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By Sara Lahm.

Is there a crack forming in the anti-child world we have been subjecting our children to for far too long?

I ask this question on the heels of Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson’s announcement that, effective immediately, preschoolers, kindergarteners, and first graders will no longer be suspended for non-violent infractions while in a Minneapolis Public Schools classroom or building.

As the parent of a kindergartener, whose Minneapolis Public Schools classroom has one teacher and twenty-eight students, this news made me cry. First, I am thankful MPS has taken this action, and that they are now actively recognizing that, according to Superintendent Johnson’s office, adjusting to the new rules and expectations of school “simply takes longer for some students.”

Wonderful. Now, let’s do the real work of critically examining the rules, expectations, and learning environments we have created for these young children. When we do, we will hopefully better understand why children are acting out at school, and what we can do to provide a more engaging and supportive learning environment for all children.

Even a cursory look at kindergarten schedules throughout MPS reveals a heavy focus on two most testable subjects: reading and math. At Bethune Elementary School, for example, which has one of the highest suspension rates for young children in the district, students spend two hours in the morning on reading and writing skills, followed by a thirty-five minute combined break for lunch and recess. Thirty-five minutes, total.

Then, they return to the classroom and spend one hour and twenty minutes on math-focused activities, followed by time spent with a specialist (art, gym, music). These young children then end their day with an hour devoted to “Math Safety Net,” combined with Science and Social Studies (perhaps the teacher chooses what to focus on).

There is no choice time listed. No time scheduled for dramatic play. Only a combined thirty-five minutes for these young children to eat lunch and have recess.

It is no wonder these young children are acting out. It is no wonder that a 2009 report called “Kindergarten in Crisis” makes this extremely important point:

Kindergartners are now under great pressure to meet inappropriate expectations, including academic standards that until recently were reserved for first grade. At the same time, they are being denied the benefits of play—a major stress reliever. This double burden, many experts believe, is contributing to a rise in anger and aggression in young children, reflected in increasing reports of severe behavior problems (11).

A 2013 study from Colorado researchers also found evidence that young children instinctively develop essential “executive functioning” skills during less-structured playtime. Executive functioning skills are crucial for academic success and social-emotional health, as they help “regulate thought and action in support of goal-directed behavior,” and help children control “unwanted thoughts, feelings, and actions.” When we deprive children access to unstructured play, we are inhibiting their ability to develop self-regulation skills.

We can blame teachers, as we often do, for the high suspension rates and low academic performance—as measured by standardized tests—for some of our most vulnerable students. Or, we can blame the parents of these children and accuse them of not loving their children enough, or not being wealthy enough, or not doing things the way we might do them. We can also blame the students themselves, and accept the idea that, because they are poor children, and often children of color, they are behind and need extra doses of early academic content in order to “catch up.”

Or, we can take a collective look in the mirror and realize that, as most early childhood education research tells us, all children deserve access to an enriching, responsive, play-based early childhood and kindergarten learning environment. Oh, and class sizes should be small to facilitate one of the most important aspects of learning: healthy relationships and a sense of community.

The Kindergarten in Crisis report even notes that, just as some—and definitely not all—children are being confined to highly scripted, test-based, academic kindergarten and preschool classrooms, “the leaders of major business corporations are telling us that imagination and play are the future of the U.S. economy.”

This report also makes the point, as the Colorado study does, that, “…children who engage in complex forms of socio-dramatic play have greater language skills than nonplayers, better social skills, more empathy, more imagination…are less aggressive and show more self-control and higher levels of thinking.”

Please. Let us work together to not only keep these young, young children in school, but to also create well-funded, child-friendly classrooms where all children—no matter their income level, skin color, or primary language—are supported in their natural desire and need to play in order to learn.

Sarah Lahm is a Minneapolis-based writer and the director of ACT for Education, an organization dedicated to promoting high quality, creative public schools for all. She previously worked as a Family Literacy Specialist for Head Start and spent over ten years as a community college English Instructor. Reasserting children’s right to play is a high priority for Lahm. 

Author

Anthony Cody

Anthony Cody worked in the high poverty schools of Oakland, California, for 24 years, 18 of them as a middle school science teacher. He was one of the organizers of the Save Our Schools March in Washington, DC in 2011 and he is a founding member of The Network for Public Education. A graduate of UC Berkeley and San Jose State University, he now lives in Mendocino County, California.

Comments

  1. Barbara Gruidl    

    Thank-you so much for this. There indeed does seem to be a major problem in our society today in not letting children “be children”. They are being subjected to and learning that aggressive behavior is the “best way to achieve what one wants”. What happened to creative thinking, cooperative play and the sharing of ideas? These are incredibly important skills to have for their future adulthood! Life is not all about various skill levels. Cheers to the teachers who are trying to get the early school years into the proper perspective! Many of life’s lessons are learned through quality supervised play.

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