The Sunday New York Times Magazine of May 3/09 featured an excellent article by Peggy Orenstein titled “Kindergarten Cram.” The article reinforces some earlier posts on the Chalkboard that discuss the importance of play for children.
Not only does play provide much-needed ‘down-time’ for busy kids but it also serves to support the achievement of some important educational objectives. “Play – especially the let’s-pretend, dramatic sort – is how kids develop higher-level thinking, hone their language and social skills, cultivate empathy.”
Orenstein goes on to discuss the dangers of accelerating kindergarten and other techniques for pushing children’s development too quickly. She references the Slow Food movement which appears to speak to the type of change we need in our early education system. The Slow Food Manifesto states: “We are enslaved by speed and have all succumbed to the same insidious virus: Fast Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat Fast Foods. A firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of Fast Life.”
Orenstein’s call for ‘Slow Schools’ comes from her feeling that “After all, part of what got us into this mess was valuing achievement, speed and results over ethics, thoughtfulness and responsibility.”
I believe that it is important for parents to let schools and school systems know that they too value the important objectives of education rather than our current obsession with achievement, speed and results. Let’s hear it for ‘Slow Schools’ not the ‘Fast Life.’
I read that article and thought this is exactly what my child is getting at AHWS – what was alternative is cutting edge yet our school still struggles with the myth that it is arts based rather than academic. A great youtube clip to watch is Sir Ken Robinson’s speech at the TED conference- Are schools killing creativity.