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| Put the play back into early education
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Are we taking all the fun out of learning?
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by Sophie Cross
As competition in schools and society in general grows, young children in primary and preschool are being put under more and more pressure to learn faster, take tests for senior schools (and often junior schools too), get to grips early with reading, writing and maths.
With the two main objectives of preparation and "not falling behind", play-based early education has given way to more structured, formal teaching and we're in danger of taking all the fun out of learning and creating a generation of followers instead of inventors, creators and entrepreneurs.
Kids are now often expected, by their own families as well as by schools, to perform and achieve, not to enjoy themselves.
Yes, it's a competitive world. Yes, they'll need to get a good education to secure a job. Yes they will need to develop skills and a will to succeed, give their best, pass their HSCs etc., but quashing their creativity and independent spirit and denying enjoyment at such an early age cannot be good in the long term.
There's a lot of emphasis now on preparing for what's to come (i.e., Naplan tests and national benchmarking), as well as the fear of "falling behind" as an individual or as a school is such that children are pressured to excel early. Parents enquire about "gifted" classes and programs before their children have even started school.
So while expectations of children and teachers grows, early education seems to have reverted to more formal methods of teaching, removing the creativity, play and enjoyment.
This is the time when little ones are finding their own way, discovering their independence, characteristics, capabilities, likes and dislikes, confidence and sense of self. It's a time for nurturing creativity and individuality, as well as instilling a sense of enjoyment and love for school.
But while twenty years ago, children in preschool, kindergarten and even first and second grade spent much of their time learning through play with blocks, drawing, creating little worlds, role play and in many schools, play is giving way to old-school, almost draconian teacher-led instruction, not dissimilar to what they'll experience in high school.
This idea of starting as soon as possible seems more pressing in Australia, where children start school a year or more after European children do (Australia's compulsory school age is 6, except in Tasmania, whereas the UK's is 5), but in fact, many countries around the world don't start compulsory education until the age of 7 and in the most recent publication of results from the Program for International Student Assessment, several ranked significantly higher than countries such as the United States on maths, science and reading.
The fear of falling behind and need to prepare for benchmarking tests from Year 3 has, in many primary schools, led to a more "traditional" or "formal" form of teaching, but essentially it means teacher-centred instruction that requires children to sit still and listen quietly and attentively.
This is pretty boring for most young individuals, and only those who are genetically disposed to memorizing, mimicking the words of the teacher or repeating the ‘important points' of the lesson will succeed in this environment.
Those children who are more lively, fidgety or have shorter attention spans find this type of learning stifling and difficult and may be excluded. And often such children could be systematically diagnosed with a learning disorder or disability.
According to a recent article, a growing group of scientists, education researchers and educators say there is little evidence that this approach improves long-term achievement; in fact, it may have the opposite effect, potentially slowing emotional and cognitive development, causing unnecessary stress and perhaps even souring kids' desire to learn.
Nancy Carlsson-Paige, a professor at Lesley University in Cambridge, USA is described as saying that this trend is a "profound misunderstanding of how children learn."
She says she sees younger students floundering to comprehend instruction: "I've seen it many, many times in many, many classrooms - kids being told to sit at a table and just copy letters. They don't know what they're doing. It's heart-breaking", she says.
Lilian G. Katz, Professor Emeritus, U. of Illinois said that: "While early formal instruction may appear to show good test results at first, in the long term, in follow-up studies, such children have had no advantage. On the contrary, especially in the case of boys, subjection to early formal instruction increases their tendency to distance them selves from the goals of schools, and to drop out of it, either mentally or physically."
Those who don't adhere to this kind of education say that it will fail to produce innovators, entrepreneurs and business leaders and will merely produce people who are likely to be passive consumers of information, followers rather than inventors.
We need to encourage kids to invent, innovate, create and explore through play, because those people are the future of our country.
"Play is often perceived as immature behaviour that doesn't achieve anything," says David Whitebread, a psychologist at Cambridge University who spearheads the "too much too soon" campaign. He maintains that it's essential to their development.
The Too Much Too Soon campaign says that early childhood should be treated as a vital developmental stage in its own right - not merely as a preparation for school, but uniquely as a preparation for life.
Over the past 20 years, scientists have come to understand much more about how children learn. Jay Giedd, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Diego, says most kids younger than 7 or 8 are better suited for active exploration than didactic explanation. "The trouble with over-structuring is that it discourages exploration", he says.
While we can't necessarily change the way schools are now teaching, we can make an effort to encourage play and exploration at home, child care and pre-school.
As parents, we're often short of time and the temptation is to leave our kids to their own devices or expect them to just "get" our instruction. But we also need to put our own time into our children's play time.
Rather than making our kids sit down and read or repeat words and numbers parrot fashion or pore through books on their own, get out the blocks, pretend cash registers, shopping games, word games, board games, Fisher Price houses, schools and garages and let's play!
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| Sophie Cross is a PR, writer, mum and soft touch when it comes to small furry animals. She grew up in the south-east of England, but has lived in France, Italy, Australia and in the beautiful Lecrin Valley (Valle de Lecrin), Andalucia. She has worked with CareforKids.com.au since 2006. She lives in Limpsfield, Surrey (UK), surrounded by pretty villages, the rolling hills of the North Downs and the delightfully picturesque M25! Read more by Sophie
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