The war against childhood continues. Children are no longer generally free to roam, play, and explore on their own, as they were in the past and are designed by nature to do (here). Parents who allow such play are being arrested (here and here (link is external)). Schools throughout the country have eliminated or greatly curtailed recesses. The last bastion in the battle to preserve childhood appears to be preschools and kindergartens, where some play still exists. But ground is quickly being lost there, too, despite the efforts of some teachers to hold on. I have spoken in recent months at several conferences of early childhood educators, mostly preschool and kindergarten teachers. At each, I’ve heard passionate descriptions of struggles to preserve play. They are battling the effects of No Child Left Behind, and now Common Core, which have trickled down from the higher grades to K and preschool. They are battling policy makers who know nothing about childhood, who ignore the piles of research showing the value of play and the long-term harm of early academic training (see here and here), and who and see standardized test scores as the end-all and be-all of education. They are battling administrators, who either have fallen for the pro-testing propaganda or are cynically pretending they believe it in order to preserve their high-salaried positions. They are battling teachers in the grades above, who tell them that their job is to prepare little children for the next stage in school by teaching them to sit still, do worksheets, and suppress their urges to play and explore. They are battling parents, who have come to believe that their 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds will never get into Harvard if they “just play” in preschool and kindergarten. Sometimes the battle is too hard, so they quit, or worse: they give in and do what they know is wrong. [Note: Early childhood educators as a whole are loving and nonviolent people, so when I say “battle,” I am referring to their attempts at reasoned persuasion.] More ...
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