There is No Kindergarten

10/22/2008

We know we cannot plant seeds with closed fists. To sow, we must open our hands.
Adolfo Perez Esquivel

On Edutopia, the web site of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a teacher contributed the article, "Childhood's End: Growing Up Too Fast" in which she observes, "Something is lost when little red wagons and mud pies make way for worksheets and tests." Here is a portion of what she said in describing the experiences of a kindergarten student Katy:

"There is nothing wrong with Katy except that she is a kindergartner deprived of kindergarten. Ten years ago she would have been in the dress-up corner in front of the mirror, draping feather boas across her thin shoulders. But on this particular day, she's a first grader with an IEP and goals that are unattainable for someone at her stage of development. She will go to special classes three times a week to make up for her 'deficits.' She will continue to smile boldly, but soon she will start to wonder what is wrong with her. She will leave our classroom three times a week and trudge, not dance, down to room 15. She will start to feel the weight of those goals. The benchmarks will pinch just a bit.

".... In the past five years, as expectations have continued to expand at each grade level, teachers have scrambled to help students feel successful. A good proportion of my class is not at grade level. They are taking multiple-choice tests and filling in bubbles with the anxiety of their older siblings. We throw around terms like 'algebra' and 'response to literature' to six-year-olds who are barely decoding words. We push and cajole and, yes, sometimes secretly curse the child with her head in the clouds. We are accountable. We are observed. Our jobs may depend on the ability of our students to understand the subtle distinction between strategies like 'predict' and 'infer.'

"There is no kindergarten. It has gone the way of the little red wagon and mud pies. The time when children learned how to go to school, how to use a tricycle, or wait their turn on the swing is gone. These were important skills — vital to success in the grades to come. We do not have time to teach them now. We have worksheets that need completing. We have take-home books to copy and homework packets to staple. We have accountability."

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