The first national goal focuses mainly on the childhood years: “By the year 2001 all children in America will start school ready to learn.” (earlyeducation.com) From the time to birth most children are ready to learn. It is the teachers and parents responsibility to how much the child will learn. The current education practice of testing children for kindergarten entry and placement, raising the entrance age to kindergarten, adding an extra transitional year between first grade and kindergarten, and detaining children in preschool, kindergarten or first grade are attempts to obtain an older more capable cohort of children at each grade level (www.nwrel.org). The educational strategies, I think, suggest that the

5.) Children’s interests and “need to know” motivate learning. Children have a need to make sense of their experiences. IN a developmentally appropriate classroom, teachers identify what intrigues their children and then allow the students to solve problems together. Activities that are based on children’s interests provide motivation for learning. This fosters a love of learning, curiosity, attention, and self-direction.

Experts all agree that the change is systematic, in other words, change must occur in all levels of the educational system. The system extends far past the walls of the classroom, but change must occur also into the school building, the community, nation, and global society.

The national organizations call for schooling to place greater emphasis on: Active hands on learning, Conceptual learning that leads to understanding along with acquisition of basic skills, meaningful relevant learning experiences, interactive teaching and cooperative learning, and a broad range of relevant content, integrated across traditional subject matter divisions. At the same time these national organizations also criticize remote memorization, drill and practice on one academic skill, teacher lecturing, repetitive seatwork, and standardized paper and pencil multiple choice achievement tests (earlyeducation.com).

2.) Children construct knowledge. Knowledge is constructed as a result of dynamic interactions between the individual and the physical and social environments. In a sense the child discovers knowledge through active experimentation. Central to experimentation is making “constructive errors” that are necessary to mental development. Children need to form their own hypotheses and keep trying them out through mental actions and physical manipulations – observing what happens, comparing their findings, asking questions, and discovering answers – and adjust the model or alter the mental structures to

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