re: #341 wheat-dogghazi
Regarding Sesame Street, it is intended for PreK-Grade 1 students. Children that age do have relatively short attention spans for lessons (not for stories), so the program was designed with that in mind. Primary teachers know this, too, and try to keep their lessons short and to the point. Unless an activity is especially interesting, little kids get antsy and their attention wanders. So, it’s better to give them short, targeted lessons that may need to be repeated.
Suggesting that Sesame Street has somehow caused short attention spans is just plain wrong. Rather, it addressed short attention spans. Educational programs for older schoolchildren devote longer times on each segment, as do lessons in school. And, everyone can sit still for a really good story or movie.
Considering my point was about discussing grays and not short black&whites I welcome this. So is Sesame Street the reason for short attention spans? Of course not, it’s isn’t that simple. But it didn’t help.
I understand what children desire and your general description of how lesson plans have developed. My point was Sesame street changed after a generation. Just because a child at that age has a short attention span for lessons but not stories, I’d say teaching needs to be more entertaining in those lessons. The mind is like a muscle. And we are all inherently lazy.
I tried to be an adjunct to schooling for my son. That meant museums and various hobby shows to teach him at an early age that learning wasn’t quick and that there were good teachers and bad teachers-all requiring respect and different ways to learn the subject.
I wonder what differences you see between Kentucky and China in how lesson plans are designed for different ages.