Here, with permission of the author, is an op-ed piece by Lisa Guernsey. The piece first appeared in USA Today.
A few years ago, Newsweek called
kindergarten "the new first grade." This month, as I watch my
5-year-old settle into her classroom, it's clear the trend hasn't abated. In
May, she was kneading Play-Doh in preschool. Now she has an assigned seat and
"guided reading" lessons.
It's a jarring introduction to school — a
recent report from the national Governors' Forum Series described it as a
"plunge" — that could be eased dramatically if we could take
some real, and maybe even counterintuitive, steps toward building a better
early education system.
Academic kindergartens arrived in the wake of
new science showing that all children, not just the "geniuses" or the
most advantaged, can learn earlier than once thought. Research has shown that
children do better in school if they gain literacy skills at a young age. The
testing requirements of No Child Left Behind have turned up the pressure.
But teachers are also starting to feel pressure
against this academic bent, as middle-class parents demand reassurances that
kindergarten will still include playtime. A provocative report titled
"Crisis in the Kindergarten" emerged this spring from the Alliance for Childhood, a
non-profit group advocating "the recovery of creative play." On
parenting blogs, mothers ponder whether to avoid public schools or
"redshirt" their 5-year-olds, holding them back for a year.
The shame is that the options have turned into
"either-or," as if play and education are diametrically opposed. We
have to find ways to relieve the pressure on kindergarten without reaching back
futilely to the early 20th
century, when expectations were lower and the urban and rural poor were
virtually ignored. Here are some modern-day ideas:
• Allow playtime and learning to
be one and the same. Kindergarten
teachers are not provided with enough training — let alone buy-in from
administrators — to blend the two successfully. For example, an environment
that encourages "pretend play" in a grocery store can promote math
skills. "If children are putting weights on a balance, they are doing
algebra," says Deborah Stipek, dean of Stanford
University's
education school. "Two apples equals one grapefruit."
• Make preschool affordable for
working families. Children arriving
without preschool require extra attention that can take time from play-based
activities. Some have never had story time or have never tried to write their
name. Head Start helps, but it is for the very poor. Meanwhile, private
preschools and child care centers with pre-kindergarten programs cost up to
tens of thousands a year.
• Provide full-day kindergarten. Only 10 states require it, and many actually make it
difficult for districts to offer full-day kindergarten. Critics worry that more
hours in school means more time on mind-numbing worksheets. But some teachers
report that a 9 a.m.-noon school day is too crunched to offer much time for
blocks, dolls or puzzles, let alone recess.
• Build a bridge between preschool
and kindergarten. Children who
attended preschool need activities that build on what they've learned. But
kindergarten teachers don't know what their students know. They have no
opportunity to talk to Head Start or preschool teachers. Instead, they spend
the first few weeks assessing where children stand. It's a surefire way to kill
motivation in children revved up by a good preschool experience, and it
separates kindergarten and preschool teachers who could learn so much from each
other.
The first day of kindergarten shouldn't feel
like plunging into a pressure cooker. These steps would help turn kindergarten
classrooms into the blooming gardens of learning they're supposed to be.
Lisa Guernsey is director of the Early Education Initiative at the New America Foundation, a non-partisan public policy institute in Washington.
