In exchanging emails recently with my former kindergarten teacher, she wrote:
“I taught for 35 years, and towards the end, they made us do away with centers, and I was crushed. They were forcing too many academics on kindergarten children.”
As someone who is married to a former kindergarten teacher and is a close friend to many kindergarten teachers, here is something I state without equivocation:
The increased academic demands placed upon kindergarteners are stupid. Kindergarten is a critical component of a child’s development, but that development is best served when children are given a chance to socialize, play, explore, problem-solve, and learn to love learning and school. Increasing the academic demands on kindergarten undermines this process and does more harm than good.
Most kindergarten teachers — including my former kindergarten teacher — agree.
So why is this shift happening?
You can probably guess.
The increased academic demands placed upon kindergartners are almost always the brainchild of administrators and other school officials who have never taught a single day of kindergarten but presume to know what these children need best.
Rather than investing in a professionally designed curriculum, reducing class sizes, and hiring additional support staff, administrators assume they can raise test scores and academic proficiency by shifting academic expectations down. In doing so, they believe that students will be better prepared for state testing, SATs, and other indicators of academic success in the future.
Dumb.
As a fifth-grade teacher, I’d much prefer a class of well-adjusted, socially adept, hard-working students than a group of children who know a little bit more by the time they get to me. I don’t need my students to possess greater math proficiency when they enter my classroom. I understand the value of early investments in the attitude, habits, and behaviors required for academic success.
I believe in the long game.
Let these young children learn to play, resolve conflict, collaborate, cooperate, and negotiate. Teach them to love books, adore school, and respect themselves and others.
That is the purpose of kindergarten.
Here’s a good rule of thumb:
If you haven’t spent at least three years teaching kindergarten, or you haven’t been teaching kindergarten for more than a decade, then don’t make decisions related to kindergarten.
Instead, open your mind, put aside your hubris, and ask a bunch of kindergarten teachers what they think.
Anything else would be misguided, arrogant, and stupid.
