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A Senior Seminar Editorial by Colman Flanagan, MHS 2010
A common misconception is made way too often among scientists regarding the study of mathematics in children before the age of five years old. For the last century, the vast majority of scientists and educators believed that the brain of a child younger than five years old was simply not ready to do any type of mathematics. This theory is being pushed to the limits right now, as more and more now believe that there is a good chance that the brain might actually be ready for mathematics at an earlier age. Mathematics is not the only subject that is being tested, reading, language, and also self-control in class is being investigated.
The type of research being done to study these things is called cognitive neuroscience. In a recent study using pieces of candy as the variables, the tests showed that many of the children entering pre-school were able to do simple division by separating up the pieces of candy. A drawback from one of the tests however showed that the brain might not be ready until around age eleven to link letter combinations with sounds. Boston, Nashville, and Washington are among some of the cities that are altering there curriculums to adapt to the new knowledge from these cognitive neuroscience tests that show kids are ready at a younger age to learn these subjects. There are also amazingly new techniques to help these young students to overcome dyslexia at a young age and to overcome the disease.
Director of the Mind, Brain and Education Program at Harvard, Kurt Fischer is quoted as saying, “Teaching is an ancient craft, and yet we really have had no idea how it affected the developing brain”. The new information about how teaching can affect a growing brain will prove to be crucial in the future development of the youth of the world. It is a proven fact that traits learned at an early age are much more likely to become second nature to a kid than activities learned later on in a child’s life. Children who are deprived of the privilege to go to pre-school may find themselves in an even deeper hole as they move on in their lives, because they are an extra step behind all of their classmates in an already rigorous task of learning mathematics. If these teachers can make a commitment to teach these kids the art of math at an early age, there’s no telling what effect it will have on their future math careers, but all the signs indicate a positive outcome. Scientists are optimistic that Sat and other standardized test scores will be much improved if the pursuit of the study of Mathematics occurs at a younger age in these kids. America would be wise if they adopted the policy to commit to teaching these kids math at a young age, and they will not regret their decisions when they see their tests scores as they grow up.