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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=edmiller@ziplink.net href="mailto:edmiller@ziplink.net">Ed Miller</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=care@yahoogroups.com
href="mailto:care@yahoogroups.com">care@yahoogroups.com</A> ; <A
title=ndsgroup@yahoogroups.com
href="mailto:ndsgroup@yahoogroups.com">ndsgroup@yahoogroups.com</A> ; <A
title=ARN-state@yahoogroups.com
href="mailto:ARN-state@yahoogroups.com">ARN-state@yahoogroups.com</A> ; <A
title=arn-l@interversity.org href="mailto:arn-l@interversity.org">ARN-L</A> ; <A
title=arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com
href="mailto:arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com">arn2-strategy</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, March 19, 2009 7:51 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [care] New Alliance report: "Crisis in the
Kindergarten"</DIV></DIV>
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<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 20pt"><FONT size=3>Please pass this
on to all who might be interested. --Ed Miller</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 20pt"><FONT
size=3>------------<WBR>-</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 20pt"><FONT
size=4></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 20pt"><FONT size=4>Kindergarten
Playtime Disappears, Raising Alarm About Children’s Learning and
Health<O></O></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN><O></O></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B>College Park, MD, March 20, 2009—</B><SPAN>Time for play
in most kindergartens has dwindled to the vanishing point, replaced by lengthy
lessons and standardized testing, according to results of three new studies
released today by the nonprofit <ST1><ST1>Alliance</ST1></ST1> for Childhood.
Classic play materials like blocks, sand and water tables, and props for
dramatic play have largely disappeared in the 268 kindergarten classrooms
studied. The findings are documented in <I>Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why
Children Need to Play in School.<O></O></I></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN><O></O></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Researchers from U.C.L.A. and Long Island University found
that, on a typical day, children in all-day kindergartens in Los Angeles and New
York City spend four to six times as much time in literacy and math instruction
and taking or preparing for tests (about two to three hours per day) as in free
play or “choice time” (30 minutes or less). <SPAN>A third research team, at
Sarah Lawrence College in New York, found that m</SPAN>ost of the activities
available to children during choice time (a popular euphemism for playtime) are
in fact teacher-directed and involve little or no free play, imagination, or
creativity.<SPAN><O></O></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN><O></O></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN>Child development experts have been raising alarms
about the increasingly didactic, test-driven, and joyless course of early
childhood education. “</SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: black">These practices, which
are not well grounded in research, violate long-established principles of child
development and good teaching,” states the <ST1><ST1>Alliance</ST1></ST1>
report. “It is increasingly clear that they are compromising both children’s
health and their long-term prospects for success in school.”<O></O></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black"><O></O></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black">The report summarizes recent
studies and reports showing long-term gains from play and focused, playful
learning in early education. It also critiques kindergarten standards, scripted
teaching, and standardized testing and makes recommendations for
change.</SPAN><SPAN><O></O></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN><O></O></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><ST1><SPAN>David Elkind</SPAN></ST1><SPAN>, author of <I>The
Power of Play,</I> calls the research findings “heartbreaking.” In a foreword to
the report, Elkind writes, “</SPAN>We have had a politically and commercially
driven effort to make kindergarten a one-size-smaller first grade. Why in the
world are we trying to teach the elementary curriculum at the early childhood
level?”</P>
<P class=MsoNormal><O></O></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>The full text of <I>Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children
Need to Play in School</I> is available at <A
href="http://www.allianceforchildhood.org/">www.allianceforchil<WBR>dhood.org</A>.</P></DIV>
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