Expecting More of Children: Effective Teaching and Learning

Introduction: The Problem of Low Expectations

In her article "Students Can Do More: U.S. Adults Shield Kids from Tasks that Teach," Dorothy Rich suggests that teachers, parents, and society as a whole expect far too little — in terms of skills, aptitudes, independence, and performance — from today's school-aged children. Skills and abilities typically expected of young students, at home, at school, and elsewhere, are often insufficiently demanding or challenging, and are too narrowly defined by age level or perceived ability. The result, as Rich further suggests, is that today's school-aged children typically learn only the minimum expected of them, and learn it within particularly narrow and predictable environments. Today's students are, therefore, not learning, doing, or attempting mastery of all that they might actually be capable of.

Rich asserts — and this essay agrees — that expectations of school-aged children, from teachers, parents, and society as a whole, ought to be greater than they currently are, for the good of these children themselves and for the society they will grow up into.

Rich observes that children typically rise to the level of others' expectations. At present, however, teachers, parents, and others do not expect nearly enough of them. Moreover, children who have had too little expected of them early on tend to lack confidence in themselves with respect to the wider world, and tend also to lack either the curiosity or the initiative to learn experientially, or to risk testing their skills and abilities outside structured, familiar, and predictable environments.

Children Rise to the Level of Expectations Set for Them

According to "Early Years, Firm Foundations" (2004): "Children learn through hands-on experience. Good settings provide a broad range of rich and stimulating opportunities for children to investigate and explore their environment and the world in which they live, with opportunities to use their senses, ask questions, and build on what they already know."

Dorothy Rich's example of American parents who cheerfully continue to push their children along in strollers — when those children are perfectly capable of walking on their own — is emblematic of American culture's coddling and overprotective attitudes toward children. Rich's stroller example also points to ways that today's parents may often, non-reflectively, perpetuate their children's overdependence, lack of initiative, and passivity. Implicit in Rich's argument is the idea that, as adults, once-overprotected children will lack initiative, curiosity, flexibility, and the desire to achieve beyond minimum levels — in school, work, and life.

Overprotection and the Stroller Metaphor

The consequences of this overprotection are not trivial. As research on overprotective parenting has consistently shown, children who are shielded from age-appropriate challenges are less equipped to handle adversity, navigate unfamiliar situations, or develop the resilience necessary for adult life.

In Europe, as opposed to America, almost everyone walks everywhere independently from a very early age. Even the youngest Europeans learn early on not to rely on others — or on strollers, cars, or other vehicles operated by protective caregivers — to transport them. Keeping up with bigger, older walkers is not just a necessity; it is a matter of early personal pride. As a result, European children develop autonomy, confidence, independence, and directional skills at an age when many of their American peers are still riding in strollers.

American vs. European Approaches to Child Independence

This difference does not exist because American children cannot learn the same independence and skills at the same age as European children. Rather, it exists because such early self-reliance and personal independence are simply not encouraged of them. As one source observes: "The basic principle that an individual is free to make personal choices applies to children. However, children are much more in need of guidance than grown-ups; understanding, caring, and self-motivation in children are what should be cultivated. It can be very damaging for a person's development to be treated as a child until the age of 21. Children can make very valuable contributions to society with their fresh perspectives and playful attitudes. This is to be supported and treasured."

Instead, because childhood independence and autonomy are so often not encouraged, today's young students frequently become inflexible, non-adaptive, and non-spontaneous, operating out of confusion or fear — or purely by rote — within new or unfamiliar environments. The example Rich gives of the elementary school-aged boy who was not expected to clear his own dishes from the table, either at home or at school, and who was surprised — and initially reluctant — when the author asked him to do so, is illustrative of this pattern.

Conclusion: Expecting More to Achieve More

Perhaps, as Dorothy Rich suggests, it is time that we stop overprotecting today's children so much, and expecting so little of them — at home, at school, and elsewhere. After all, it is only by expecting more of them that we teach children to expect more of themselves, now and in the future.