Getting to Know Your International Contacts/Executive Function: Skills for Life and Learning

Sandra and I continued or conservation further discussing the quality and equity education in St. Lucia. Our conservation focused on Preschool/ Primary education. 

To start our conservation I asked Sandra what age primary education starts for children and does she feel that it is quality education?  Her answer was there is quality education but unfortunately it is not for all children in Preschool.  She continues to say that the system is a little different from the United States because primary education starts in 1^st grade and ends in 7^th grade.  Children start public school at 5 years of age.  The government run schools consist of two phases for elementary education. First, ‘Infant’ “program comprising three grades 1 to 3 which most children complete in three years, followed by a four-year ‘primary’ education, comprising grades 4 to 7”.  

 According to Sandra Preschool education in St. Lucia is voluntary. Almost 90 percent of children participate in some form of preschool.  St. Lucia does not have an abbot program for preschool like in the United States.  Preschool is privately own. She feels the focus is more on academics as appose to social interaction. She wishes the system was more like the American system because it is too rigid for some young children. The latest trend for the past few years in preschool is some preschools are following the Montessori system approach to teaching but it’s not for all children. The majority of students in these schools are of wealthy parents. They consist of mostly diplomat and upper middle class children. Local residents feel the pressure to keep up with the middle class and enroll their children in this type of school. The average St. Lucian cannot afford the Montessori system. When children then enter Elementary/Primary school there appears to be some disparities in terms of how well children are prepared for first grade.

This week I also took the opportunity to learn about Executive Function: Skills for Life and Learning from the website http://developingchild.harvard.edu/

I learned that executive function is a cognitive process in the brain that helps children to control their behavior. It also helps to manage and regulate working memory, and switching task easily without discomfort or distractions. Preschool children do not have mature executive functions. They will continue to make mistakes until the brain reach full maturity.   

This  week was very informative. I learned from Sandra that primary education starts in  1st grade and continues all the way through 7th grade. I was a little confused with the term Executive Function, but the Harvard website provided information along with a video to further explain the term and its significance to brain development in children.