I’ve been thinking about a mom I know whose oldest child (now in second grade) had a terrible time in kindergarten. The child came home from school everyday miserable and stressed. Eventually, her mom realized that the academic focus of the class was not a good match for her child. There were “tons and tons of worksheets” and a huge “star chart” that indicated each child’s proficiency at learning sight words. Some students had three or four stars, other students had row of stars that stretched clear across to the other side of the room. Two years later, her child is a reluctant reader.
This family is not alone, as reported by the Alliance for Childhood’s recent release, The Crisis in the Kindergarten: A Report on the Disappearance of Play. http://www.allianceforchildhood.org/ The report includes research revealing kindergartners in New York and Los Angeles are spending two or three hours being tested or instructed in literacy and math each day, and less than 30 minutes at “free play”. Some kindergartners get no time at all for play during the school day! It’s doubly bad news for young children because what they need most of all, play, has been replaced with ill-advised instruction that is simply inappropriate for such young children.
The Alliance for Childhood’s report is getting mainstream attention, such as the New York Times Magazine story Kindergarten Cram by Peggy Orenstein published May 3, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/magazine/03wwln-lede-t.html?scp=1&sq=Kindergarten%20Cram&st=cse
Check it out. If you have a young child who is struggling, or are getting ready to send your child to kindergarten, you can use this story to jump start a conversation with your child’s teacher or principal. My twin boys start kindergarten in the fall, and that’s what I plan to do!
You are so right on. If we want to enable our children to meet their potential, if we want them to be able to come up with the new ideas that can change the world instead of just being cogs in a consumer economy and cogs in the workplace, they have to have the space to explore and think on their own, to find their own creativity. Otherwise they’ll grow up to live the lives that the rest of the world tells them to live and buy the stuff the world tells them to buy. And don’t we all know that our kids are capable of changing the world? Yeah, let the kids play!
There was a great follow-up to Orenstein’s piece in the letters to the editor on 5.17.09. I like how the writer didn’t allow this play vs. learning issue to continue, and instead make the link: play is how children learn.
“There is no dichotomy between academia and play in a quality kindergarten program. Indeed, it is that kind of black-and-white thinking that brings us tiresome black-and-white legislation like No Child Left Behind. Blending social-emotional development, language development, problem-solving skills and the traditional academic subject areas is neither terribly difficult nor rare. If Peggy Orenstein found herself unable to observe such a program in all of her town, she is quite welcome to com and see my classroom.
Jennifer Moless
San Francisco”
Alliance for Childhood, and the authors of the report that Orenstein sites, would agree with Sarae that "play is how chilren learn". Here is quote from their 8 page summary:
"The power of play as the engine of learning in early childhood and as a vital force for young children’s physical, social, and emotional development is beyond question. Children in play-based kindergartens have a double advantage over those who are denied play: they end up equally good or better at reading and other intellectual skills, and they are more likely to become well-adjusted healthy people." http://www.allianceforchildhood.org/sites/allianceforchildhood.org/files/file/Kindergarten_8-page_summary.pdf
~Geralyn