latest education targets

All this learning to read before you're six malarkey isn't going to go away. When David Cameron put in his oar at the end of last year declaring that under a Tory government all five and six year olds would be tested on their reading ability, all number of studies have been quoted about the potential harm this could do to our littlest ones. No one can deny that it is crucial that kids learn to read, and that they should be able to do this before they leave (primary) school, but why do politicians always assume that the earlier children learn to do this the better?
Evidence has shown that pushing children into formal learning too early can actually be detrimental to them - both educationally and emotionally. This idea that children be tested on their reading at this young age underlines the problem at the heart of state education. In my last column I spoke about the important book written by Sue Palmer, Detoxing Childhood. The central tenet of the publication is that the 'too much too young' mentality which has pervaded society is also causing untold problems in educational terms.
A look at the teaching of reading styles worldwide shows that kids who are taught later, ie. following the successful North European system of starting formal education aged 6-7 rather than 4-5, are naturally behind at the age of 6. But within two years they are miles ahead of the kids that have been hothoused into reading at 4 or 5. And they appear to enjoy reading more when older too...
Another worry I have is that kids who are pushed into formal learning early often suffer from a lack of nurturing by teachers who are stressed out about getting the standards high enough for the next test and the next inspection. The emotional maturity that needs to naturally develop in children from learning through play and learning through watching how adults behave is missed out when the whole focus is on learning to read as quickly as possible in order to pass a test.
All children have the desire to learn. There is certainly no point preventing a child who wants to to begin to form letters and ask their mother or father about reading, but pushing this important process through quickly to achieve goals set by a government is not the answer. I'm also convinced that the faster the speed of teaching a child to read means that surely the teaching will suffer. If this scheme gains momentum, it will simply mean more testing, typical of what successive governments are doing wrong. What is clear to me as a parent and someone with a profound interest in the education of children is that we need policies that will slow down the adultification of children, not the opposite.
For an inspiring treatise about literacy education, I recommend a read of Philip Pullman's University of East Anglia lecture back in 2003. A teacher and lecturer for some 20 years as well as successful children's author, he says: "Something has gone wrong in the state of education, and we can see this very clearly in the way schools deal with books, and reading, and writing – with everything that has to do with literature, and the making of it... Those who design [tests and strategies for reading] seem to have completely forgotten the true purpose of literature, the everyday, humble, generous intention that lies behind every book, every story, every poem: to delight or to console, to help us enjoy life or endure it. That's the true reason we should be giving books to children." The whole lecture can be found at www.philip-pullman.com in the education section and again as an article in the Guardian article where he adds, "I am concerned that in a constant search for things to test, we're forgetting the true nature of reading and writing; and in forcing these things to happen in a way that divorces them from pleasure, we are creating a generation of children who might be able to make the right noises when they see print, but who hate reading and feel nothing but hostility for literature." He's talking about older children here. I wonder what he'd make of six year old's reading tests!