When given choices during child-directed play, children are learning key skills like self-regulation, empathy, creativity, imagination, and problem solving. Why is it then, that in America we have lost a joyfulkindergarten experience and replaced it with academically driven, teacher-directed instruction? Researchers at the University of Virginia, led by the education-policy researcher, Daphna Bassok, found that while time spent on literacy in kindergarten went up, time spent on arts, music, and child-selected activities significantly dropped. Teacher-directed instruction also increased, revealing what Bassok described as “striking increases in the use of textbooks and worksheets and very large increases in the use of assessments.” State standards such as those in Colorado contain dozens of reading expectations for kindergartners. What’s more alarming is that there isn’t any solid evidence showing that children who are taught to read in kindergarten have any long-term benefit from it. I often wonder if there are no advantages to learning to read at the age of five, are there disadvantages to starting to teach a child to read in kindergarten?
I believe during child-directed play, children are motivated to engage in opportunities to learn though joyful experiences; benefiting cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development. Would it be more beneficial for KINDERGARTEN children who are willing and interested to be given the gift of literacy instruction… and for those who are not, to be given the gift of time? Research in Finland points to the fact that children learn better when they are given instruction in play-based literacy “at a later time.” (Finland is recognized as one of the World’s best school systems). There is an old Finnish saying, “Those things you learn without joy you will forget easily.”
