All we really need to know about schools we could be learning from kindergarten

Yesterday I took my soon-to-be five year-old son with me to ANCS as I helped supervise students during a block of time we’d opened up for parents as some relief from this unexpected stretch of snow/ice days.  He loved every minute of it—playing “Battleship” with other kids, eating lunch at a table of new friends, building little sculptures out of sticks and rocks outside.  As we left, he proclaimed that this had been “the best day of my life” and that he couldn’t wait to come to kindergarten.  And why shouldn’t he feel that way?  Granted, he might be surprised that school days next year are not going to be filled with board games and cheese pizza, but, as a kindergartner, I think he should expect for school to be a place that makes time for genuine exploration, gives him space to make mistakes, and nurtures his love of learning.  Kindergarten should be as great as he thinks it will be.

But some of what’s in the news lately would seem like it could really raise the anxiety of the parent of a rising kindergartner.  First, if you’ve got a five year-old, should you even send your child to kindergarten this year?  An article in the AJC the other day reported on some parents who opted to “redshirt” their youngsters (keeping them out of school for one extra year) so that they’d then be among the oldest students in the class and realize academic and social benefits from it according to some research.  Yet just a few months ago, an article in The New Yorker magazine cited research that indicates longer-term advantages from being the youngest kid in class—you develop persistence and skills from dealing with those older classmates—and makes the case against redshirting.

So after overcoming the confusion about when the best time to start kindergarten is, you then might have to confront what, for many schools, is the changing nature of kindergarten itself.   A recent research paper suggests in its title that “kindergarten is the new first grade”.  The paper chronicles the rise in instructional time for kindergarten students—over 75% of U.S. kindergartners now attend a full-day school program, 20% more than just 15 years ago—and the increasing focus on reading instruction to the exclusion of other subjects.  Much of this change can be attributed to recent educational policies requiring accountability tied to reading standardized tests in 3rd grade.  And, despite this uptick in instruction for kindergarteners, other recent research indicates that kindergarten classrooms may not be spending enough time on more advanced academic content, instead emphasizing skills many students come into kindergarten already grasping.

In the midst of all of this research and news, it would be easy to be concerned and uncertain about what kindergarten might hold for my son.  But, with my office on the kindergarten hallway at ANCS, I’ve seen first-hand how adept our kindergarten teachers are here.  They are able to build the foundational skills in literacy and math of young students who come into school from a range of experiences—preK, home school, no formal schooling.  Yet they are also focused on building on the natural curiosity of these students through art, music, exploration of science and the world, and play.

I know that my son will not always come home from school next year declaring it the best day of his life.  But I do know that our teachers—by helping him to become not only a better reader and writer and problem solver but also an enthusiastic tinkerer and actor and investigator—will work to make each day the best it can be for him and all of their students.  And I hope the same is true for the parents of all kindergartners out there.

Some good resources about early childhood education in an era of changing standards and accountability requirements:

• Coalition of Essential Schools: “What Makes an Elementary School ‘Essential’?”
• Defending the Early Years: Resources and Readings