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Re: [xmca] Kndergarten Cram: When is play?
Dear David,
Thank you very much for your response and your effort to make the original
report accessible.
Be well
Vesna
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Preiss" <davidpreiss@uc.cl>
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 7:35 PM
Subject: Re: [xmca] Kndergarten Cram: When is play?
> Dear Vesna,
> Thanks for your kind words.
> I looked for the original report quoted in the NYT and found it here:
>
http://www.allianceforchildhood.org/sites/allianceforchildhood.org/files/fil
e/kindergarten_report.pdf
> It is really worth reading.
> Best regards from Santiago,
> David
>
> On May 5, 2009, at 7:46 AM, zdravo wrote:
>
> > David,
> > I just wish to let you know that I highly appreciate your very
> > simple and
> > clear sentence: a kindergarten without play is like a university
> > without
> > library. It reflects the way of building public preschool education
> > for
> > years, here in Serbia (republic of ex/Yugoslavia).
> > Best regards from Belgrade
> > Vesna
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "David Preiss" <davidpreiss@uc.cl>
> > To: <mcole@weber.ucsd.edu>; "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity"
> > <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> > Sent: Monday, May 04, 2009 6:30 PM
> > Subject: Re: [xmca] Kndergarten Cram: When is play?
> >
> >
> >>
> >> 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?currentPa
> > ge=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
> >>
> >>
> >> --
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> >> Version: 7.5.557 / Virus Database: 270.12.11/2089 - Release Date:
> > 4/30/2009 5:53 PM
> >>
> >>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > 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
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
>
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