Empowered by Play » Pressure-Cooker Kindergarten http://www.empoweredbyplay.org Helping families and teachers protect and promote imaginative play in our way-too-busy, consumer-driven, media-filled world. Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:54:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Learning through play and keeping good teachers http://www.empoweredbyplay.org/2009/11/learning-through-play-and-keeping-good-teachers/ http://www.empoweredbyplay.org/2009/11/learning-through-play-and-keeping-good-teachers/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:46:00 +0000 Geralyn http://www.empoweredbyplay.com/?p=70 Today I am making final preparations for the Coalition of Essential School’s Annual Fall Forum in New Orleans. I’ll be co-presenting on play and democratic classrooms – Who’s the Boss: Empowering Students to Get Down to the Business of Learning Through Play. Presenting at the CES Fall Forum is something that always energizes me. Being [...]]]> Today I am making final preparations for the Coalition of Essential School’s Annual Fall Forum in New Orleans. I’ll be co-presenting on play and democratic classrooms – Who’s the Boss: Empowering Students to Get Down to the Business of Learning Through Play. Presenting at the CES Fall Forum is something that always energizes me. Being a teacher these days is an incredibly tough job and connecting with inspiring colleagues is one way to recharge. I always meet people to learn from, share ideas with and debate. I also leave with a deeper understanding of the national picture of what teachers are struggling with on a daily basis.

This fall I am thinking specifically about a critical issue facing early childhood education today: talented teachers who have been in the classroom for decades who are now leaving the field as fall-out from NCLB. These teachers know what is good for young children and can no longer stay in a system that is pushing inappropriate academics into pre-k and kindergarten classrooms. I also want to shine a light on those teachers who are struggling to stay true to what is developmentally appropriate. To read more about teacher stories, see previous posts Kinder Kindergartens, Please and One Teacher’s Story.
Meanwhile, a new survey of kindergarten teachers from Santa Clara California revealed that the most important readiness skills for kindergarten are motor skills, self-help skills and self-regulation. Academics were the least important, because teachers find academic skills the easiest to teach. However, when students come into kindergarten without motor skills, self-help skills and self-regulation, it takes a tremendous amount of time and energy to learn these skills. Read more about the study here on the Early Ed Watch blog. The implications here for pre-k are tremendous, as imaginative play is one of the best ways for children to learn self-regulating skills. The recent article, Can the Right Kind of Play Teach Self-Control? in the NY Times Magazine explains why.
I truly believe that if parents of young children fully understood the power of play, and the harmful effects that NCLB is having on early childhood education, then the pendulum would begin to swing back. For our youngest students, racing to the top means letting them take time to play, explore, build, do and inquire. (It does not mean a continuous stream of mandated assessments, developmentally inappropriate academic benchmarks and micro-managed teachers.) Research has continued to show that the learning will come through play. Good teachers everywhere have known that for centuries.
I’ll be thinking about all of this, and honoring the life and work of visionary educator Ted Sizer as I prepare for and attend the Fall Forum 2009.
]]> http://www.empoweredbyplay.org/2009/11/learning-through-play-and-keeping-good-teachers/feed/ 2 Kinder kindergartens, please! http://www.empoweredbyplay.org/2009/08/kinder-kindergartens-please-2/ http://www.empoweredbyplay.org/2009/08/kinder-kindergartens-please-2/#comments Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:31:00 +0000 Geralyn http://www.empoweredbyplay.com/2009/08/kinder-kindergartens-please-2/ This Peanuts cartoon, originally published in 1962, was reprinted this week. It was just another sad reminder about how much kindergarten has changed. The truth is, now there are many anxious and stressed-out kids in kindergarten. Sally wouldn’t be alone in her need for therapy. (She’d probably have to stand in line!)

In the Sunday magazine [...]]]> This Peanuts cartoon, originally published in 1962, was reprinted this week. It was just another sad reminder about how much kindergarten has changed. The truth is, now there are many anxious and stressed-out kids in kindergarten. Sally wouldn’t be alone in her need for therapy. (She’d probably have to stand in line!)

In the Sunday magazine of today’s Boston Globe, the article Pressure-cooker Kindergarten describes the issues at hand. You can read about kids, teachers, administrators and child development experts who all understand the atrocities NCLB has inflicted on kindergarten. Time spent on test-prep and continuous assessments has taken away time spent playing. And playing is precisely how young children learn about the world around them.

Real learning happens through play – and authentic assessments can be used while children are at the “work” of play. These aren’t separate activities. Good early childhood teachers know their students well from observing them at play, listening to the questions they ask and noting the choices they make. Teachers can decide when to do one-on-one interviews and gather more data as needed. The article highlights the sad fact that excellent teachers are leaving the profession because they can not abide by the harmful regulations now in effect. These regulations keep them constantly administering mandated assessments that may, or may not, be appropriate for their students – and away from craft of teaching.
Many parents who read the article will say, “Well, my child could read by [insert a ridiculously young age] and could multiply and divide, too!” or “If other parents worked with their kids, they’d be ready for the academics!” The truth is, all kids are different, and all kids learn in different ways and at different rates. Some kids never even have to “learn to read”. They just do it. I’m not sure how it happens, but I’ve seen it happen over and over again. I’ve also seen kids struggle to make sense of print for years, and eventually, after working incredibly hard, begin to read. The point is, one size never fits all in the world of early childhood.

Kudos to Patti Hartigan from shining a light on the Alliance for Childhood report Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School, and for continuing the conversation.



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