Play Matters
Over the last two months, we have had expert educators comment to us on “unusual” items they observed in the Small Steps classrooms. First, there were the large construction blocks in our Pre-K / K classrooms. Second was the use of shaving cream in our two-year old/three-year old classrooms. We knew that the ascendance of copied drill sheets meant some things had to be replaced. But blocks in Pre-K / K classrooms? Peggy Orenstein, in a 5/3/09 New York Times Magazine article, points out the tragedy of this increasing rarity of play in preschool.
Small Steps Nurturing Center is committed to child-initiated play. Our commitment stands on a solid foundation of research. Ms. Orenstein’s article references a significant recent work from the Alliance for Childhood: Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School. This work, by Edward Miller and Joan Almon, outlines our current troubles, how we got here, and prescribes solutions to extract ourselves from this mess. We encourage all who care about young children to take a look at this work.
Listed below are the five parts of the Alliance for Childhood’s call to action, and the Small Steps position on each:
- We call for early education that emphasizes experiential, hands-on activities, open-ended creative play, and caring human relationships. Small Steps has designed its program to emphasize each of these practices, and aspires to consistently practice them.
- We call for a reversal of the pushing down of the curriculum that has transformed kindergarten into de facto first grade. No reversal necessary at Small Steps. We agree with the Alliance for Childhood’s view of what is age appropriate.
- We call for research on the causes of increased levels of anger, misbehavior, and school expulsion among young children. Clear boundaries, an understanding of feelings and how to discuss them, respect for the individual, and allowing students to engage in creative play using the most important voice of all – their own - goes miles towards addressing the root causes of anger in children.
- We call for additional research that examines the long-term impact of different preschool and kindergarten practices on children from diverse backgrounds. Our experience working exclusively with children in poverty shows that in addition to accomplishing all that it is known to accomplish in “standard” settings, child-initiated play has one additional invaluable impact: it gives a voice to the voiceless.
- We call for teacher education that emphasizes the full development of the child including the importance of play, nurtures children’s innate love of learning, and supports teachers’ own capacities for creativity, autonomy, and integrity. You cannot value your students without valuing their most important contact each day – their teachers. Investment in teacher education translates directly into an investment in children’s futures.
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