Hot off the press research. Crisis in the early years of school. Why Children Need to Play in School and preschool
The report attached provides the most recent empirical evidence on how in the USA, the over emphasis upon formalised literacy and testing in the early years has been a complete failure. The report highlights the need for young children to particpate daily in rigorous play based teaching and learning strategies alongside explicit teaching of literacy. Please note that the term Kindergarten in the report refers to the first year of school. The argument of this report, that child-initiated play must be restored to kindergarten, will be dismissed and even ridiculed in some quarters. In spite of the fact that the vital importance of play in young children's development has been shown in study after study, many people believe that play is a waste of time in school. School, they say, should be a place for learning. There's plenty of time for play at home.
Skepticism about the value of play is compounded by the widespread assumption-promoted by hundreds of "smart baby" products-that the earlier children begin to master the basic elements of reading, such as phonics and letter recognition, the more likely they are to succeed in school. And so kindergarten education has become heavily focused on teaching literacy and other academic skills, and preschool is rapidly following suit.
The common misconceptions about young children's play fall apart when we look closely at what is really going on. We begin to be able to differentiate between superficial play and the complex make-believe play that can engage five-year-olds for an hour or more, fueled by their own original ideas and rich use of language. We start to distinguish between the sound of a chaotic classroom and the hum of energy when children are deeply absorbed in the flow of play.
Edward Miller and Joan Almon (2009). Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School. College Park, Maryland: Alliance for Childhood.http://www.allianceforchildhood.org/sites/allianceforchildhood.org/files/file/kindergarten_report.pdf
The executive summary of this report is attached as a pdf it also provides the link to access the full document
