I avoid this topic like the plague. Kids need to play, explore, and build their imaginations, and preschools that put an emphasis on reading, math and handwriting steal those opportunities from kids. My statement usually incites anger and probably fear, in parents who’ve already justified the decision that their child needs to build elementary skills while in preschool, and have already spent a few happy months in a preschool that is doing just that. Plus, they are already financially and emotionally invested in the school and its teachers, and even though the child is only three, the family thinks its too late to turn back now. And besides, they believe, I am wrong.
I’m choosing to speak up now because The Wall Street Journal (What’s Gotten Into Kids These Days? January 17, 2008; Page D1, By Sue Shellenbarger) has now reported some research data that backs my belief.
Behavior problems among preschoolers are emerging as a national issue. In several studies released in the past month, researchers at Yale, Rutgers and Cornell universities, among others, are treating preschoolers’ conduct as a challenge that calls for changes in school programs and classroom management. The problem has reached the point where researchers are recommending preschool teachers have access to mental-health consultants, like the psychologists who help out in higher grade.
This is kind of chilling. Why are behavior problems emerging as a national issue?
The causes aren’t clear. Some experts blame a government drive for accountability in schools that is intensifying emphasis on early skill-building in reading and math, frustrating kids who aren’t ready. Others cite a variety of other factors, including parents’ early use of child-care centers, family instability, poor prenatal care or an increased incidence of such learning difficulties as attention-deficit disorder.
This is creating a need for children to have extra training on more social and emotional skills so they can deal with other kids. “Indeed, the academic achievement that parents covet, and that schools are so avidly seeking, can’t be attained without good social and emotional skills as a foundation,” adds the WSJ. If you can’t fathom what a preschool is that does focus on play, imagination, and the ability to build emotional confidence, check here.
There’s no reason to teach a child to hold a pencil before he’s ready, just because someday he’ll need to know how to hold a pencil. If you have trouble grasping that concept, think of it like this: what if we took the same attitude with sexual skills? The child just isn’t ready. At preschool, I hope there are teachers willing to help my child button his costume, teach him how to say, “I don’t like that, but I do like this,” and show him how to pound play dough.
Some preschools have initiated testing, to aleve parental anxiety and to ensure that their child will be able to compete in elementary school testing. However, a bulletin in Mothering Magazine (145, Nov-Dec 2007: p35) cites an annual Gallup/PDK poll of people who claim to know at least a fair amount about the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act:
The vast majority (82 percent) said they would “prefer that schools be judged by growth in students’ achievement rather than by the simple percent[age] of students who score at or above proficiency on their state assessment.” Indeed, a growing percentage of parents of public school children–from 32 percent in 2002 to 52 percent in 2007–feel there is too much emphasis on testing.
I’ve seen the stress the NCLB leaves on Middle-School kids, and now it seems the NCLB act has hit the preschool room too. Hopefully, the work of the nonprofit Forum on Educational Accountability (FEA), will bring back some balance, and allow childhood to flourish again. The FEA sent a letter, August 7, 2007, to members of the Senate and House education committees for a major overhaul of NCLB, including implementing “multiple assessments of learning and multiple indicators of school performance,” signed by 117 leading educators, scholars, and researchers. The letter supports the Joint Organizational Statement of NCLB. You can view this statement here.
I would love to hear what other Moms think about this issue. There are several Hip Mommas I know who have such a wonderful way with words, and hearts that hate to see childhood pass so quickly, like Amy, Dawn, Louann, PunditMom — your opinion always rocks,Charlotte,(we’d like a global perspective) YogaMum, Mothergoosemouse (congratulations again), Patios, Beck, Mama M, Leslie, Jess — and you know I can’t just write every Mom and Dad’s name here, so don’t even think about your name not being here if it isn’t, and just let me know if you agree, or why in the world not.
As you choose preschool, or perhaps consider a NEW preschool, consider this poem, written by George Athanas.
I want to be six again. I want to go to McDonalds and think it’s the best place on earth to eat. I want to sail sticks across fresh mud puddle and make waves with rocks. I want to think M&M’s are better than money because you can eat them. I want to play kickball during recess and stay up Christmas Eve waiting to hear Santa or Rudolph on the roof.
I long for the days when life was simple. When all you knew were your colors, the addition tables, and simple nursery rhymes, but it didn’t bother you because you didn’t know and didn’t care. I want to go to school and have snack time, recess, gym, and field trips. I want to be happy, because I don’t know what should make me upset. I want to think the world is fair and everyone in it is great. I want to believe anything is possible.
Sometimes while I was maturing I learned to much. I learned of nuclear weapons, starving children, battered wives, death, unhappy marriages, and abused children. I learned of the unhappiness that exists and like my addition tables I never forgot it. I want to be six again and think that everyone I know including myself will live forever because I don’t know the concept of death. I want to be oblivious to the complexity of life and be overly excited at little things again.
I want television to be something I watch for fun, not something I use for an escape from the things I should be doing. I want to think answering the telephone is a privilege not a pain in the neck, and that bus rides are fun regardless of where I am going, not an inconvenience because I could have driven there faster by car. I want to live knowing the little things I find exciting will not always make me happy as when I first learned them.
I remember not seeing the world as a whole but rather only being aware of the things which directly concern me. I want to be looking at the picture of life so closely that I can only see the people directly around me — family and friends — as the people who concern me, unaware of the power of the government and the possibility I have of being insignificant. I want to be naive enough to think that if I am happy so is everyone else. Because by being aware you take on responsibility, the responsibility to act or know you didn’t and live with the consequences.
I want to walk down the beach and think only of the sand under my bare feet and of the possibility of finding that blue piece of seaglass that I am looking for. I long for the days when while I walked down the beach it was the only thing I thought of. But those days are gone. I am destined now to walk the beach always thinking other thoughts, worrying other worries , reliving memories good and bad that the beach reminds me of, enjoying the view and air but never completely removing myself from the thinking, worrying and rethinking that is always going on inside of me.
I want to be six again, happy to be alive yet unaware of what life really is. I want to spend my afternoons climbing trees and riding my bike, letting the grown ups worry about time, the dentist, and how to find the money to fix the car’s battery. I want to wonder what I’ll do when I grow up, not worry about what I’m going to do after graduation.
It’s not that I want to live my life over again, I’m basically happy with how things turned out — so far. Rather I want to be able to escape but not have to pay for it later. I want to be able to visit my six year old state of mind, play in my six year old state of mind dirt and swim in my six year old state of mind water. Life was good then but I didn’t know enough to realize it. I was so anxious to grow up I spent time, I should have enjoyed being young, acting older. I want that time back. I want to use it now as an escape so that when I have a computer program, six reading assignments, two depressed friends, and second thoughts about my major I can travel back and build a snowman without thinking about anything except why the snow sticks together and what could I possibly use for the snowman’s mouth.
Filed under: Life, Science, spirit by SusieJ - 32 Comments →
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