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Childhood's End: Growing Up Too Fast
Something is lost when little red wagons and mud pies make way for worksheets and tests.
by M. Jones
Credit: Indigo Flores
She waltzes into my room on winged feet -- all 3 feet and a bit of her, with a pixie cut and huge brown eyes. She is Katy (not her real name), and she is in the first grade. As everyone else settles down, Katy twirls in a dizzying display of excess energy. She is wearing her favorite outfit -- a rainbow poncho and a tiara with pink feathers. The rest of the class sits on the rug, crisscross applesauce. They stare up at me expectantly. Katy is trying to lie across my lap and peer up into my face. She slithers down, bounces up again, and moves to her desk to see what treasures might be in her backpack. Her bottom has never touched her chair. I invite her back to the group and sit her right next to me -- her favorite place in the room.
A little young, I tell myself on the first day. Not ready for first grade and the rigors of state standards. I'm new to the school so I do not know her history. Perhaps she's just young for her age. I can't help thinking someone dropped the ball here. She's a kindergartner dressed in first-grade clothing.
When I check her file in the office, I am dumbfounded by an inch-thick IEP folder. This is not good news. An Individualized Education Program usually signals some serious area of concern. The plan spells out goals for the student and how the teacher will monitor and assess the accomplishment of those goals. Benchmarks are set. Meetings are held. I've never had a first grader with an IEP. Most students come equipped with a slim folder holding their vaccination records and birth certificate. What could possibly be wrong with this girl that warrants this level of scrutiny?
The answer: nothing. She has an older brother with a learning disability and anxious parents who want to make sure Katy doesn't "fall through the cracks." I keep reading, looking for a diagnosis, some indication that there is something wrong with this sprite. But the only thing I see is that she "doesn't know her entire alphabet." She can't write all her numbers to thirty. She's "inattentive" during instruction.
There is nothing wrong with Katy except that she is a kindergartner deprived of kindergarten. Ten years ago she would have been in the dress-up corner in front of the mirror, draping feather boas across her thin shoulders. But on this particular day, she's a first grader with an IEP and goals that are unattainable for someone at her stage of development. She will go to special classes three times a week to make up for her "deficits." She will continue to smile boldly, but soon she will start to wonder what is wrong with her. She will leave our classroom three times a week and trudge, not dance, down to room 15. She will start to feel the weight of those goals. The benchmarks will pinch just a bit.
Katy is not my first kindergartner. In the past five years, as expectations have continued to expand at each grade level, teachers have scrambled to help students feel successful. A good proportion of my class is not at grade level. They are taking multiple-choice tests and filling in bubbles with the anxiety of their older siblings. We throw around terms like "algebra" and "response to literature" to six-year-olds who are barely decoding words. We push and cajole and yes, sometimes secretly curse the child with her head in the clouds. We are accountable. We are observed. Our jobs may depend on the ability of our students to understand the subtle distinction between strategies like "predict" and "infer."
There is no kindergarten. It has gone the way of the little red wagon and mud pies. The time when children learned how to go to school, how to use a tricycle, or wait their turn on the swing is gone. These were important skills -- vital to success in the grades to come. We do not have time to teach them now. We have worksheets that need completing. We have take-home books to copy and homework packets to staple. We have accountability.
I look down at Katy while she copies the words from the whiteboard. Every now and then, she holds up her paper for me to see, and smiles. I love how the light dances off the rhinestones on her tiara. And I wonder how long it will be before someone tells her that she can't wear hats in class and she can't dance in the hallways. I will miss the pink feathers and rainbow poncho. But while she is mine, I will dance around the rules just a little and find places for her to stand, not sit. I will teach her what I can to the best of my ability. I will hold off, as long as I can, the weight of the file that dogs her footsteps. And I'll look for a rainbow poncho of my own to remind me that the Katys of this world just might be on the brink of extinction.
Childhood's End: Growing Up Too Fast
Submitted by Joy A. (not verified) on July 21, 2008 - 16:13.
As a preschool teacher I feel I am responsible for teaching four year-olds what they would have learned in kindergarten. We talk about how to be a friend, accepting each other’s diversity, sharing, how to walk down the hall, understanding right from wrong, improve our color and shape recognition, how to sit in a group, and more. I even feel pressure to teach them the alphabet (recognition and sounds). Parents are concerned if their child does not know all the letters of the alphabet before kindergarten. This goes to show teachers are not the only ones feeling the pressure for children to perform beyond their developmental levels. I am afraid for my "Katys" that I watch move on to kindergarten, realizing they will have to grow up too fast next school year, as they are expected to learn to read, perform formal arithmetic, and so much more they are not ready for. I have kindergarteners visit my classroom and say how much they miss being able to play at school. When I hear this I am sadden, realizing they should still be “playing” as they learn in kindergarten.
Middle school intervention English
Submitted by Kacie (not verified) on July 11, 2008 - 20:16.
After reading this blog it reminded me of my students. I teach middle school intervention English and I was surprised to see the similarities between little Katy and my own 7th and 8th graders. They are pushed through the system with huge gaps in education. They are also required to take state mandated tests in the same manner as other mainstreamed students. It is not fair, and I feel as though my hands are tied. There is also the issue of closing the gaps, but they lack such skills as simply sitting still, and now I am responsible for teaching them the difference between a predicate and a noun. I do funthings in class to grab their attention and help them learn. Other teachers are upset with me because they claim that is not the norm and I am setting them up with a false sense of security. The only security I need to give them is safety in my class and an ability to be a better learner.
cover up
Submitted by Maurice Frank (not verified) on June 27, 2008 - 10:15.
The long term wrecking effect on life, of having wild expectations attached to you, and spending your school-age life with unattainable objectives and constantly seen as offending by letting them down. The accounts that survivors can tell, of the outcome upon the rest if your life of having teachers with this greedy fanatical attitude, are being deliberately excluded from the media and politics. Parents are being deliberately barred from realising the danger before it happens.
Learning to play...Playing to learn...
Submitted by Retired Kindergarten teacher (not verified) on May 17, 2008 - 19:05.
As a recently retired Kindergarten teacher, I now have the time to look back at the students I taught. I often get feedback from these students. They don't talk about the worksheets they did, but about the fun they had dancing around a Maypole, learning lessons in a tent, or making all kinds of things out of recycled milk caps or odd pieces of cardboard. Did they learn math, reading, and writing? Yes, but in the everyday fun ways that are life.
It is heartbreaking to see the things that are mandated and the time frames that are set for these young children. I now see these young children being forced out of that precious time of just being a child. I see children under pressure to measure up to something that should be beyond their present developmental stage in life. Perhaps the people who are setting these new standards should take some time to just sit and watch children in free play. It should be easy to see that they are very successful being exactly who they are...children.
Playtime Lost
Submitted by Eugenia (not verified) on July 22, 2008 - 20:09.
As a Kindergarten teacher, I feel a lot of pressure from my school district to have my students reading and writing by the end of the school year. If I feel this pressure, then my students must be feeling it twice as much. They are expected to do so much more than they used to at their age. It is more like first grade instead of Kindergarten. In my school district, a high percentage of families hold their children back a year before enrolling them into Kindergarten. One of the reasons for this is due to the high expectations and demands they know that their five year old will face. They don't want their child to feel left behind. It is sad to see that playtime, art projects, and recess time is being cut down each year. Some students are just not ready to read and write and the age of five. I think that it is time to slow things down and allow the students to socialize and practice basic skills such as cutting, gluing, correct pencil grip, etc. I try my best to make time for these things, but it is very difficult with the amount of assessments and curriculum that needs to be covered.
Lessons to be learned from Scandinavian education
Submitted by George Peternel (not verified) on May 5, 2008 - 06:45.
The Scandinavian countries have the highest literacy rates in the world, yet they don't start formal reading instruction until well beyond Kindergarten. Perhaps there are some lessons to be learned from their successes.
There are many areas of our curriculum that we have traditionally deferred to later grades that we ought to teach sooner, but cramming what was once first grade into Kindergarten seems misguided. We have some rethinking to do.
Childhood's End: Growing Up Too Fast
Submitted by "Old School" (not verified) on May 5, 2008 - 05:55.
"The Good Old Days!! :-0) I love all of your posts. Grandma, keep flying kites with those kiddies. Twenty years from now long after they've forgotten about their DIBELS score in Kindergarten, they remmeber the love they felt sharing the wind with you!
Yes. I too was an elementary child of the 60's and 70's. I attended Kindergarten at four years old (before age cutoffs) in 1965. We had fun. But, fun then meant enjoyment, learning how to "work with others", learning empathy, hearing classic stories, watching PBS, making nice things for our parents. Oh, there was one thing we were tested for......learning to tie our shoes!
I too am a teacher. I constantly hear the calls for research-based decision making. data-driven decision making and standards. Somehow this all this research and data has really become a way for politicians to bash our schools and teachers. Since the dawn of the standards movement, teachers have gradually phased out more and more fun activites because they have too little time and are wary of being belittled or worse.
Yes, an earlier post summarized beautifully...they only have 12 to 18 years to be kids and 60+ years to be adults. Let's allow them to at least have the first couple of years as true children of their imaginations, impulsive creative moments, playfull intuition and time to learn by doing and exploring their world without red pens or tests!!!!!
Childhood ends...
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on April 28, 2008 - 11:14.
I have a "katy", she is my daughter. She is creative, emotional, caring. She has so much knowledge to share and knows an awful lot for 7 BUT she is struggling to read. She is in the process of getting an IEP....mainly because as a parent I need to play the "legislative game"...I have had the testing done....the results were and I quote "She is consistently inconsistent."
You know there are days I am consistently inconsistent and I have managed to live a successful life so far....We could all do a bit better with some "consistently inconsistent" days.....unfortunately we have benchmarks, AYP scores, tests, practice tests, testing of tests and of course the ever present comparisons to other countries globally.
I wish the best for all the "Katys" of the world because without them we lose our zany, creative, empathetic creatures who offer us our light and life and bubbling fountains of love and zaniness. Long Live the Katys!
Childhood Ends
Submitted by C. Christian (not verified) on April 27, 2008 - 06:03.
Lets see, when I went to kindergarten, we learned but we also had fun. It was the early 70's, Sesame Street was part of our lessons we sat in the rug and watched Big Bird teach us our letters, the Count taught us our numbers. Our teacher, was a blessing, she taught us the most important things, get along, share, put your things in the cloak closet, wash your hands and color in the lines.
Some how I have been able to complete Elementary School, Middle School and High School, as well as College.
We need to take our children back to kindergarten not this accelarted 1st grade. Not only are we failing our children academically, we are failing them socially. If our children didn't have the academic pressures so early we could teach them the social/emotional and behavioral lessons they are so greatly lacking. Thus ending classes such as EBD. Without the social directions our children need the Special Education system is being overwhelmed. If they do not understand the social expectations, there is no way that a student can be expected to grow in ability in any area.
We need to let our children be children and Damn the Accountability and the Testing.
Childhood Ends
Submitted by Debra Phillips (not verified) on July 22, 2008 - 14:17.
I was a kindergartener in the early 70's and I can remember having a wonderful time playing dress up, house, and the occasional rehearsing my numbers and letters. It was a time for me to get to know my friends as well as get to know myself as a person. I have been a kindergarten teacher for seven years and when I first began teaching, my classroom was equipped with a home living center, music center, puzzle exploration, and a reading loft. All of those things have disappeared to make room for the "old time way of first grade" items. We no longer have a free choice time for the children. I do try to remember that my students are just five and six year olds and they are still babies. As often as possible, I try to allow a little "down time" for them to explore the items around them as well as explore themselves as I was allowed to do. I hope one day we will be able to replenish our kindergarten classrooms with more age appropriate items and promote self-exploration to our babies.
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