ECE 311 Early Childhood Curriculum & Methods
Instructor Patricia Sutton
September 1, 2014
Mandated Curriculum versus Developmentally Appropriate Practices
To all school board members, I am writing this letter to discuss with all the members of the school board about some of my concerns with the new state-mandated textbook-based curriculum for kindergarten. As a parent I want only the best kind of education for my children and I feel that this new curriculum is not the best. The fact that you went with a new curriculum is disturbing to me because the developmentally appropriate practice that was our old curriculum was working great for our children. Developmentally appropriate practice or DAP for short is an approach to teaching that is grounded in the research of how young children learn and develop by using what is known about the effective use of early education in children (National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2010). The framework of the DAP curriculum is designed to promote the optimal learning and development of young children (National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2010). I believe that the developmentally appropriate …show more content…
The children in our school system need to be able to learn at their own pace because if they are not ready to learn the information that the teachers are trying to teach them, then the children can lose interest in learning very fast. Meaning that the textbooks that you will be using in this curriculum cover a lot of information on any given subject but they do not cover the information on specific literature that is appropriate for the age of the children. This literature is very affective in getting, keeping and maintaining the interest of our children and keeps them excited about learning the