By Edward Miller, Joan Almon

Quandary within the Kindergarten comprises new examine exhibiting that many kindergartens spend 2 to three hours in keeping with day educating and trying out youngsters in literacy and math with in simple terms half-hour according to day or much less for play. In a few kindergartens there isn't any playtime in any respect. an analogous didactic, test-driven process is coming into preschools. yet those equipment, which aren't good grounded in study, aren't yielding long term earnings. in the meantime, behavioral difficulties and preschool expulsion, specifically for boys, are hovering. The detrimental implications of the present ways to early schooling are large and the wanted adjustments can basically be entire whilst mom and dad, educators, university directors and coverage makers are proficient and take motion jointly.

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Extra info for Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School

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This is very different from today’s prevailing expectations that children will become early readers and writers in kindergarten. The Bank Street approach enables kindergarten children to develop a foundation for literacy without straining to meet inappropriate demands. According to Bank Street’s guidelines, emergent readers and writers • • • 34 Understand that written language conveys messages Pretend read and write: they turn pages of books, invent the story using pictures and their memory of a story Begin to match spoken words with print CRISIS IN THE KINDERGARTEN • • • • • • May know some letter names and some letter sound associations May recognize some words and letters in their environment or in texts; but not again in a different context; they may still be unsure of the concept of “word” or “letter” Can write some letters, usually those in their own names In writing may reverse some letters, and may use mostly uppercase letters May make scribbles or strings of random letters with no spaces; one letter may represent a whole word May “read” or attribute meaning to his or her marks; may not be able to “re-read” these marks at a later time.

82 Another area of concern is the rise in mental illness among children. Again, we know of no solid research linking the demise of play with this increase, but given the many ways that play strengthens the social and emotional life of children and relieves stress, it is likely that its decline contributes to mental problems. The overall picture of children’s mental health is summarized by psychologist Sharna Olfman in this way: The number of American children being diagnosed with psychiatric illnesses has soared over the past decade and a half.

It is much easier for a child to become an early reader if he has enjoyed being an emerging one and feels confident with his growing skills. In summary, this description means that five-year-olds generally have a sense that written language conveys meaning, but their grasp of the elements of written language is still tentative. The child takes a playful approach to written language, pretending to write and read, and is able to recognize some words but without great consistency. Many cannot yet recognize or write all the letters of the alphabet with accuracy and consistency.

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