Measuring Grade Level
how the American Method accounts for educational positioning
In the traditional school system, children are divided into classrooms based primarily on their age. On occasion, a child may be placed in a higher or lower grade-level room based on academic performance and other factors.
The American Method ignores this separation, holding that there is no reason to relegate a person to certain levels of work based on their age.
Instead of saying that a child is in second grade, for example, the American Method may see a child using materials considered to be at the fourth grade level in reading, at the first grade level in mathematics, and at the second grade level in science and history.
This mixture of educational leveling happens because the child’s true abilities are taken into account and respected. While adults should assist the child in the mastery of subjects & help them understand why certain lessons are important, they aren’t attempting to push the child beyond what they’re capable of. Rather, they allow nature to take its course.
Under the American Method, children advance when they’re ready on a subject-by-subject or topic-by-topic basis. Once they fully understand a concept, they naturally move on to the next.
Parents may find this idea concerning. Society has been conditioned to require labels like ‘third grade’ to define themselves & others. Though many adults remember their own time in school, not being ready to move on yet or not understanding what was happening during a lesson, they default to that approach with their own children.
It is important to throw away the timeline & re-think the expectations that we hold for children. Many of these expectations are tied directly to the classroom and are held to make things easier for adults, not for the good of the child.
The fear that ‘late bloomers’ will wilt if they can’t read yet, for example, holds true in the classroom setting but is largely unnecessary. Most children can learn to read without special instruction. Exposure to words in daily life & activities like storytelling and reading together, naturally lead to the skill.
When, however, a child is in constant contact & competition with others over a skill, they can feel defeated if they aren’t picking it up as quickly. This can lead a child to give up.
Have you ever heard a child say, “I hate reading. Reading is boring!”
What about, “Math is too hard! I’m going to be bad at math forever!”
Maybe, “I don’t get it and I never will!”
The school system perpetuates a fixed mindset. Because the expectations never change based on an individual child, they are set up to believe that if they can’t meet the goalposts, they are failing. Period.
Children deal in extremes that can easily set the tone for the rest of their life. It is very difficult to release feelings like that. Adults struggle with overcoming math anxiety and a dislike of reading. Where was that learned? Most likely at school!
The American Method approach to education recognizes that each child is individually gifted & will have their own struggles to work through. Parents should meet the child where they are & only expect to see them advance as they are able. The ultimate goal of the parent is to raise a human being who is capable of reaching their full potential.
In a classroom, the teacher stands as an overseer. Their task is to keep the children on track according to standards set by third parties. They have subjects to focus on & tests to prepare for.
In the American Method following home, the parent is a facilitator and a role model. Their task is to present the child with ample opportunity to learn, at their own pace, and to create an atmosphere that encourages continual education.
Learning should have limited constraints. There are not certain hours or places for learning. Cooking is as valuable as calculus & some would argue more so.
We must recognize that not everyone needs to be college-bound from kindergarten.
None of this means that a child will fail to learn to read or do basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. It does mean, however, that they won’t be forced to do things they aren’t ready to do. It also means they won’t be bribed into completing tasks that have no meaning to them.
If you choose to follow the American Method, you are choosing to put aside many commonly accepted ideas about how a child should be educated. While you might still decide to follow a curriculum, you are ready to put it aside if it is doing harm to your child’s love of learning or causing them (or you!) excessive stress.
Too often parents attempt to recreate the classroom at home or hold onto school-based notions that actually do a disservice to both the students & the teachers.
The truth is that learning happens all the time in every situation. There is no escaping learning & it doesn’t need to be classified. People are naturally interested in different topics & respecting that will necessarily lead to disparities in capabilities across subject matter.
This is fine. This is natural. We do not need all children to possess the same degrees of understanding.
A child’s life will not be stunted because of that.
The only goal of parents using the American Method, again, is to raise a child capable of reaching their individual potential & who is happy, safe, and healthy doing so.
This will always vary from child to child.
Society has made it the role of adults to decide what a child must know & make them know it. This is not for the benefit of the child, it is for society. These practices destroy the love of learning & produce cookie-cutter people who will behave in a generally predictable manner.
They may be dysfunctional and laden with mental, emotional, and physical health issues, but they can follow most directions.
The American Method aspires to a much higher standard of living & grade levels don’t accommodate that.
“We can best help children learn, not by deciding what we think they should learn and thinking of ingenious ways to teach it to them, but by making the world, as far as we can, accessible to them, paying serious attention to what they do, answering their questions -- if they have any -- and helping them explore the things they are most interested in.” ― John Holt
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