blocks a certain way, they'll stay that way. Or if you arrange legos in a certain pattern it begins to look like something.  Or if you bang on a tin pot it plays a tune.  Or if you sing you can create a dance to go with the song. Etc etc. Its great for their imaginations and its great for their cognitive learning skills and it builds self confidence.\n\nBut just like the need for child centered there is also a need for teacher directed learning as well.  The teacher can help to guide their energies, introduce them to things they will need to know when they get to a regular classroom setting and so forth.
615763
I think : Teachers....Students...and Curriculum.
901427
I'm assuming you are asking what should be included in the curriculum for an early childhood education program, but your question isn't quite clear. \n\nIt's a difficult question as I don't know what ages you are referring to. Can't really answer for ages birth to five. \n\nThe best place to get any information about early childhood education is the NAEYC website. Here's just one example of excellent information available there: http://www.naeyc.org/about/positions/pdf/pscape.pdf
871233
I see myself asking people to ensure their child is given a good grounding in the basics before even starting school. Children need to know so much before they even set foot in a school. \n\nChildren need to be given help before they reach school to ensure they don't fall behind in our fast paced world.
863793
Most importantly, you would need excellent, perceptive teachers who are willing to make themselves available to their students in a one-on-one situation.  This gives the students the opportunity to share their concerns, ambitions, etc., with their teachers; and it can provide the teacher with greater insights, as to the students' needs.\n\nThe ideal school should also have state-of-the-art equipment and facilities, but the teachers are the most important resource for optimum learning.
584315
As a new teacher myself, I have been able to see a variety of teaching techniques used in the classroom.  Lectures, rote/memorization, text-books and theory, oral presentations, group work, independent work, hands on activities etc.  All of these methods or techniques are important because they address the needs of all the different learning styles of the students.  Every child learns a different way and there can not be one method of instruction.
900970
Children may be smart, but there are certain things that they don't need to know until they fully comprehend.  Why fill their heads with adult stuff when they have plenty of time and learn more while having fun.
550829
To learn how children act.\nTo safeguard children from possible danger.\nIt's fun.
458874
I think young children need to learn about computers because technology is an ever advancing area and i belive soon everything will revolve around technology and for a child not to know that would be bad.. i belive that it can help them learn also while hurting them if they get addicted to the computer or stare at it too long...
96370
It is not important to follow a plan in the day-to-day teaching of the class.  However, certain things need to be taught in order for the class to be accredited.\n\nI have had wonderful teachers that had no structure to their classes, other than an outline of which chapters we were going to be tested on.  We covered the material we had to, then we were allowed to ask questions about anything else regarding the class.
883650
Perhaps within the context of a discussion in a  psychology class, but otherwise, why on earth should that be in an academic curriculum?
538337
Actually that was probably an IEP teacher--which means Individual Educational Planning.  These are for children in Special Education to have individualized attention to their specific learning needs for the greatest educational success.
1065334
Humans as animals teach our young the skills necessary to survive.  Human society has evolved to where hunting and gathering are replaced by reading, writing, and arithmetic.  Just as hunting and gathering are a burden, so is learning the 3 R's.  The contrapositive to your statement would be "Is not having an education a burden on young children?"  The answer is yes.  But which burden is better-to have education or not to have education?\n\nTo respond to the comment:\n\n> I too am starting to wonder if we are giving our kids (especially\n> 5-8 year olds) so much school work that they aren't getting to \n> be kids. And don't get my started on the weight of those\n> backpacks.\n\nMy experience of children's minds are that they get bored easily.  We either fill up their bored minds with lessons and activities that we plan for them or they search their own ways to fill them.  Kids usually fill up their minds with less constructive activities like video games or finding what troubles they can get away with (which is a natural instinct for searching the limits of their environment).
401160
Lots of reasons. Mainly though, the people that control the curriculum in public schools do NOT want you to be able to protect yourself. That makes you easier to control, and force into complying with situations which you wouldn't tolerate if you had the ability to resist.
1063864
I agree with you 100%.  I am an Early Childhood Educator with no children as of yet and most of my family, friends and neighbours come to me for advice about their children.  Life experience is sometimes good enough to learn what you need to know.  Not to say that real hands on experience doesn't help but it doesn't mean you don't know anything either.
304873
What is important for the students to learn and why.\n\nMost schools (districts, etc.) have a published philosophy that teachers are expected to abide by. Your philosophy may not be exactly the same, but if it's too divergent, it may be hard to work there. The more you agree with the school's philosophy, the easier it will be to do things their way.
332223
The last several decades in our nation have witnessed growing concerns that our educational system is not adequately preparing all of our citizens to develop the skills and knowledge they need to live and work successfully in today's complex society (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983). Calls for change have centered on the need for schools to provide opportunities for students to engage in activities that promote in-depth understanding, critical thinking, creative problem solving, and the ability to use knowledge in real-life settings (Darling-Hammond, 1993).\n\nIn response to these concerns school improvement efforts have proliferated, aimed at all aspects of the educational system - school structures, organization, governance, and leadership; family and community involvement; as well as curriculum content, instructional methods, individual and system-wide assessments. While all of these initiatives are important, many have been undertaken leaving some basic assumptions about teaching and learning intact, assumptions that have not been sufficiently informed by current understandings of how students learn.\n\nMany commonly accepted educational practices have been influenced by ideas of teaching from the past, based on traditional behaviorist views that teaching is primarily an act of "telling" - supplying students with facts and information in much the same way that an empty glass is filled. While these practices have been successful at producing proficiency in the lower-order skills measured on many tests, they have generally met with little success in developing the kind of knowledge and abilities that\n\nstudents need in real-life situations (National Assessment of Education Progress, 1981).\n\nIn contrast to this transmission-of-knowledge model of teaching, newer understandings of how people learn present a conception of teaching that focuses on developing "thinking" students who understand and can use what they learn. This conception is termed "constructivist" because it sees learning as a dynamic internal process in which learners actively "construct" knowledge by connecting new information to what they already know, rather than as a process in which learners are passive recipients of information transferred to them from external sources. This newer conception's emphasis is on developing students' capacities for analysis and problem-solving, rather than on having them "cover the curriculum" in the most efficient manner possible. Rooted in the assumption that all human beings have a deep drive to make sense of the world (Carini, 1987), constructivism sees learning as motivated by interest and shaped by individuals' cultural and linguistic backgrounds as well as their different learning styles and strengths (Carini, 1986; Gardner, 1983). From the perspective of the constructivist view, learning is supported by multiple experiences and social interactions, rather than by solitary drill and rote memorization (Dewey, 1916, 1956; Piaget, 1973,1980; Piaget & Inhelder, 1969; Vygotsky, 1978). It is a nonlinear process that requires extended periods of time to visit and revisit ideas until they are organized into coherent, stable, and generalizable understandings (Bruner, 1966; O'Brien, 1987).\n\nBecause constructivist principles are based on knowledge of learning, they provide a good starting place for school improvement efforts aimed at supporting students to become better thinkers, creators, and problem-solvers. Without such a focus, reform efforts run the risk of merely "reforming again, again, and again" (Cuban, 1990), focusing on the surface structures of schooling but leaving the central problems untouched.\n\nThis article describes constructivist teaching, highlighting some of its essential\n\nelements. It also discusses some of the challenges that constructivist teaching poses for teacher development. It demonstrates how a c