Radical Preschool

As young children across the country start a new school year, and teachers across the country set up learning environments for their young students, many early childhood teachers will look to the HighScope Educational Research Foundation for guidance.  HighScope is a well-respected, research based approach to early childhood care and education.  The well-known Perry Preschool Study showed the long-term benefits of receiving a high-quality preschool program using the HighScope approach.  Active Learning is at the center of the HighScope.

From their website:

The HighScope educational approach is based on the belief that young children build or “construct” their knowledge of the world – they are “active learners”.  This means learning is not simply a process of adults giving information to children.  Rather, children discover things through direct experience with people, objects, events, and ideas.  They learn best from pursuing their own interests while being actively supported and challenged by adults.

And:

The space and materials in a HighScope setting are carefully arranged to promote active learning.  The center is divided into interest areas organized around specifics kinds of play; for example, block area, house area, small toy area, book area, sand-and-water area, and art area.

Sounds good, right?  Sounds great, actually.  I agree wholeheartedly with the foundations of the HighScope curriculum, which is why I was shocked and disappointed recently when I read in one of their new resources that “Computers are a ‘must’ in early childhood classrooms.” (Setting Up the Preschool Classroom by Nancy Vogel, p. 81)

WHAT?!?  Since when?  And says who?  Computers are a “must”?!?  Not according to over 70 professionals who recently signed a letter to NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children).  This letter was written by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood with help from the folks at the Alliance for Childhood.

From the letter:

In the world of medicine, implementation of any medical practice intervention is guided by the principle “Do no harm.”  We believe that maxim should guide the use of new technologies in classrooms, particularly since screen time may displace activities with proven benefits for young children such as direct hands-on exploration of the world, connecting with nature and with other human beings, and child-initiated play.  Given the vast amount of time that young children are spending with screens and out of child-care settings, and the growing concerns about the impact of screen media on children’s well-being and development, we urge the NAEYC to take a leadership position in efforts to reduce the amount of time children spend with screens and promote the kinds of hands-on creative play proven to be beneficial to their growth and development.

And:

Given that there exists a wealth of screen-free educational activities known to be beneficial to children, and limited data on the costs/benefits of screen media – particular, new media – for young children, we strongly recommend that the burden of proof should be on documenting the benefits of screen media, and on proving they are not harmful, before it is assumed that screens should be incorporated into early childhood environments.

Lisa Guernsey of The New America Foundation is more in favor of computers than those who signed the CCFC’s letter.  She has her own letter to NAEYC posted on her blog, Early Ed Watch.  But even though Guernsey is more supportive of computers in early childhood settings, she also cites her own warnings and recommendations, and doesn’t agree that computers are now a “must”.

So I ask: why such a strong (and in my opinion, dangerous) statement from HighScope?  Believe me, I am trying to find out.

And consider the e-mail I received recently, with the message line reading “Here is your Digital Kindergarten”.  The pitch letter started out like this:

Please enjoy this Digital Sample Digital Mini-Text for your students.  Complete Curriculum publishes dynamic K-12 digital textbooks and highly-interactive web-based instructional programs that make learning fun and “cool” for today’s whiz kids who eat, breathe, and sleep technology.  Our groundbreaking format takes students out of the dull world of traditional print textbooks and transports them into the exciting world of interactive textbooks and lesson plans where learning becomes fun.

Uggh!  So now we have a digital alternative to the “dull” world of print textbooks.  Hmm, here’s a radical idea: how about letting our students interact with the world around them?!  Play with real people and real open-ended materials?  Explore nature, art materials, building materials and actual books?!  Could the real world be an alternative to the “dull world” of print textbooks?  To paraphrase Free-Range Kids author Lenore Skenazy, when did the preschool/kindergarten we grew up with become so radical?