Governor Polis’ efforts to bring free, full-day kindergarten to Colorado’s public schools have been in the news quite often the last several weeks. Currently, Colorado only pays for half-day kindergarten. Those districts that do offer full-day kindergarten pay for it with funds designated for other programs, with local property taxes, or by charging families. Polis recently stated, “It’s time to make the state a full partner with our (school) districts. We simply need to ensure that kindergarten is treated as the critical part of our public education infrastructure that it is.”
As a parent, grandparent, and educator, I understand the reasoning behind this push for full-day kindergarten. We all want the very best education for our children, and we often assume that getting kids started with their formal academic education earlier is better than later.
This assumption has contributed to the trend in our nation’s kindergartens to push academics – like getting kids to read early – at the expense of the free play, self-directed learning and exploration that used to make up the bulk of a kindergartener’s day. As Christopher Brown, University of Texas professor of Early Childhood Education framed it, “Across the country, kindergartners are being told what to do and how to do it, every single step along the way, all day long. They play less and study more than they did 20 years ago. This is what kindergarten has become, and it’s not a good thing.”
There is much research to support Professor Brown’s view. Yes, studies indicate that this academic redirection of the kindergarten focus does produce initial successes in academic performance. But the successes are temporary, and studies also clearly indicate that by mid-elementary grades, these academic advances disappear. For example, a large-scale German study compared the graduates of 50 play-based kindergartens with the graduates of 50 academic-based kindergartens. After initial academic gains of the academic-based kindergarteners, by grade four the children from the academic-based kindergartens performed significantly worse on every measure that was used in comparison to those from the play-based kindergartens.
This study, and many others, indicate that, along with lower performance in academics, those who attended academic-based kindergartens also had more social and emotional challenges through the rest of their academic careers, and even into adulthood. Boston College research professor Peter Gray put it this way, “Perhaps more tragic than the lack of long-term academic advantage of early academic instruction is evidence that such instruction can produce long-term harm, especially in the realms of social and emotional development.”
The skills and qualities that so many educators, parents, and research say are the foundation of academic success – initiative, problem-solving, invention, persistence, resilience, grit – the very skills that are developed in play-based kindergartens, are what is being lost in our academic-based kindergartens.
There are those in early childhood education who recognize the above trends. In response, they are actively working to provide an alternative kind of kindergarten that puts the “garden” back in kindergarten. Called Nature or Forest Kindergartens, with roots in Europe and now found in many locations in the US, advocates of these Nature- and play-based kindergartens (and preschools) recognize that, along with the loss of play and self-directed learning, academic-based early childhood programs tend to alienate children from the natural world.
These Nature Kindergarten advocates believe that the original image of the kindergarten, the “children’s garden,” has been replaced by academic-based programs that only deepen what is sometimes called the “indoor-ification” of early childhood. A preoccupation with academics and testing; an over-fascination with and over-use of technology; less, or no time for play, recess, art and music; the increased use of worksheets – is why many parents, early childhood educators and pediatric health practitioners believe that there truly is a kindergarten crisis in America. Children aren’t playing in the garden; instead, they are ardently filling in bubbles on worksheets.
So, as full-day kindergarten is being debated and considered, I urge Governor Polis, our elected representatives, as well as those who work in early childhood education, to incorporate early childhood education research findings and Nature Kindergarten philosophy into what the kindergartens in Colorado – whether they be full-day or half-day – will look like. Play, self-directed learning, exploration, Nature – these need to be the focus of Colorado’s young children’s kindergarten experience. Please, put the garden back in Colorado’s kindergartens.
where we do in Beulah is the easy opportunities for walking. We walk in all seasons, and know that even in the coldest of conditions, all it takes is the right warm clothes to make for a good walk.
Eating together: When the kids were little, eating together was an important part of our family life.
Chores: We find doing chores together makes the work easier.
Just a few months before we met, Dave did his first public performance at his high school (Brooklyn Tech) after abandoning the plan to become a professional football player (his not-quite 5’7″ stature had something to do with this abandonment) and setting his sights on a music career. Helene’s vocals led to the two-part harmony that became one of the 
We’ve been talking about how to honor and celebrate our 40 year wedding anniversary (which we cannot even believe we are saying “forty”). We originally thought we would take 40 days off (one for each year), but that did not work out with our work schedules. So we grew that idea into creating the “40-Day LoveFest,” which will consist of doing something special each day for 40 days to celebrate these 40 magical years, including taking time each day to remember the years, the ups and downs, the memorable moments and more!
Helene and Dave on July 10, 2016 in Wild Rivers National Monument in northern New Mexico.
(Not only Nature subjects, but business subjects too – running a successful Nature Retreat business requires both.) And, most important of all, Ursula got to rekindle her own connection to Nature before she flew back to her busy life in the Pittsburgh area of Pennsylvania.
I am always moved by accounts of how Muir’s love of wild places was such a driving force in all that he did. I especially appreciate the story about Muir’s meeting of Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was 1871, Emerson was 68, Muir 33. In spite of Emerson’s entourage, who were concerned about the old man’s health, Muir begged Emerson to spend more time with him in Yosemite and camp in a grove of big trees, sleeping on the ground. “You are yourself a Sequoia. Stop and get acquainted with your brethren…It will do you good.” I love this – encouraging the old man to stay and spend time among his brethren, big old Sequoia trees. Emerson’s acolytes prevailed, and Emerson went on his way. Even so, Emerson considered Muir one of the most inspiring people he had ever met. Thanks to good books, I too consider John Muir one of my most inspiring and influential people.
Along with being fun, summer camp can be one of the most valuable experiences that a young person can have. Jude talked about learning to use friction to start a fire and how his shelter, built out of sticks and pine needles, was a bit small for sleeping. Beyond the wilderness skills, he talked about how he ran out of lunch snacks because he ate all of them on the first day, and how tired he was on the last night because he was up so late the nights before, and how there was this kid who could burp really loud, like at 50 decibels. He said that he wasn’t at all scared when a thunderstorm rolled through just as he was falling asleep on the first night, but some other campers were, and so he told them that thunder couldn’t hurt them, but that they should always be on guard about lightning.
This morning, I ran into a Mom who sent her son to many of the camps that I used to oversee when I ran an environmental education center. Her son is now finishing up college, with a major in environmental studies. She said she was just talking to him about his college experience, and what kind of jobs he is looking at, and how pleased they both are about the direction he took with his education. She said that her son always mentions that the summer camps he attended had a lot to do with why he decided to major in environmental studies, and also why he now loves to backpack, and hike, and spend time in Nature. She said he is an activist for the environment, and summer camp had a lot to do with why.
