When should you take the SAT?
The New York Times is one of my favorite publications in the world for high quality journalism and as a result, good learning opportunities for kids just by reading the daily.
The newspaper published an interesting article about “When to Take the SAT?” and posed some interesting questions.
They share that kids as young as kindergarten students are keeping track of vocabulary words to help them do well on the standardized exam. But Kindergarten? Will a 5 or 6 year old understand the context of SAT words like “propinquity” or “welter?”
Frankly, one of the reasons why they have those terms in their lexicon is that they aren’t mature enough to even handle the context of the terms. Should a child understand understand that the second definition of the term “welter” means “lie soaked in blood?” I would say that’s too mature of a term or her or him to recognize or even grasp. However, the point isn’t whether or not s/he should understand reatively esoteric terms, but that sometimes learning concepts or even ideas can wait until the later stages of a child’s development. Does reading “1984” in middle school help? I’m not sure if it’s a great idea given that there are sexual themes that might confuse an adolescent and possibly even teach them that promiscuity is proper or it isn’t wrong.
While we believe that vocabulary is very important to learn at a younger age and we very much welcome the opportunity to teach your children earlier, there may be a limit to how early.