PlayIsTheWork.com

This article, “Maybe Preschool Is the Problem?” was published in the New York Times in May of this year. This is what got my attention initially, “IF six out of every 1,000 preschool children are asked to pack up their Goldfish crackers and never return to nursery school - expelled at the tender age of 4 - whose fault is that?” A study released by the Yale Child Study Center earlier this year reports that preschool children are three times as likely to be expelled as children in primary school, and that roughly 5,000 preschool children are turned out each year.

This was enough to get my attention and the analysis of “why” was not really that surprising to me. It turns out that 10 year olds are not the only children expected to excel in an environment of “drill and practice” type learning measuring success by the grades on standardized tests but 4 year olds are now held to the same standard.

One of the main motivations for my husband and I to found our company, Braincandy, was to create children’s media that focuses on building independent and creative thinking skills while building the foundation for social and emotional development. You will not find any ABC’s or 123’s in our content. The “drill and practice” type of learning didn’t work with our five year olds, so I’m not surprised to find that it doesn’t work with the other 5000 kids their age being expelled from pre-school.

My epiphany came in the form of the letter “Q.” As I drilled and drilled my daughter to learn her letters, she rebelled. Instead of creating a love of learning, I was creating a child who felt like a failure at the tender age of 2. If it seemed to me like every decision was a test, imagine how she was feeling!

Since that moment I began a relentless search for what I believe to be the truth. Jean Piaget, the Swiss developmental psychologist coined the phrase, “play is the work of children.” For him and many after him these words of wisdom meant trying to form a foundation for children with a balanced approach to child-rearing and education. At some point in the last decade other voices have begun to change the tone of our thinking about childhood and pushed “play” to the margins. The results have been troubling to me: children are overstressed and overscheduled, and we parents are suffering under unreasonable expectations and a pervasive sense of guilt. Too much of childhood has been taken over by preparations for adulthood–to the point that young kids’ afternoons are being scheduled with an eye toward college admissions. If it were not so harmful to parents and kids alike, it would be funny.

For me, putting play back at the center of my life as a parent is essential to enable my children to do the work they must do. An excerpt from the book “Baby and Child Care” published in 1946 by the eminent pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock notes, “children love their play not because it’s easy but because it’s hard. They are striving every hour of every day to graduate to more difficult achievements and to do what older children and grown-ups do.” In 1946 this must have seemed pretty progressive. And yet when we look across our education system today as echoed in this NYT’s article, instead of embracing this concept, what is valued is the “push down” effect of direct teaching, worksheets and drills.

I want my children to become healthy, inquisitive, social beings that enjoy the good things in life and are resilient when faced with setbacks. I try to encourage them every day to learn to connect the dots on their own so that they can become independent, creative thinkers. My children are now 5 and no, they’re not in kindergarten. We’ve decided that a year of pre-K will be great for them. One more year to further develop their social, emotional and yes, their academic independence before being faced with the rigors of kindergarten. So far, both of my children love school and have a hunger for learning that inspires me—to date, neither has been expelled.

Each of us as parents faces the daunting task of trying to “get it right.” For me that means learning new ways to play and putting away the flashcards. It means constantly reminding myself that when my son uses an old drain gutter to create a track for his trucks and cars it’s not “goofing off” but is actually rather inventive!

Posted on October 4th, 2005 by Sam
Filed under: School Time, Read This!, Research