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Should preschools be all work, no play?

September 4, 2007

Should preschools be all work, no play?
Parents want to prepare kids, but experts say drills can
kill love of learning
By Victoria Clayton
MSNBC contributor
Updated: 4:27 a.m. PT Aug 6, 2007

When it comes to selecting a preschool, parents of 3- and
4-year-olds face a dilemma: do you go for the one that
calls itself an “academic” preschool or do you enroll your
child in the fun place?

Danielle Senffner, a mother of two in Thousand Oaks,
Calif., says the ongoing debate about the value of
play-based preschools versus academic preschools is common
coffee talk among parents in her suburban community. “Most
parents are still confused about which type of preschool is
best,” says Senffner.

She has read all the books touting the benefits of play and
has even taken early childhood development classes, yet
that didn’t squelch the misgivings in her family that their
first preschool — a program based on child-initiated free
play — was all their son needed. “When my husband came to
observe, his perception was, ‘Oh, it’s so much fun, but
they’re not learning anything. There’s no guidance,’” she
recalls.

So the Senffners decided to supplement their son’s playful
preschool by sending him two days a week to another school
at a nearby Lutheran church that touts itself as a more
academic preschool.

“We had other reasons for doing this too — at the second
preschool they add a little religion in, which is an
important thing on my husband’s side of the family,” she
says. But the biggest reason, Senffner admits, was to make
sure their son, now 5, was accustomed to a scheduled,
academic environment.

Academics vs. play
While once the statement would’ve sounded absurd, being
“academically prepared” for kindergarten is now a new and
real parental concern, says Larry Schweinhart, president of
High/Scope, a nonprofit educational research foundation in
Ypsilanti, Mich.

“Parents have reason to be concerned about this because of
the ‘push down’ we’ve experienced,” he says.
“Kindergartners are now expected to learn what
first-graders once learned. It’s something we’ve been
talking about for years, but it’s just gotten worse.”

Many school administrators and educators have decided kids
need to learn more, and earlier, to meet achievement
targets set up by programs such as No Child Left Behind.

But is choosing academic programs for 3- and 4-year-olds a
real route to success in kindergarten and beyond?

Not according to David Elkind, a professor of child
development at Tufts University and author of “The Power of
Play.”

“It’s absolutely the wrong move,” says Elkind. He notes
that while a few children might be extraordinary, the vast
majority of human brains aren’t developed enough to truly
learn reading or math concepts until they’ve reached the
age of reason (typically at age 5 or 6), when they can
understand “interval units,” a series of relationships in
numbers and letters.

“When we try to teach children skills that require interval
units before this age of reason, we run the risk of killing
the child’s motivation for learning, for schooling and for
respecting teachers,” says Elkind.

Raising independent thinkers
Rebecca Marcon, a developmental psychologist and education
researcher at the University of North Florida in
Jacksonville, agrees. In 1999, Marcon published a study in
the journal Developmental Psychology that looked at 721
4-year-olds selected from three different preschool models:
play based, academic (adult directed) and middle of the
road (programs that did not follow either philosophy).
Marcon followed the children’s language, self-help, social,
motor and adaptive development along with basic skills.

“What we found in our research then and in ongoing studies
is that children who were in a [play-based] preschool
program showed stronger academic performance in all subject
areas measured compared to children who had been in more
academically focused or more middle-of-the-road programs,”
says Marcon.

According to Marcon and other researchers, children who are
subjected to overly academic environments early on have
more behavior problems later and are less likely to be
enthusiastic, creative learners and thinkers.

“You will frequently get short-term gains with a highly
academic approach (in preschool), but they come with
long-term consequences,” says Marcon. “A lot of early
childhood studies only follow children to third grade. But
when you take it into fourth grade and beyond that’s where
you see the big difference. That’s when children have to be
more independent and think.”

Learning should be fun
Deborah Stipek, dean of the school of education at Stanford
University, calls academic preschools “drill and kills.”
“I’ve gone into preschools and listened to children recite
the alphabet or count to 100, for example. And people might
say, ‘Oh, what a great school!’ because the children recite
this information. But if you ask (the kids), ‘If you have
three cookies and I give you another one, how many do you
have?’ they wouldn’t know.”

However, Stipek doesn’t advocate for decidedly nonacademic
environments either. “There are schools that are completely
unplanned and unstructured, and I think we’re missing an
opportunity there also,” she says. “I’m not entirely for
free play, and I’m not for a lot of time spent on
worksheets, counting to 10 or reciting the alphabet either.
I’m supportive of learning activities that are intentional
and planned, but fun and engaging for kids.”

Play versus academics is a false dichotomy, she says. “The
idea is that at the preschool age, all learning should be
fun. Adults should be intentional about the teaching, but
it should be embedded in everyday life and fun activities.”

While Schweinhart agrees, he says the key to preschool
sanity is kindergarten sanity. “I’d like to be hopeful, but
as long as the kindergarten curriculum remains as it’s
become, academic preschools will remain.”

When Senffner’s daughter turns 3, she’ll follow in the
footsteps of her older brother and attend both types of
preschools. “I think the child-initiated programs are more
progressive. They teach autonomy and make the children
worldwise,” says Senffner. “But parents also want to know,
‘What did my child learn today?’ You want to feel as though
you’re preparing your child adequately.”

Victoria Clayton is a freelance writer based in California
and co-author of "Fearless Pregnancy: Wisdom and
Reassurance from a Doctor, a Midwife and a Mom," published
by Fair Winds Press.

© 2007 MSNBC Interactive
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20056147/from/ET/

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