“Spanish school children spend too much time on academic work and not enough playing and being creative,” says leading educational researcher
Wednesday, May 28, 2014 @ 2:21 PM
CHILDREN in Spain have too much homework and not enough playtime, and start school far too early, according to a Canadian education expert working as a teacher in Barcelona.
Catherine L'Écuyer, from Québéc, is about to see the ninth edition of her book Educar en el asombro ('educating through surprise') published, in which she warns against toddlers being 'overwhelmed' by technology and foreign languages instead of letting them enjoy 'play, nature and silence'.
What she refers to as 'over-stimulation' - or the maximum time possible spent on academic work - 'stifles creativity' in a child as well as his or her 'potential to become interested in the world around them', and is actually conducive to poor results and apathy.
In a recent interview, when asked her thoughts about education minister José Ignacio Wert's claims that the Spanish system is superior because 99 per cent of three-year-olds were already in class and doing proper school work, Mme L'Écuyer said formal education at such a young age 'distracts children from what is really important'.
"The key to a child's having the best possible preparation for the cognitive process [learning and education] and sound character development lies in the quality of the relationship between the child and his or her principal carer in the first few years of life," the education expert states.
"Seven years old is the most appropriate age for learning to read and write, because that's when a child has sufficient maturity. If they are introduced to this too early, they can experience frustration, which has repercussions for self-esteem and causes a downward spiral of academic failure affecting future learning.
"You don't get better results the more schooling a child has."
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com