In A Thousand Years
Once in a thousand years a generation of people witness the coming of a new millennium. How fortunate we are to be here upon this beautiful earth to witness this event. Opportunities for beginnings abound . The mind and the heart stand in awe of events. We sense the wonder of generations upon generations of development in our species. We feel the spirit within and around us.

Worthy of the Event
We who work with children sense the wonder of creation. Children are the wonder. Our children will begin the new millennium with what we provide for their inheritance. We are now in the process of fashioning the society, the consciousness, the awareness that they will inherit. We are striving to bring out the best from within ourselves. Little by little we are becoming aware that we are alive, that planet earth is our home, and humankind is our family. We are searching for ways to express this awareness that will be worthy of the event.

Celebration 2000
Children have the unrehearsed and candid emotions to truly celebrate a new millennium. Children can dance and sing and play with true appreciation for being alive. So now we are beginning to prepare a stage for their celebration. We are collecting the songs, writing the poems, and creating the concepts with which they will begin the next thousand years. Take part in every way you can.

Dr. Garland O'Quinn
Executive Director AKT

When teaching young children the basics of reading and writing, we need to distinguish and balance two aspects of the learning process, which are: 1. memorization or the learning of facts, and 2. conceptualization or the learning of concepts. On the one hand, the process of memorization requires the teacher to impart information and the children repeat that information over and over again until it is memorized. This process does not necessarily involve the children's thinking or even understanding the information presented. On the other hand, the process of conceptualization requires thought processing. The children need to participate by focusing, manipulating, classifying, analyzing, and integrating the information presented to them. This process, therefore, involves problem-solving and understanding the information presented, which results in concept formation.

Before children are exposed to the teaching of the letters in the alphabet, language and cognition are the two essential readiness factors. Our approach to teaching emphasizes concept formation or cognition. However, this approach is balanced with the inclusion of a strong measure of learning facts through the development of language.

Language develops as children interact with people and the environment. Appropriate names of objects and events are learned through this process. With continued vocabulary development, children are ready to deal with concepts when they confront the printed alphabet. Research studies based on the nature of memory suggest that schemata (outlines of knowledge) are important in the storage and retrieval of information1. Associations are made and relationships established. New information is meaningfully integrated with previous information in the schemata2. Schemata develop as a result of interaction with people and the environment. As a readiness factor for learning the alphabet, children, who have a rich reservoir of schemata on which to draw from, are better able to respond to the letter-related tasks.

Teaching the alphabet involves cognition. This concept formation, "can only occur for the child through first-hand experiences and observations, which allow the hypothesis and experiment cycle of constructing knowledge"3. Some of the concepts include: top-bottom, left, right, corner, spacing, basic handwriting strokes (e.g., one straight line down or one curved line), number of strokes for each letter's formation, conceptual forms and letters' terminology, positional and directional words (e.g., on, middle, away, open, closed), and other vocabulary words (e.g., touching, through, beginning, end).

Learning to read and write should be viewed as a continuing process of integrating concepts with an expanding language. Children need basic language skills to understand the process of letter formation. They need concrete experiences and materials to build on the new information. Learning concepts take time and practice. With practice the children gain confidence. Learning this process and developing confidence are two important aspects of the early childhood years that will help children gain an in-depth knowledge of the world around us.

Dr. Siew Eng. See & T. M. Oates

1 Rumelhart, David E. (1980); Schemata: The building blocks of cognition. In R. J. Spiro, B. C. Bruce, and W. F. Brewer (Eds.); Theoretical issues in reading comprehension, pp. 33-58; Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
2 Piaget, Jean (1963); The child's conception of the world. Paterson, NJ; Littlefield Adams.
3 Piaget, J. (1973); To understand is to invent; New York; Viking Press.

All of you are encouraged to be as active as possible in promoting the principles that we have for so long worked to define. Senator Jim Turner of the Texas Senate has just released the "Report of the Texas Commission on Children and Youth." This report expresses an urgent need for programs which nurture children. It stresses that too many children are not getting the necessary nurture and are heading down the path of drop out, unemployment ,substance abuse, welfare dependence, and crime. His report strongly supports all of our work. Each of you are encouraged to contact Senator Turner at the Price Daniel Building, Room G-04, 209 West 14th Street, P.O. Box 13106, Austin, TX 78711 or call 512-305-9056 to lend you support and encouragement to the efforts of this important commission. Ask for a copy of the report and provide them with details of what you already are doing so that they will have data to work with.

"I vote yes to every experience we have had here today." With these immortal words Darrel Williams summed up the historic annual meeting of AKT. The meeting was at the Rib Hut in Austin Texas in Connection with the Annual Convention of TAHPERD on December 1, 1994. Attending were Debbie Blackard, Carolyn Winningham, Tommy Oates, Darrel Williams, Mary Kniffen Nancy Conkle, Diane Havens, and Garland O'Quinn. It was a very happy gathering and the group unanimously reconfirmed the principles and objectives of AKT.

Everyone is encouraged to maintain your association with local early childhood groups and work to promote our principles within those groups. You will find a great deal of acceptance because the Texas Education Agency has just released their new guidelines which emphasize "First Principles." The outline reads almost like the By Laws of AKT. With this strong statement of principles we have a state mandate to promote nurture for children and to expect parents and care givers to reduce the demands and pressures which presently leave many children without self confidence and prey to gangs and other anti social behaviors.

Best wishes to all for a happy and great summer. And remember "AKT for the benefit of Children."

Dr. Garland O'Quinn
Executive Director AKT

According to The Associated Press, dated Friday, April 28, 1995, the National Students' Reading Scores were down at all grade levels. About 42 percent of fourth-graders failed to reach even basic level, which denotes only partial mastery of the reading skills they should have, and 75 percent fell short of the proficient level. Thirty-one percent of all eighth-graders had less than proficient skills. About 30 percent of the seniors failed to reach even basic level.

The development of reading skills starts during early childhood. At this stage, most parents focus their child's learning on the naming of the alphabet through rote memorization. During the early childhood years, there is no significant relationship between rote-memorization of the names of the alphabet and reading ability. To be able to read proficiently at any grade level in later years, the students must have acquired extensive vocabularies or concepts, strong oral language, and the ability to comprehend what is being communicated. Parents can help their children during their early years to develop reading skills by using good oral language as models, motivating their children to read, reading to them, and asking them questions about what has been read. This process of developing reading skills is the key to reading proficiently during later years.

Dr. Siew Eng. See & T. M. Oates

Too often the children in our society fail to reach their potential in basic skill development because we introduce competition too early in life. Children who do not excel in a particular skill are forced out of further development in that skill by the human need to protect personal self image. In order to maintain personal self image children remove themselves from any environment where they sense that their performance is not valued. All of us (regardless of age) attempt to remove ourselves from situations where we are judged to be of little value. Yet the development of skill is very important as the underlying base for each child's own unique contribution to life.

We have been deceived into believing that competition is the basis for motivation at every phase of life. Not so during the early developmental phase of life. Here the onset of competition is the beginning of specialization and the end of foundation development. Once children enter the competitive phase of life specialization sets in. Only those few who receive the rewards of competition will continue to develop that skill in themselves. Most children must search elsewhere for a place to feel achievement and a sense of acceptance. In this way the late bloomers as well as the average child is forced to abandon what should be their developmental phase in life in order find some activity where they can feel personal worth.

The developmental phase of life is a period where the individual can participate without judgement for the intrinsic joy and pleasure of learning. This phase is characterized by an internal motivation. The rewards for participation are the internal feelings of the experience and the pleasure of learning. The moment competition is introduced the viewpoint changes and the individual's performance becomes not a source of pleasure and learning but a means of acceptance or rejection.

How does this hurt our society? Take for example the young potential photographer. This child may have an unusual visual ability to notice subject, background, action, and other factors which create a great photograph. However, the photographic performance is laid upon the child's foundation of other basic abilities. If this same child does not excel in physical abilities he will avoid the competitive arena where basic agility, balance, and climbing skills would otherwise be enhanced. Thus the confidence to climb a tree or even a mountain is never developed and this young budding photographer must abandon the opportunity to photograph the last surviving bird of its species because reaching the nest would require climbing. In this situation the absence of a higher development of basic supporting abilities reduced the over all contribution of this citizen and cheated society of an important experience.

A priority of our society should be to search out those adults who have the ability to nurture children and enhance their basic abilities. A more full developmental phase of life would greatly help our children and our society as well.

Dr. Garland O'Quinn
Executive Director AKT