Crain Chapter Summary

The chapter readings of the past several weeks highlights the importance of independence to the developmental of children. The class lectures and discussions have also broadened this perspective. As several theorist’s perspective of independence is explored in the textbook, there were both different cases mentioned by classmates and in the lecture regarding the topic of independence.
In chapter 4, Crain demonstrates the importance of independence illustrated by Maria Montessori’s educational philosophy. Montessori argued that we are wrong to assume that children are whatever we make them, for children also learn on their own, from their own maturational promptings. Her perspective stood firmly on the difference between child and adult development,

Crain explains the detrimental effect on the independence of children due to the standardized movement. For example, Crain illustrates the shift in the academic standard in kindergarten. In chapter 4, Montessori highlighted the importance of play to the development of children. However, the academic push from the standardize movement has decreased the crucial play time for children. Crain explains that play is importance for, imagination, creativeness, and invention. Vygotsky believed that play can promote self-control, and Piaget observed fairness being explored in children during play. Furthermore, art time, which is very vital component to child development has been significantly cut down. As a result, young children increasingly struggle with academic lessons they can barely fathom, while they have fewer opportunities to develop their astonishing creativity at their own phase of life. Crain explains that the standard advocates more difficult tasks for children, as children are losing much interest. The standard movement has a damaging effect on the development of independence to children because they rely on authority figures when faced with challenging problems. Although the standardized movement brings useful information, it is not attuned with children and their development. As humans are explorative by nature, it is important to recognize that exploration upon

Werner argued that development refers to more than the passage of time, which means that we may grow older but without developing. Werner also believed that children may possess eidetic imagery. Children can describe vividly and are keen with describing the finest of detail. This behavior connects well with the importance of independence because children naturally focus on these details. Werner holistic perspective is that “we should not focus on any specific intellectual process, such as literacy, without considering the broader context out of which it develops.” In contrast, chapter 14 focuses on the development of language in children. Norm Chomsky believed that children imitate others and acquire a large number of sentences they store in their heads. Chomsky proposed that children have an innate knowledge of Universal grammar, which is that children automatically know the general form any language must take. Chomsky’s perspective of language ties with independence because he believed that children independently master an intricate system of grammatical rules, we should respect their independent efforts. Overall, both Werner’s and Chomsky’s different perspective of development mentions the importance of independence to the development of