Crisis in the Kindergarten

Author: Edward Miller and Joan Almon

Year: 2009

Kindergarten has changed radically in the last two decades in ways that few Americans are aware. Children now spend far more time being taught and tested on literacy and math skills than they do learning through play and exploration, exercising their bodies, and using their imaginations. Many kindergartens use highly prescriptive curricula geared to new state standards and linked to standardized tests. These practices, which are not well grounded in research, violate long-established principles of child development and good teaching. It is increasingly clear that they are compromising both children's health and their long-term prospects for success in school. This report analyzes decades of research on early childhood learning and provides clear recommendations for what early childhood education should look like and how we can get there by supporting teachers, doing more research, and enacting new policies.

Highlights:

Recommendations from the report:
1. Restore child-initiated play and experiential learning with the active support of teachers to their rightful place at the heart of kindergarten education.
2. Reassess kindergarten standards to ensure that they promote developmentally appropriate practices, and eliminate those that do not.
3. End the inappropriate use in kindergarten of standardized tests, which are prone to serious error especially when given to children under age eight.
4. Expand the early childhood research agenda to examine the long-term impact of current preschool and kindergarten practices on the development of children from diverse backgrounds.
5. Give teachers of young children first-rate preparation that emphasizes the full development of the child and the importance of play, nurtures children(tm)s innate love of learning, and supports teachers•€(tm) own capacities for creativity, autonomy, and integrity.
6. Use the crisis of play(tm)s disappearance from kindergarten to rally organizations and individuals to create a national movement for play in schools and communities.

Links:

• Crisis in the Kindergarten (PDF) - http://www.allianceforchildhood.org/sites/allianceforchildhood.org/files/file/kindergarten_report.pdf

Reference:
Miller, E. and Almon, J. (2009). Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School. College Park, MD: Alliance for Childhood.

Submitted by Shawn Strader on: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - 10:46 am

Tags for this entry:
research, kindergarten, teachers, educators, children, social skills