Новая книга Лоры Бонфрейнд призывает вернуть приоритет игре и отношениям в дошкольном образовании

The Case for Prioritizing Play in Kindergarten - Laura Bornfreund's new book "Rediscovering Kindergarten: Embracing Play & Joy in Kindergarten" explores the history of kindergarten, the impact of academic pressure on young children, and ideas for transforming kindergarten to prioritize play and relationship-building. Laura Bornfreund opens her new book, "Rediscovering Kindergarten: Embracing Play & Joy in Kindergarten" by bringing readers inside her daughter Ainsley's experience entering kindergarten in August 2017. The fact that Ainsley just started high school shows the long and thoroughgoing journey that the book represents. Bornfreund — a senior fellow at New America, where she previously was director of early and elementary education policy — shines a light on academic pressure on young children. In her book, she digs into the history of kindergarten and how it's changed, chronicles her visits to over 50 classrooms in 13 states, and speaks to education and policy experts about ideas for transforming kindergarten to prioritize how kids learn best. Kindergarten is regarded as the connector between pre-K and early elementary grades, but Bornfreund views the entire journey from pre-K through third grade as critical for young children's development. In order for these years to lay a sturdy foundation for everything that follows, the kindergarten experience should prioritize play and relationship-building, including connections with peers and teachers. Over the years, however, kindergarten has become increasingly "schoolified," according to Bornfreund, particularly in the aftermath of the No Child Left Behind Act, which became federal law in 2002. "The new emphasis on testing and accountability under the law put pressure on schools and teachers to achieve at higher levels for each child," she wrote. The book laments the state of kindergarten today, where classroom experiences are overly scripted and funding is insufficient in many communities. At the same time, Bornfreund finds teachers who are providing meaningful experiences for young learners against the odds. In the conversation below, she shares her perspective on what a strong kindergarten experience looks like and offers insights on how schools, families and policymakers can reshape kindergarten to help children thrive. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Why are children entering kindergarten with such a wide range of abilities? That kindergarten year is the first accessible-to-all opportunity into formal public education. Even as widespread as pre-K has become, not everyone has access to that public opportunity, but every child does have access to kindergarten. If they attended a high-quality pre-K, the kindergarten year can often be somewhat of a repeat for them. If they were in childcare or any other kind of early childhood environment, it's going to be pretty jarring. Or if they didn't have any formal preschool experience at all, it can be fairly jarring. And so there does need to be more attention to … all the different types of experiences that children have before they get into kindergarten. What are the key differences between children who have had some kind of formal experience before kindergarten and those who have not? While pre-K often does build early literacy and numeracy skills, it's also focused on the whole child. So the executive function that helps students to be able to sit and listen and line up and understand what it means to wait their turn, but also the social and emotional development. And that is one of the areas that is lacking in a lot of kindergarten [classrooms], not because teachers don't understand that it's important or don't want to be able to focus more on the whole child, but because the schedule in many places … is so rigid, and the expectations of what teachers should be doing with students in kindergarten classrooms don't allow for time to focus on those whole-child areas. Where did you find school districts that draw upon the research with the most fidelity? The Early Childhood Department in Boston really transformed, starting with pre-K, and built their own curriculum. It's called the Focus Curriculum and it was focused on preschool, pre-K, kindergarten and they've also gone up to second grade. … It engages students in a lot of playful learning practices, and it has a heavy focus on not just building those reading skills, but also building the background knowledge opportunities for children to talk and interact with each other. Boston has really transformed the majority of their elementary schools now, and that has spread. Those approaches have spread to other parts of Massachusetts as well as Maine. The Focus Curriculum is open source, so anyone can take and use it or adapt it for their state specifics or regional differences. Is it a more rigorous academic program or is it more play-based? Both. It's aligned with Massachusetts standards, and it incorporates within the curriculum these play-based approaches. And that's something you'd like to see spread more widely? Yes. Or other curriculum materials like that. And I would just say [that] for young kids, including kindergarten through at least second grade, the play-based approach is the rigor for those kids, because it's how they learn best, when looking at the science of early learning and development. And it doesn't mean free play, that kids are just doing whatever all day … Looking at Boston, that play-based learning is guided play. Teachers are curating the kinds of materials that are in different center activities. They are moving around the room when children are engaged in those activities, asking probing questions to … support children in using different vocabulary or getting at the specific standard that teachers are wanting to focus on in those particular centers. So it's structured, it's guided by the teacher and it's rigorous. What's your perspective on delaying kindergarten, as some experts recommend, especially for boys? I would say that the problem isn't that 5-year-old boys aren't ready for kindergarten, or that some kids aren't ready for kindergarten. It's that kindergarten has become unready for 5-year-olds. Five-year-olds are active social learners, particularly young boys … and kindergarten teachers aren't able to — or, in some cases, aren't sure how to — deliver those active social learning opportunities. That's the real challenge. So red shirting … or holding kids back a year isn't going to solve that problem. Many Parents Talk About Delaying Kindergarten. Few Actually Do It Why is relationship-building so important in kindergarten classrooms? Before children can learn from their teachers, they have to be able to trust them. That's not a nice-to-have. Those relationships have to be in place between the teacher and the student, regardless of the grade, but it's particularly important in kindergarten, when many children are coming together for the first time with another adult or with other children. They're a core piece of that learning. How does technology support relationships and play? Or does it interfere? I visited several classrooms in different places where children are on tablets … for much of the day or for too much of the day. There's a place for technology. I think some of the programs that children are using are suited for supporting differentiation or just meeting specific skills that children are developing. … But the technology doesn't build relationships. They're a tool, not a teacher, and we shouldn't treat them in schools as if they can replace a teacher and a relationship. Were there classrooms you walked into while writing this book and you were like, "Aha, this is it. This is what it ought to be like"? There were a lot where I felt like I just wanted to stay all day, but in this one particular room [in Maine], I got into the classroom before students started coming in, and as students were coming in, the teacher was greeting them and asking them questions. This was a Monday. One question she asked was, "How did that softball game go this weekend?" … She was just picking up on things that she knew about students and digging in and asking them how certain things went and following up on that. And then students, during their morning work as everyone was coming in, there had been strong routines built because they knew exactly what they were going to be doing. They got their … morning STEM toys out, and they were sitting at tables and doing different things with their table mates. And that was just more of a before the day started free activity, a lot of choice in that, but kids were talking, they were working together. … Then they came together for their morning meeting. … That start of the day is a really important way to help children feel welcome and ready to learn and ready to be in a community with both their teacher and fellow classmates. What else stood out from your travels? I visited a classroom in Oklahoma [and] the teacher noticed the energy of her class was dipping. Her kids needed a break. So she called [for] a little dance party — two minutes to help everybody reset — and then got back to what her instruction was. In Ferndale, Washington, the superintendent has made play-based learning a priority for the whole district in kindergarten, and they're moving it up to first grade too. The way that works is, there's an hour of dedicated time that follows reading instruction. The students are essentially taking what they've learned in that reading block and then applying it to play-based learning. What's one recommendation for making the transition from pre-K to kindergarten smoother? One thing I would say is to give pre-K through first grade teachers dedicated time to plan together. … Having that dedicated time to think together and to plan together is one of the most high-leverage things that schools can do. Teachers appreciate it too. What advice do you have for parents? Ask questions about what kindergarten looks like. What opportunities are there for play-based learning, for building relationships, for science? One of the things I point out is that science is almost all but gone from a lot of kindergarten classrooms because there's just not the time for it. So really probing and asking those kinds of questions of the teacher, but also of the principal is important for parents to be doing. What about policymakers? Kindergarten is really the only grade where we fund it like an afterthought, but then [we] call it this important foundation. We should invest in what it takes to deliver on the teaching and learning that aligns with how we know students learn.