RE: [xmca] Kndergarten Cram: When is play?

["Peg Griffin" <Peg.Griffin@att.net>]

Given the Istomina results (was it Istomina) about what kids pretend when
they are able to stand still so long -- maybe people should be worried very
worried about what is going on in the little ones' imaginations!  
And worry a lot about what they might externalize when they are adolescents.
PG

> -----Original Message-----
> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu]
> On Behalf Of Holli Tonyan
> Sent: Monday, May 04, 2009 2:26 PM
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity; David Preiss;
> mcole@weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: Re: [xmca] Kndergarten Cram: When is play?
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Thanks for this link to a great article by Peggy Orenstein! I really
> liked
> her honest question of herself about whether she would be willing to
> wait
> until 7 for her daughter to learn to read juxtaposed with her
> daughter's
> making a math worksheet since all the other kids have homework.
> 
> My name is Holli Tonyan and this is my first real posting to XMCA.
> 
> I'm afraid I have another depressing addition... A recent presentation
> at
> the Society for Research on Child Development about how children spend
> their
> time in prekindergarten programs (sorry - my program is at home so I
> don't
> have the reference) suggests that in two different large-scale studies
> of
> pre-k children spent most of their time waiting in line quietly. Many
> pre-ks
> are in elementary schools and so the little ones have to walk quietly
> to
> meals, wait in line quietly outside the toilets, wait quietly (in line)
> for
> busses at the end of their shorter days, and at many other times of the
> day
> as they are "fit" into schools that were not designed for them.
> 
> One ray of hope in the US is in the many family day care settings where
> many
> still focus on play and some have resources to provide materials to
> really
> extend and enrich children's play, but this is minimally-regulated and
> so
> hard for parents to find. Note that in many other countries (I think of
> New
> Zealand as a prime example), the early childhood educational system
> encourages flexibility and really promotes family day care settings
> whereas
> in the US these settings are often viewed as "ok" for infants and
> toddlers
> or for the less affluent but not the first choice for many families.
> 
> Other reactions? I'm so excited to read a topic I actually have
> something to
> say about.
> 
> Holli
> 
> 
> On 5/4/09 9:30 AM, "David Preiss" <davidpreiss@uc.cl> wrote:
> 
> >
> > No CLBH in Chile, but same miseries at the kindergarten. A
> > kindergarten without play is like a university without library. But
> > many many practitioners have forgotten so. At least in Chile, it is
> > VERY difficult to find a good preschool that takes play seriously.
> The
> > eradication of play from preschools seem to be part of a larger
> > worldwide trend to standardization, over-achievement and loss of
> > educational common sense. The ending extreme of this new educational
> > training seems to be neuroenhancing at the college level:
> >
> http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/04/27/090427fa_fact_talbot?curr
> entPage
> > =all
> >
> > No wonder why we get a Flynn effect everywhere, but I really wonder
> > how good is that for those kids who are receiving a training that is
> > based on skill drilling instead of cultural transmission.
> >
> > Time to re-read Montessory along Jerry Bruner?
> >
> > david
> >
> > On May 3, 2009, at 6:22 PM, Mike Cole wrote:
> >
> >> I really loved the bit about the kids getting older sooner as the
> >> parents
> >> get older later so pretty soon the kids will be older than their
> >> parents!
> >> What struck you about the story, vera?
> >> mike
> >>
> >> On Sun, May 3, 2009 at 12:52 PM, Vera Steiner <vygotsky@unm.edu>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Hi Mike,
> >>> I was delighted to see this article in the Times, the new
> >>> administration
> >>> needs to hear alternatives to NCLB.
> >>> Thanks for sending it out, perhaps we will discuss it a little,
> >>> Vera
> >>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Cole" <lchcmike@gmail.com>
> >>> To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> >>> Sent: Sunda abouy, May 03, 2009 1:26
> >>> Subject: [xmca] Kndergarten Cram: When is play?
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> So many people on xmca are interested in play, I could not help
> >>> forwarding
> >>>> this article which kept me company over lunch.
> >>>> Smile, cry,
> >>>> Iis a #2 pencil
> >>>> sticking in your eye?
> >>>> mike
> >>>> -------
> >>>> Kindergarten Cram New York Times Magazine, The (NY) - Sunday, May
> >>>> 3, 2009
> >>>> Author: PEGGY ORENSTEIN
> >>>> About a year ago, I made the circuit of kindergartens in my town.
> >>>> At each
> >>>> stop, after the pitch by the principal and the obligatory exhibit
> >>>> of art
> >>>> projects only a mother (the student's own) could love, I asked the
> >>>> same
> >>>> question: "What is your policy on homework?"
> >>>>
> >>>> And always, whether from the apple-cheeked teacher in the public
> >>>> school or
> >>>> the earnest administrator of the "child centered" private one, I
> >>>> was met
> >>>> with an eager nod. Oh, yes, each would explain: kindergartners are
> >>>> assigned
> >>>> homework every day.
> >>>>
> >>>> Bzzzzzzt. Wrong answer.
> >>>>
> >>>> When I was a child, in the increasingly olden days, kindergarten
> >>>> was a
> >>>> place
> >>>> to play. We danced the hokeypokey, swooned in suspense over Duck,
> >>>> Duck,
> >>>> Gray
> >>>> Duck (that's what Minnesotans stubbornly call Duck, Duck, Goose)
> and
> >>>> napped
> >>>> on our mats until the Wake-Up Fairy set us free.
> >>>>
> >>>> No more. Instead of digging in sandboxes, today's kindergartners
> >>>> prepare
> >>>> for
> >>>> a life of multiple-choice boxes by plowing through standardized
> >>>> tests with
> >>>> cuddly names like Dibels (pronounced "dibbles"), a series of
> >>>> early-literacy
> >>>> measures administered to millions of kids; or toiling over reading
> >>>> curricula
> >>>> like Open Court -- which features assessments every six weeks.
> >>>>
> >>>> According to "Crisis in the Kindergarten," a report recently
> >>>> released by
> >>>> the
> >>>> Alliance for Childhood, a nonprofit research and advocacy group,
> >>>> all that
> >>>> testing is wasted: it neither predicts nor improves young
> children's
> >>>> educational outcomes. More disturbing, along with other academic
> >>>> demands,
> >>>> like assigning homework to 5-year-olds, it is crowding out the one
> >>>> thing
> >>>> that truly is vital to their future success: play.
> >>>>
> >>>> A survey of 254 teachers in New York and Los Angeles the group
> >>>> commissioned
> >>>> found that kindergartners spent two to three hours a day being
> >>>> instructed
> >>>> and tested in reading and math. They spent less than 30 minutes
> >>>> playing.
> >>>> "Play at age 5 is of great importance not just to intellectual but
> >>>> emotional, psychological social and spiritual development," says
> >>>> Edward
> >>>> Miller, the report's co-author. Play -- especially the let's-
> >>>> pretend,
> >>>> dramatic sort -- is how kids develop higher-level thinking, hone
> >>>> their
> >>>> language and social skills, cultivate empathy. It also reduces
> >>>> stress, and
> >>>> that's a word that should not have to be used in the same sentence
> >>>> as
> >>>> "kindergartner" in the first place.
> >>>>
> >>>> I came late to motherhood, so I had plenty of time to ponder
> >>>> friends'
> >>>> mania
> >>>> for souped-up childhood learning. How was it that the same couples
> >>>> who
> >>>> piously proclaimed that 31/2-year-old Junior was not
> >>>> "developmentally
> >>>> ready"
> >>>> to use the potty were drilling him on flashcards? What was the
> >>>> rush? Did
> >>>> that better prepare kids to learn? How did 5 become the new 7,
> >>>> anyway?
> >>>>
> >>>> There's no single reason. The No Child Left Behind Act, with its
> >>>> insistence
> >>>> that what cannot be quantified cannot be improved, plays a role.
> >>>> But so do
> >>>> parents who want to build a better child. There is also what
> >>>> marketers
> >>>> refer
> >>>> to as KGOY -- Kids Getting Older Younger -- their explanation for
> >>>> why
> >>>> 3-year-olds now play with toys that were initially intended for
> >>>> middle-schoolers. (Since adults are staying younger older -- 50 is
> >>>> the new
> >>>> 30! -- our children may soon surpass us in age.)
> >>>>
> >>>> Regardless of the cause, Miller says, accelerating kindergarten is
> >>>> unnecessary: any early advantage fades by fourth grade. "It makes
> >>>> a parent
> >>>> proud to see a child learn to read at age 4, but in terms of
> >>>> what's really
> >>>> best for the kid, it makes no difference." For at-risk kids,
> >>>> pushing too
> >>>> soon may backfire. The longitudinal High/Scope Preschool
> Curriculum
> >>>> Comparison Study followed 68 such children, who were divided
> between
> >>>> instruction- and play-based classrooms. While everyone's I.Q.
> scores
> >>>> initially rose, by age 15, the former group's academic achievement
> >>>> plummeted. They were more likely to exhibit emotional problems and
> >>>> spent
> >>>> more time in special education. "Drill and kill," indeed.
> >>>>
> >>>> Thinkers like Daniel Pink have proposed that this country's
> >>>> continued
> >>>> viability hinges on what is known as the "imagination economy":
> >>>> qualities
> >>>> like versatility, creativity, vision -- and playfulness -- that
> >>>> cannot be
> >>>> outsourced. It's a compelling argument to apply here, though a bit
> >>>> disheartening too: must we append the word "economy" to everything
> >>>> to
> >>>> legitimize it? Isn't cultivating imagination an inherent good? I
> >>>> would
> >>>> hate
> >>>> to see children's creativity subject to the same parental anxiety
> >>>> that has
> >>>> stoked the sales of Baby Einstein DVDs.
> >>>>
> >>>> Jean Piaget famously referred to "the American question," which
> >>>> arose when
> >>>> he lectured in this country: how, his audiences wanted to know,
> >>>> could a
> >>>> child's development be sped up? The better question may be: Why
> >>>> are we so
> >>>> hellbent on doing so?
> >>>>
> >>>> Maybe the current economic retrenchment will trigger a new
> >>>> perspective on
> >>>> early education, something similar to the movement toward local,
> >>>> sustainable, organic food. Call it Slow Schools. After all, part
> >>>> of what
> >>>> got
> >>>> us into this mess was valuing achievement, speed and results over
> >>>> ethics,
> >>>> thoughtfulness and responsibility. Then again, parents may glean
> the
> >>>> opposite lesson, believing their kids need to be pushed even
> >>>> harder in
> >>>> order
> >>>> to stay competitive in a shrinking job market.
> >>>>
> >>>> I wonder how far I'm willing to go in my commitment to the cause:
> >>>> would I
> >>>> embrace the example of Finland -- whose students consistently come
> >>>> out on
> >>>> top in international assessments -- and delay formal reading
> >>>> instruction
> >>>> until age 7? Could I stick with that position when other second
> >>>> graders
> >>>> were
> >>>> gobbling up "War and Peace" -- or at least the third Harry Potter
> >>>> book?
> >>>>
> >>>> In the end, the school I found for my daughter holds off on
> >>>> homework until
> >>>> fourth grade. (Though a flotilla of research shows homework
> >>>> confers no
> >>>> benefit -- enhancing neither retention nor study habits -- until
> >>>> middle
> >>>> school.) It's a start. A few days ago, though, I caught her
> >>>> concocting a
> >>>> pretend math worksheet. "All the other kids have homework," she
> >>>> complained
> >>>> with a sigh. "I wish I could have some, too."
> >>>>
> >>>> Peggy Orenstein, a contributing writer, is the author of "Waiting
> >>>> for
> >>>> Daisy," a memoir.
> >>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>> xmca mailing list
> >>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> xmca mailing list
> >> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >
> > David Preiss, Ph.D.
> > Escuela de Psicología
> > Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
> > Av Vicuña Mackenna - 4860
> > 7820436 Macul
> > Santiago, Chile
> >
> > Fono: 3544605
> > Fax: 3544844
> > e-mail: davidpreiss@uc.cl
> > web personal: http://web.mac.com/ddpreiss/
> > web institucional: http://www.epuc.cl/profesores/dpreiss
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > xmca mailing list
> > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> 
> --
> Holli A. Tonyan, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Psychology
> California State University, Northridge
> 18111 Nordhoff Street
> Northridge, CA 91330
> 
> Tel: (818) 677-4970
> Fax: (818) 677-2829
> Office: ST321
> 
> 
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