Did you memorize word lists and take tests in kindergarten? Probably not, but kindergartners in US schools today do. Clearly, not a very fun experience, but is such a direction pedagogically sound? Christopher Brown, early childhood educator and researcher, former kindergarten teacher, and father of three recent kindergartners, evaluates the changes in kindergarten curriculum in this April 2016 post on The Conversation.
Read it here: Brown, “Kindergartners get little time to play. Why does it matter?”
- Why does Brown think kindergartners should have more play-based activities in school? What reasons does he give? Do you find his arguments persuasive? Why or why not?
- For his research, Brown spoke with “a range of kindergarten stakeholders” that included children, teachers, and parents; his essay includes statements by two teachers and two students. Should he have included statements by parents? By administrators? Why or why not? Explain your reasoning.
- Brown explicitly poses the question, “why does this matter?” Chapter 7 of your text demonstrates some of the moves an author might use to answer such a question. How well does Brown utilize the tools of the chapter to establish why it matters that kindergarten doesn’t incorporate enough play time into the school day? Why do you think so? Identify a passage that follows one of the template suggestions (either closely or loosely).
- You’re a long way from kindergarten, but as a student, effective learning is surely important to you. Brown mentions techniques such as “exploratory learning” and peer interactions. Could those techniques be applied to assist your own learning process? Why or why not? What would an innovative learning opportunity be for you? What might you and your classmates do in order to enhance your learning? What might be helpful for instructors to do? Write an essay in which you address these questions and explore the possibilities of different techniques for a more effective learning experience.
They Say I Blog 
Two questions arise from Christopher Brown’s post that is not touched upon to the degree that it should. Throughout Brown’s sort of call to action about the injustice in the school system for kindergarten students he asserts that children are overworked because they only have 15 minutes of recess, but hours of challenging work without break. Brown denounces the possible counter that this is the proper way children should be prepared for the stress of a future job. While I do think Brown is correct in saying that children should have more breaks, I just cannot accept the following overriding assumptions: Children slave tirelessly throughout the entire duration of class to complete consecutive tasks and recess is scientifically proven to improve focus in children. When I was a kindergarten student we got to school early and played on the playground before class, then while in class we did creative assignments that felt like more playtime. While I have not examined a kindergarten class since 2005 I do know for a fact that parents are very involved with the activities in the classroom, this means that if in fact there is a flaw in the way the class is run, then the problem would be solved by excessive concern and complaints by involved parent volunteers. Even if the involved parents don’t act up, the children will, and in this age of loosened disciplinary action in the school system children have a sort of democracy in the classroom that allows them to ask the common teacher for a break that doesn’t necessarily have to be on the playground. Break time is what children need, but recess is what they ask for. Break time from the stress of a complicated lesson can be remedied by having a short talk break in class or something along those lines. The simple fact is that children want to be entertained as do most average Americans, but entertainment is made in infinitely more ways than recess. I just think that the idea that children need recess and don’t have enough time to catch their breath in the classroom is overstated.
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In the article he makes a great argument about the kids having alot of work and enough play time. I think as a starter in school you should always start low as in not having a lot of work on you and just doing the things that are required. I think the kindergartens should not have to do as much work as the give everyday. In the article he says that the kids do work until the last hour of the school day and then they have free time, i think that is way too much especially for 5 or 6 year old they are so used to doing what they want and adapting to doing work for 5 or 6 hours a day could be hard for them because they are starters and it might take a while for some students to get used to it. Some students want to be entertained they want learning to fun they dont want to sit at a desk for many hours just doing work.
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I agree with you Mr. Brown. In today’s world we focus so much on preparing our children for the future. Preparing for jobs or college. Kindergarten is such a big part in everyone’s life , its the starting point. Its where you learn to make friends and to share. With so much pressure put on kids to excel at a young age it does impact the minds of the kids. Either for the good or the bad. It gives kids th4e impression that at 5 or 6 learning is a lot and it molds their minds into thinking “school, its too hard and i cant do it” at such a young age i feel as though we should be preparing our kids on being kids.
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I completely agree with this article. I believe that the most effective way to learn is hands-on, that really goes for younger students, because if you can get a child to actually do that they are trying to learn or try to get them involved they will most likely pick it up and they will be interested with the topic. Constantly giving test and classwork can take away from that.
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I agree with this article completely. As a parent of two children one who is diagnosed with ASD this worries me a lot. My child doesn’t learn like everyone else and at that age the pressure shouldn’t be “how much” is learned but just to learn period. You want to create a caring environment that fosters the growth of knowledge. I feel that by putting so much pressure on teachers to pass test creates a stressful environment where kids a forced to grow up sooner than they should have to
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in my opinion I believe that is a very good thing to get a ahead start on your child’s education because at that age it is very crucial that they get in as much as they can. however I do not believe that very little play time is involve. although education is key, so Is communication and sharing skills at that age and if being in kindergarten is the only interaction they have with other kids then its very important that they get that in. if you want to make sure that they’re learning more out of it make a learning game that would engage them. not only will they learn new things they’ll also get to interact with kids their own age and that is important as well.
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This article really upsets me. I worked in a day care for two years which also had a kindergarten class. I was mainly with the two and three year olds but here and there I got to be with the kindergarten class. It was a private school so we didn’t have as much work for the kids as this school did. We had a good amount of outside time depending on the weather. We would be outside for half an hour to an hour in the morning and the same in the afternoon. If the weather was bad and we couldn’t go outside, we still gave them that time to play inside. We also did a lot of hands on learning such as the sensory table. I am no longer pursuing a career as a teacher but it still makes me sad that these kids aren’t getting enough time outside. I think many people see it as just a break for these kids but they are still learning outside. They learn what their physical capabilities are and how to play with others. They learn social interaction while outside with others. We are putting so much stress on these kids at such a young age. What I learned at the day care is that each child is completely different. They all learn in different ways and different paces. We need to stop putting so much pressure on these kids to learn everything right away and to grow up. We need to give them more time to just be kids.
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I honestly think it’s great that they’re trying to put as much knowledge as they can into the younger generation. I believe it will help them develop good productive working skills at an early age that will help them tremendously as they grow older. Also, I believe teaching them this amount of knowledge will help them as they progress and will provide room to learn new things. Things that they probably wouldn’t be able to learn if they didn’t previously learn the other information at a young age. But, I do think recess and play time is a very important role in a kindergartners life. Recess helps build and create other skills that younger children need to learn at that age.I think if they divided the learning and the play time equally it will be more beneficial for the younger generation.
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Reading this article I come in with some background knowledge in the subject. During my senior I took Foundations of Education, which in the class I was working in a preschool with 3 and 4 year olds. I think that the academic side of kindergarten is extremely important to the success of a child as they progress throughout their educational career. Even in a preschool environment, everyday kids would be learning by all different means. They weren’t just learning academics though they were also developing the other aspect of education people forget about and that is the emotional/social aspect. When these children work in groups they are not only learning the material they are learning about working with another person. Kindergarten for some is the first time a child is away from their mom or dad for a extended period of time. It is the first time they are thrown into a setting where they don’t know anyone. This forces them develop social skills and basically learn how to make friends. In regards to the way the kids are taught, at that young age having them sit behind a desk and do work is damn near impossible. Instead teachers will use lessons plans that are more hands on. Things that involve the senses, such as hearing a song, feeling different things, or even pronouncing words, the more sense that are involved the more likely it is the child is going retain the knowledge. Overall it is a well written article that really makes a person take a step back and acknowledge the world we live in today. We live in a society of competition. We are pushing are kids more academically in younger grades then ever before. Kids still play, but now they are also playing and learning.
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Reading this article actually upset me more than I thought it would. I have a 4 month old daughter, and knowing that this is the direction the school system is going makes me scared for her. I also told my wife about this article and she was also taken back by it. I feel like kindergarten is way to early to be pushing the rules so hard. The writer made a great point about children exploring their boundaries and surroundings, and by having so many rules in place it’s going to inhibit that natural instinct. I understand wanting to get the most out of education for our children, and wanting them to do well and be smart; but this is starting to get out of hand. I did very poorly in school, and I had a hard time with the structured nature of it. I think if I was in school, I would do even worse. This a great article that needs to be looked at closer.
As a slight side note. I think the education system as a whole needs a re-evaluation as well. Just yesterday I was reading another article that the CDC published, urging schools to push back school start times. Pre-teens and teens need a lot more sleep than they are getting as their bodies are growing, and the current school schedule is causing about 2/3 of the student population are suffering from chronic sleep deprivation. All told, they are children and society is forcing adult exceptions on them are a very early age.
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For reference, here is the article:
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6430a1.htm
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Brown believes that kindergartners should have more play-based activities in school because by engaging in hands-on academics helps them to learn more naturally and to have social interaction with other peers. I find this argument to be quite accurate in that kids of this age need to have some fun while learning otherwise the information will not stick and they will simply get bored or thrown off topic. In my opinion countless hours of math problems with no relaxation or fun is detrimental to a child’s learning experience because it goes against their natural desire to play and learn socially. Brown kept his research within the classroom by only interviewing teachers and students but I think that it may have been beneficial to interview the child’s parents in order to see how the child is learning and reacting at home. If the child is coming home with a negative attitude towards learning and the atmosphere is he/she is in all day that could be a tell-tale sign that the curriculum isn’t work as well as planned. Brown mentions that a strong focus on rules can diminish a children’s willingness to take academic risks and possibly impede self-confidence. I think these are crucial things learned at a young age and is a strong focal point in the article to backup his question of why it matters.
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I don’t agree with the way kindergarten is being taught today. I think that what they are trying to teach kindergarteners now is too much, and they should be learning simpler curriculum. I believe incorporating play time in, and sensory items are very important for a young child. Working in a preschool in my past I have seen this first hand. It is important to teach these children in an interactive way. By giving children recess and playtime, it gives the students a chance to take a mental break. Recess also helps them gain social skills. By not giving the kindergarteners recess it makes some students stop focusing after a while, because they need to move around and release their energy. By teaching students in a fun, hands-on way, they are more likely to be interested in what they are doing and learn more. Sensory tables and hands on learning are great for students, because at this age they learn more by interactive items, compared to them just sitting there taking information in. Also, each student learns differently, so you can’t teach the class information and expect the whole class to get it, because some students need the hands-on learning.
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I can not fathom how the school system works today. It is crazy that todays kindergarten is very different from when I was there, or even my brothers for that matter. I think that I they should slowly introduce the learning material and that it should be with in play. I think that by doing it the way they are doing it now will discourage kids from going to school.
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After reading this article i learned something. I havent been in kindergarten for a while. I remember it though like it was yesterday. All the fun times and making friends. I made some of my friends that i still have today there. To learn that kids are being pushed to learn more rather then learn about them self’s stinks. They are being over worked as little kids with young minds. They should have play time and more time for them self. They will have the time to learn when they are older. The kindergarten classes are to get them in a role of there selfs. I think if kids don’t get the time they need to grow and mature and get to know themselves. It will only lead to problems. I see where the academic program is coming from wanting more successful kids but the answer is not to drain them at a young age. I hope they get the matter figured out and they find a way for school to be fun for these kids. Also make the learning fun and not make the kids hate it or be bored or mentally drained. I dont agree with what they are doing and it upsets me this is the path the kindergarten program is going.
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I agree that kindergarten has been less and less “fun” and more teacher based. I think in a way this is bad because kids, especially at that age, need play. Play I feel allows kids to be imaginative as well as learn and taking this away from them might have consequences down the road. These kids might never learn or fully develop an imagination. Kids also might no longer find school fun but more tiresome. I do understand though the idea of more rigorous learning though. Overall, I feel that making kindergarten more rigorous, but at the same time, I feel that there needs to be a clear line between the sit-down and learn style, and the getup and play style of learning.
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I agree with Brown’s view on that kindergarten has become all work and little to no play. When I was in kindergarten it was very different. We were always playing with toys and always doing some type of craft and we would always do something fun to incorporate the learning. Now they are throwing a huge workload on these young kids and making them sit down and learn for hours. I don’t believe that this new curriculum will be effective because young kids need to get up and play and move around, not sit in a chair all day and learn material that is too much for them.
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This article is heartbreaking. As a kindergartener, kids should not feel so pressured to pass the grade. They should not be stressing about failing at such a young age. It is also ridiculous they have to take so many assessments. Kids also shouldn’t think that school is just to get to the next grade or to get a good job, they should be taught in a way that makes them love learning.
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I disagree with how kindergarten classes are today. At such young age, kids aren’t going to be willing to put forth effort if it’s all work, no play. Children need hands on activities to learn. Yes, it’s important to get to learn the basics, but kindergarten is the time where kids get to learn how to interact with others. Most kids don’t grow up around other kids their age. From personal experience, my sister went to kindergarten this year, and before this she didn’t have a lot of interaction with kids her age. Kids need to learn how to communicate. They need to learn how to share and act in an environment that’s not what they are accustomed to. Taking tests or assessments at that age is just wrong. It won’t make kids learn. It will push learning away. Kids should want to learn, and without the foundation a young child needs, that will never happen.
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I do believe children in Kindergarten should have more recess and play activities in the classroom. I believe this because they are still children and as children, they will not be able to focus on such rigorous learning material without some fun.
Maybe there can be the same learning material in the classroom but in a more active and fun way, so it feels as though the children are playing fun games and activities rather than sitting in a class for hours learning a subject.
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I agree with Brown’s view on that kindergarten has become all work and kids do not play anymore as I did when I was in kindergarten. Brown is surely right about the new curriculum because, it will not be effective for young kids. They need to learn by playing games with the other kids rather than sit in a chair and listen to the teacher for many hours.
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I agree that children these days have different educational systems than ours from my own experience I was in school that doesn’t provide this kind of system, while some schools have started following these educational systems. I remember the first day we started learning I was the only one that needs assistance and need to work harder than other students on my self which was too much for 6 years old child. When I talk with kindergartener children I can tell that they are way better than us and willing to learn they try reading the stores name, and they have beautiful knowledge compared to their age they also have more ability to learn things at this age. Even though they are having more things to learn they still teaching them in an attractive way with an interesting methods additionally, they learn that there is important things in life besides playing.
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In response to the first question, the author thinks that kindergartens today are too focused on the teacher-led instructions. It only helps the children to grow academically. However, play-based and child-centered learning activities help children to grow also emotionally and socially. Forcing kids to follow the rules and to learn many things at the same time might take away their willingness to face academic risks and curiosity. To play and to engage in hands-on learning activities allows children to combine what they have learned and what they just learned. They can learn to solve problems with their hands, to interact with peers, to deal with their emotions and being able to pay attention to the playing process. I find the author persuasive since children will have to experience academic pressure for at least 12 years after kindergarten. Instead of academic performances, what is more important is the experience of exploration which is not the major focus in the further education. Kids are supposed to be playing and should be allowed to learn naturally through life rather than just from teachers’ instructions
As for the second question, I think that it is fine for the essay to include only the statements from students and teachers. The teachers and children are the ones that are really undergoing the educating process. Parents often have too many anticipations toward their children. In response to that, the administrator might have changed the teaching model of kindergartens to meet parents’ anticipations. However, they are not truly involved in the process. We can see from the statements that the teachers changed their teaching method due to the pressure from others, nor do the kids enjoy the learning process. What truly matters are how the kids feel and how will they face the further studying based on the experience they get in kindergarten. Therefore, it is important and more neutral to hear only kids’ and teachers’ voices.
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Brown holds that kindergarteners should have more play-based activities in school because through these activities, children grow academically, socially and emotionally. They internalize new information and compare new information with old ones when engaging in hans-on learning activities. Besides, they learn how to interact and solve problems with peers in a natural way. It also allows kindergarteners to make sense of their emotional experience in and out of school. He also mentioned that with enough recess, it helps children to restore their attention for learning.
Focusing merely on rules can diminish children’s willingness to take academic risks and curiosity. Their self-confidence and motivation as learners might also be impeded. Replacing play-based activities can cause an opposite effect on their later academic performance.
I agree with his argument especially the point that he claims kindergartners can learn how to interact and solve problems naturally. It’s my belief that children will learn better and quicker from their own experience rather than being told by others. In addition, play-based activities allow them to “explore” the world and raise their curiosity, which lays a good foundation for later academic performance. I’m not saying that having academic knowledge in kindergarten is not crucial. I do agree that children should acquire some basic language and math skill, such as writing correct alphabets or counting money. However, the percentage of play-based activities should be more than academic knowledge learning. On top of that, teachers should not demand or be harsh on children’s academic learning. Through play-based activities or times with their family, they can also learn these things. To sum up, play-based activities are of great importance. They help children develop physically and mentally.
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In my opinion, I think it wouldn’t be a bad idea to include parent’s statements. After all, sometimes children are too young to be aware of the importance of academic knowledge learning. Compared to paying activities, doing math or writing journals are often less attracting. Therefore it’s natural that children would want more time to recess and play. Apart from that, parents also play irreplaceable roles on children’s education. However, children and teachers’ opinions should matter more seeing that the policy affects them directly. As for the administrators statements, I don’t think it necessarily because more often than not they don’t have kindergarteners at home so they won’t be aware of the seriousness of changing the curriculum.
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Brown thinks kindergartners should have more play-based activities in school because they help children grow academically, socially and emotionally. Focus on rules might lower children’s self-confidence, learning motivation, their willingness of takinf academic risks and curiosity. Next, children ca internalize new information while comparing to what they had already known, and it’s a chance for them to interact with others, also learn how to solve the problems when playing in hands-on learning activities. Last, children are able to learn how to controll their emotion in school.
I agree with author’s point of view. While engaging in the activities, children can explore more new knowledge or experiences. It’s important that children try to do or solve things by themselves instead of people tell what to do. Learing is exploring. Besides, through those interseting activities, children are able to learn thing faster and memorize it deeper.
I think it isn’t a bad idea to include parents’ statement. As the parents, they have the right to know about what’s goning on to their kids. It is possible to have a discussion on kids’ time schedule in kindergarten between teachers and parents for they both play important roles on kids’ education. Moreover, not all the parents agree with the patern of education in kindergarten today.
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I agree with Brown’s argument that kindergartners should learn from games or exploring instead of academic activities. Most kindergartners’ brains and coordination abilities still do not have a full development, so they find it difficult to handle a number of academic activities, such as reading books, coping words, memorizing vocabulary, and so on. As a result, children may scare to gain knowledge in future. On the other hand, using games for education can easily gather children’s interest, and they are more willing to participate in the activities. Through playing games with kindergartners, teachers can teach them to follow respective instructions, such as the game’s rules and placing orders. In addition, children can learn how to communicate with other classmates, which can help them to develop a well social life. Indeed, using interactive games to replace academic activities can reach the same goals that teaching students to maintain discipline and politeness. However, it can always enhance kindergartners’ learning interest, which is very important for their future educational path. According to Timothy D. Walker, he discusses the most successful educational system of Finland. He writes, “[Children] learn so well through play. They don’t even realize that they are learning because they’re so interested” (Walker). From this quotation, one can infer that children can gain much knowledge through playing with their teachers and classmates. In addition, they are always interested in learning by exploring, so they are curious about new knowledge and want to understand them. Since they have a good learning experience from kindergarten, they will not hesitate to gain academic concepts in future. This enhances the academic performance throughout the high school and college education. Therefore, Finland has the best educational system throughout the world. Since there are numerous advantages of gaining knowledge through playing games in kindergarten, I agree with Brown’s argument.
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Kindergarteners should have more playtime rather than work time while they are at school. Being five or six years old is such a young and tedious age to be learning. Drilling these young children to study most of their school day to excel in their school work is great but they also need time to develop on their own, as said in the article called, “Kindergarteners Get Little Time to Play, Why Does it Matter?” by Christopher Brown. Brown says, “Giving children a chance to play and engage in hands on activities helps them internalize new information as well as compare and contrast what they’re learning with what they already know.” The author is saying that giving the children the chance to interact with each other outside of work time amongst themselves gives them a chance to use the skills they learned in the classroom with each other. Learning to be social with their classmates is just as important as counting numbers and reading books. For example if a group of children are playing with blocks to build a house they might have to count the blocks in order to figure out how many they will need in order to make the house just right. They will be using social skills as well as mathematical skills to interact with each other. The young students will also be learning first hand skills that they will need and use the rest of their life. The students might even get the chance to learn something they would not have while having their playtime with the other young students. Students also have a better chance learning classroom material if they are given a couple of breaks in between and might lose their focus in the classroom if all they are doing is sitting at their desk and taking in material nonstop. Giving young students such as the five and six year olds in kindergarten more time to play instead of work is more beneficial for them than being forced to sit down and give their undivided attention to learning new class material.
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A powerful argument is made by Christopher Brown in his article on how kindergarten classrooms are now run in today’s society, vs. how kindergarten classrooms were ran about 20 years ago. He establishes his credibility by stating that he is a parent himself who has seen his three children go through kindergarten in recent years. As a mother of two, I agree with him on witnessing the level of difficulty and pressure placed on the shoulders of small children that I do not remember having when I was that age. I appreciate the insightful details he uses to support his opinion on this topic; like when he summarizes the importance play has on the academic, social and emotional brain development of a young child. It seems that we see eye to eye on this topic; however, the only upsetting part about it is the realization that this fix isn’t one that will come easy. Parents can’t simply reach out to their child’s teacher with ideas on how to possibly implement more play time into their day, while pleading with them about why this is so important. Brown offers a solution by proclaiming, “Policymakers, schools systems and schools need to recognize that the standards and tests they mandate have altered the kindergarten classroom in significant ways. Families need to be more proactive as well. They can help their children’s teachers by being their advocates for a more balanced approach to instruction.”
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I completely agree with you, Mr Brown. Well, Kindergarten is less and less “fun” and more teacher based. Really got a great article, I really like your well-written content, and thank you for putting in time and effort into your wonderful website.
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After reading article, i to see how different kindergarten is now as opposed to what it was when i was your younger. My child just started Pre K last week, and know what she will be learning when she goes to Kindergarten next year, is vital to me so that i know how to work with her during the summer. I think this will be of a great benefit for all kindergarten students to learn more , rather then just playing all day so that once they hit first grade they will be more prepared
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Why does Brown think kindergartners should have more play-based activities in school? What reasons does he give? Do you find his arguments persuasive? Why or why not?
Brown thinks kindergartners need more time to play because it would give them time to get out and get their focus away from the classroom. he states it is not for them to get out of work but yet to get the energy out of them so that when they come back they are able to focus and put in work rather than be tired or bored of the many different exercises that they take part in. He stated how in the short 22 minute film he presented his research through that a teacher he interviewed even admitted that she is under pressure along with her students to participate at a higher rate of academic skill set.I find his argument very persuasive because while reading the passage my mindset changed completely due to the evidence and his research he shares. before reading this passage i would’ve said that recess is not that mandatory nor should it be a necessity but now after reading it i do agree completely with his argument. 5-6 year old can not be held in a room all day without having set breaks to go outside or even inside but take time away from work so that when they do work their minds are set to be focused at the right times.
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This article was very informative about how today’s kindergartners are overworked and not given enough play time. I agree with the author that teachers should use fun activities as method of teaching young children. Younger children have a hard time concentrating and remembering things. They are more likely to remember things if they associate learning with a feeling of enjoyment. I also agree that kindergartners should have more recess time. A young child needs to relax and play to have a fresh mind ready for learning again.
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Brown thinks kindergardens should have more play-based activies in school after he intervied kindergardeners and kindergarden stakeholders. Researchers say it helps restore their attention for learning in class. Even though students and teachers know it is important to have academic learning they feel they need free time to recharge themselves. Played based learning also gives students the room to grow and a desire to learn, which will hell them have a better out look of school. I believe Brown’s argument is persuasive giving that he had research showing students did better and saw school better when they had more free time rather then having them learning almost every minute of the day. Also at the age of 5 and 6 thats a lot of information and pressure to have on a child at a young age it could mess up their performance in school and later in life.
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I believe that it is important that children get a strong basis of academics at this young age because it allows them to build on this foundation further on in their educational career. However, too much pressure on students who are 5-6 years old is completely unnecessary and will not result in an ideal outcome for these young learners.
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I agree with the article that children are being worked too hard and barely have time to be children. Brown mentions that giving children time to play helps communication skills with peers.Also, allowing children to play gives them skills to figure out their emotions in and outside of school. Brown’s article is very persuasive because I agree to all his reasoning with th importance of playtime over work.Children should be allowed to play because they are children, and playtime is crucial on their development.
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This article takes a deep look into Kindergarteners daily schooling life and the results are shocking. As far as I can remember my kindergarten schooling was a equal amount of work and play. Brown’s belief is that having a good amount of play helps students grow academically, socially, and emotionally. Focusing on rules can deter students from taking academic risks as well diminishing curiosity. I agree with Brown’s argument because not only does focusing on schooling somewhat negatively effect a student, its adds incredibly amount of stress on a teacher. Its shocking that children need to be brought up in such intense schooling when schooling should be funned interesting.
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I agree with this article in how it is stating that kindergartners are being taught to learn in a way where elementary, middle school, high school, and college students are being taught all the while not having the option to have fun and play. Being forced to learn like their older peers causes the kindergartners to realize that they have to change their mindset in how they must learn. Changing the way a kind works and memorizes is difficult in itself because many subjects require different ways of learning. It is understandable that people may think that being in school means that a student should not be playing around and should be taught as much as possible, but it would be different for kindergartners. Kindergartners are at a prime age where playing allows them (the kindergartners) to “…recharge…themselves…” (Brown). Recharging allows the kindergarteners to take in more knowledge so that they are better equipped for testing in which the teachers expect them to do. Kindergartners expect to be taught, but they themselves also expect to have fun and exercise. Having fun and exercising is not a priority because kindergartners have to learn a great deal of knowledge in which would prepare them for higher levels and more in depth knowledge. Having kindergarteners constantly work and have very little play may cause the kindergartners to possibly build up so much knowledge that they may not be able to comprehend what they are being taught which would ultimately inhibit them from learning as much as they could. By playing and having fun, the kindergartners are unconsciously sorting out and understanding the information they were just taught. This would allow the teacher to further teach the kindergartners information and adding on to previous ideas in which were already taught. Ironically, playing and taking breaks gives the kindergartners the time they need to sort out and understand what they were taught all the while not actually physically learning.
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Christopher P. Brown argues that policymakers, schools’ systems and schools should give kindergarteners and teachers less academic burden and more free learning exploration. At first, the author claims that both children and teachers are under much pressure to perform highly in schools. He states that while teachers are required to cover the material and assess their students regularly for multiple assessments, children are expected to learn to follow rules and learn for the sake of getting to the next grade and finally finding a job. To further his argument, the author insists that not only play-based and child-centered learning activities help children grow academically, socially and emotionally but recess also helps children restore their attention for learning in class. He emphasizes that rules can diminish children’s willingness to take academic risks and hinder their self-confidence and motivation as learners. Instead of supporting the elimination of academics in kindergarten, the author urges that children deserve free learning exploration which nurtures their development and their desire to learn and interact with others.
I’m of two minds about Brown’s claim that children and teachers should be given less academic pressure and more free learning exploration. On the one hand, I agree that policymakers and schools should set appropriately academic expectation on children and teachers. Impractically high performance on many different assessments demands more time for teachers to instruct and for children to study, which results in less time for recess. On the other hand, I’m not sure if children should be allowed more free learning exploration. For kindergarteners, they are at such a young age that they may not know what to do or may get out of control without their teachers’ instructions. I think teachers are able to manage their classrooms with some basic rules and help children learn and understand better by showing them clear instructions, and children are expected to follow them for better learning experience.
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Christopher P. Brown does a good job at covering the basic problem with kids not having enough playtime. In our society we are trying to speed up the process of academic achievements and we are trying to figure out how get the ball rolling with kids as young as 5 or 6 years old. We fail to realize that letting children interact and explore on their own is just as helpful in development as academic work. We are trying to push high standards on to kids so that they can succeed in life when they are older. But we fail to realize that they are not going to like the idea of 8 hours of work and little time to play. And when you instill something like this so early on in a child’s life, you are not giving them time to adapt to this lifestyle and you are not giving them time to grow and learn about what really works for them. Kids are like sponges if you throw something small at them, they are going to absorb it. But if you throw too much at them, they are going to be overwhelmed and they are not going to fully understand what is being thrown at them. When children have a bad experience with something, they are less likely to want to try again and they are going to be turned off from the idea. Kids having time to play is a way for them to build social skills. They get to have time to interact with their peers, it gives them a chance to learn how to communicate with other people and how to deal with situations. As Christopher stated, play time helps children grow emotionally and helps them focus in class better. Furthermore, Kids need time to just be a kid. They have years to go to focus on their academics, why not just let they enjoy being a kid.
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