Emergent Literacy

In our threaded discussion, I said that emergent literacy could be defined as "the phonological and phonemic awareness, and the reading and writing skills children develop naturally as they are exposed to, and have a chance to practice these things." Thus far, I would still say that this definition accurately reflects my beliefs about what emergent literacy is. Although this has the potential to change slightly as I learn more and get some experience under my belt, I think this is something that will largely remain the same over time for me.
When I first heard the idea of emergent literacy, it was very difficult for me to grasp. As we talked about it and spent some time discussing it, I began to realize what a simple concept it really was. I also realized that one of the reasons why I had such a hard time with it at first, was because this concept is so drastically different from the way I was taught in school, and the way many schools today are still structured. There is one set curriculum and each and every child is expected to meet or exceed that given set of standards without consideration of individual needs. Because I had never known anything else, I never thought there were any other possibilities. Now I know differently. After learning about it, emergent literacy makes all the sense in the world to me, and makes anything else seem foolish at best. What makes sense about pushing a child to do something before they are developmentally ready for it? I feel like that is only setting children up to fail. It's like asking a baby to stand up and walk before they have even learned to sit up on their own. It just doesn't make sense.
I would like to be able to implement emergent literacy into my future classroom. There are some things I am still struggling with and wondering about though. Although I would love to implement this type of learning model, I have my doubts about how that would go over in a school system that expects their students to meet a certain set of standards every year. If I teach at the Kindergarten or First Grade level, and my students are developmentally on schedule but not meeting standards, administrators are not going to be very happy with that, and my job is likely to be put at risk, depsite the fact that I know the students will be just fine if they continue on the path they are on. I feel like the way schools are set up being and run in today's society, that the idea of emergent literacy would fail miserably simply because all students were not necessarily meeting the set standards at the end of the year.
However, the one thing I am sure of is that anything besides emergent literacy is a big mistake. I am willing to risk it and give it a try. I think the biggest thing I can do to incoroporate the idea of emergent literacy into my classroom is make sure that I am offering several ways for students to complete assignments. I am really going to have put some effort in making sure that each student is doing developmentally appropriate and challenging work. This is going to mean making sure that I am spending lots and lots of time with each individual student, when it may have just been simpler to force them all to sit quietly and do their work while I sit at my desk and do mine. I NEVER want my classroom to look like that, but a place where each student knows that their time, their work, and their individual efforts and characteristics are valued and appreciated. Emergent literacy means allowing students to be who they are and to excel at what they are capable of, rather than pushing them to meet standards that force them to be someone they are not and to fail in the process. I hope that I will be successful in making the concept of emergent literacy an integral part of my classroom!