Patrik Jonsson, The
Christian Science Monitor, December 8, 2005
Barely 5 years old, Edgar Padilla can accurately draw bar graphs and
create "A-B" patterns of geometric shapes. He discusses the finer points
of underwater photography. He occasionally infuses his sentences with the
word "meta-cognition," to the confoundment of some adults (including this
one).
Precocious and tousle-haired, young Edgar may be unusually smart for his
age, but his prowess with numbers and language is hardly exceptional: He,
in many ways, reflects the rigors and reality of the "new" kindergarten.
Once upon a time, being 5 was all about learning your colors and how to
tie your shoes without making a square knot. Today it's more apt to be
about deconstructing sentences, performing not-so-simple addition and
subtraction, and even learning the rudiments of a foreign language.
Across the country, the accountability movement in education and near
obsession with academic excellence is filtering down to the level of the
jungle gym and nap-time rug. School districts are pushing students to new
levels as a growing body of research indicates the importance of early
learning and the demands of a competitive world close in on the American
classroom.
To many, the emphasis on academic performance at very young ages is a
positive trend that will boost the nation's educational system. But others
worry it ratchets up the academic arms race and places too much
responsibility on the backs of America's youngest students, at a time when
many still put their coats on inside out.
"There's a lot of research indicating that the early years are learning
years," says Alan Simpson, director of the National Association for the
Education of Young Children in Alexandria, Va. "But too much too soon can
be a real problem for children and schools."
The trend has been around for several years, but has accelerated as
testing has forced many schools to start preparing students at the
earliest levels. At the same time, many children now attend advanced
preschools, which makes them ready for more than just coloring within the
lines by the time they hit kindergarten. Fully 60 percent of children also
go to kindergarten full time, giving them more time to master basic math
and reading - something once reserved for first- and second-graders.
"What we're seeing is really the Baby Mozart approach," says Pat Nadeau,
an expert at the Erikson Institute for early childhood development in
Chicago. "You just keep stuffing information in and assume the child is
going to wind up better, smarter, and able to leap tall buildings in one
leap."
As the kids in Dawn Lewis's kindergarten class show, they are capable of a
lot more than molding Play-Doh. Here in Thomasville, a working-class town
in North Carolina's furniture belt, students are engaged in a "Bright
IDEAS" program developed by a professor at Duke University in Durham.
Below wall posters of bar graphs and pie charts, one kindergartner writes
a descriptive sentence about a platypus. Mary-Kate Miller is more curious
about Hadiya Monk's braids. But when called upon, she stands up and
rattles off a complete sentence about how she's wearing an orange and blue
shirt, then mugs for the class.
As witnessed here, the yearning for learning is, as Edgar might say,
pervasive. When a photographer walks into the room, the kids swarm,
thinking momentarily it might be Norbert Wu, the famous lensman who took
the underwater fish pictures they've been talking about - also in required
complete sentences. In the spirit of Socrates, one class last year had a
debate about the methods of Michelangelo. Teachers say it came off
magnificently.
"It used to be all cut, color, and paste and no reading," says Ms. Lewis.
"Now these kids are busting through the ceiling."
The concepts sometimes fly over even parents' heads. "One mom came to me
and said, 'My child is telling me I need to manage my impulsivity - what
are you doing to my child?' " says Dawn Miller, another Thomasville
kindergarten teacher.
Yet many parents endorse the new regimen, noting how it expands their
childrens' learning and confidence. One mother, picking up her son, says
she saw huge gains in her child within just a few weeks. "I think this
class gives them an advantage other kids may not get," she says.
The Duke University pilot program is as much about teaching the capability
of learning as it is the nuts-and-bolts of subjects. The idea is to get
kids to follow their curiosity toward real knowledge. "One of our problems
nationally ... is that we don't have high expectations for our children,"
says Margaret Gayle of the American Association of Gifted Children in
Durham, N.C. "This curriculum is immersing them in essential questions,
high concepts, outstanding vocabulary, and also intelligent behavior and
habits of mind."
But it's not an easy shift for students or teachers. After four years at
Thomasville, where about 70 percent of students qualify for free- or
reduced-price lunch, the program is still not ready to be rolled out for
all kindergarten classes in the district. Similarly, teachers in San Diego
this spring convinced the school board to scale back some of the
district's rigorous kindergarten initiatives.
What's more, while it's clear that young children have a large capacity
for learning - research shows they learn faster at 5 than any other age -
it's less certain whether all this early erudition has an impact in later
years. The French have universal preschool starting at age 3, but Swedish
children don't begin academic work until 6, sometimes 7. Studies show that
both populations end up doing just as well.
The problem is compounded by children trying to figure out what adults
want, at a time when they may not comprehend the mysteries of iridescent
fish. Researchers say that academic skills sometimes blossom overnight
between the ages of 5 and 7, but expecting too much from kids too early
can lead to failure and frustration. "The natural intuition that earlier
is better - the earlier the start, the better you finish - is the wrong
intuition," says David Elkind, a child-development expert at Tufts
University in Medford, Mass. "You can understand the pressures [on
schools, parents and educators], but it's still wrong."
Still, for the kids in Lewis's sun-filled class, the program seems an
unqualified success. Roberto Lopez creates his own patterns from cutout
pictures of bats and pumpkins. Other children ignore the assignment to
play with a camera or wander off to sleep in a corner.
"Some of these kids come from tough situations, but we now know they can
grow up to be doctors, lawyers, and professional photographers - and it's
up to us to help them believe they can," says Lewis.
