It’s a question asked by parents of three year olds about this time every year. They’ve been told that it’s time for their child to begin preschool. Maybe they have even been counting the days.  There’s a notion very prevalent in the U.S. that we need to start  educating our children early. President Obama talked about it in the State of the Union address this year, vowing to make “high-quality” preschool available to every child in America.   There is research indicating that early education does help down the road.  But what kind of early education?   What is a “high quality”  preschool?  Does it mean your child will be reading at 4?  That she can read a map, add and subtract, spit back facts about the rainforest?   Or does it mean that she will be developing capacities like physical dexterity, self-regulation, social competence, and rich imagination?

Early childhood educators and child development experts on the whole believe that play is the most important work of early childhood, providing the skills and capacities that are essential for later success in school and in life.  Play is also the natural state of childhood.  Just as the baby lion’s pounce on his mother’s tail prepares him for pouncing on prey later on, a young child who figures out how to build a playhouse out of cloths with some friends may be preparing himself for solving complex math problems in high school or for negotiating differences in the board room.  If children are left to their own devices, they will play, just as the baby lion will pounce.  This should tell us that perhaps this is what they need to prepare them for adulthood, just as the young lion’s play prepares him.  There is wisdom in paying attention to what happens naturally when adult agendas are not imposed.

Sadly, the trend in education over the past few decades is to impose a fear-based adult agenda of “start earlier and do more.”  This has resulted in kindergarten being the new first grade, and moving steadily in the direction of preschool being the new first grade.  One reason for the fear is falling test scores.  A good question to ask is, how has “start earlier and do more” affected test scores so far?  A better question is, are standardized test scores the measure we should really be looking at for whether our children are well-prepared for the future in our rapidly changing world?  The truth is, we don’t know that pushing academics down into preschool is going to help at all.  What we do know is that doing so will crowd out the activity that will help the most,  play, and that this can actually harm children.

Diagnoses  like  ADHD, depression, and bipolar disorder continue to become more common in children.  The suicide rate for adolescents has continued to rise, so that suicide is the third leading cause of death for people 10 to 24.  Obesity rates are rising, along with all the accompanying health problems.  Children and adolescents are more stressed than ever, and these are the children who have steadily lost play at the same rate that they have been burdened by more and more homework and academic expectation.  They are the children who have spent their childhood in front of screens  and doing hours of homework instead of making mud pies and exploring the woods.

Young children need to play. They need to spend lots of time outside. They need to learn to wait, to help a friend, to do work that really matters. Children need to make pictures in their imaginations when they hear a story. They need to crawl up on a dead tree across the path on a nature walk and wonder what might live there.  They need to feel what it’s like to move their bodies through mud, through deep snow, across slippery ice.  They need to watch adults doing real things and then try it themselves. They need to become deeply absorbed in something of interest—how the grain turns to flour when you grind it, how tall you can build a tower before it falls over, how the color blue meets the color yellow in their painting. A “high-quality preschool” will provide plenty of time for all of this and more. It will provide children with the raw materials to build worlds from their imaginations. It will provide them with a healthy rhythm that supports their best behavior and their joyful attention. A high-quality preschool will provide plenty of movement and plenty of time outdoors in all seasons. A high quality preschool will respect the natural pace of childhood, and by so doing will encourage  health,  happiness, and a lifelong zest for learning.

Watch Sir Ken here.

If you’d like to read more about the importance of imagination and the results of its decline in recent years in areas as diverse as national security, economic security, and the development of new patents, this article is excellent:

http://www.rakemag.com/2007/10/death-and-life-american-imagination/

 Still more evidence from the scientific community  that the wisdom of Waldorf is right on target. When engaged in what looks like child’s play, preschoolers are actually behaving like scientists, according to a new report in the journal Science: forming hypotheses, running experiments, calculating probabilities and deciphering causal relationships about the world.  Read the full article here.

Scientists disagree about what sort of play is most important, government is loath to regulate the type of toys and technology that increasingly shape the play experience, and parents still feel pressure to supervise children’s play rather than let them go off on their own. (Nearly two-thirds of Americans in a December Monitor TIPP poll, for instance, said it is irresponsible to let children play without supervision; almost as many said studying is more important than play.) And there is still pressure on schools to sacrifice playtime – often categorized as frivolous – in favor of lessons that boost standardized test scores.

“Play is still terribly threatened,” says Susan Linn, an instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the nonprofit Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. But, she adds, “what is changing is that there’s a growing recognition that the erosion of play may be a problem … we need to do something about.”

One could say that the state of play, then, is at a crossroads. What happens to it – how it ends up fitting into American culture, who defines it, what it looks like – will have long-term implications for childhood, say those who study it.

Read the entire article, Toddlers to tweens: relearning how to play

The California Waldorf school has been getting plenty of press since the publication of an article in the New York Times last month.

The press has brought out the debate over whether high technology is necessary for children in grade school.

Check out the NBC video that shows why high-tech parents choose a school that picks blackboards over IPads.

Click here to find out more details about the event! Holiday Faire

When I first wrote about Waldorf in public schools for Conscious Choice, some 12 years ago, examples were few and far between. There was Urban Waldorf in Milwaukee and a handful of charter schools in California and Arizona. The number of Waldorf-inspired public schools was up to 45 in 2010, with another 30 expected to open this year, according to the Alliance for Public Waldorf Education.

Those of us who have faith in Waldorf would like to see it more available. We believe all kids could benefit from Waldorf education.

A recent article in Harvard Education Letter, a publication of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, considers whether Waldorf is the answer to school reform.

Waldorf Education in Public Schools: Educators adopt—and adapt—this developmental, arts-rich approach says Waldorf is kind of like the slow food movement.

“In the quest to fix ailing schools, should we slow down to move faster?  Just as the handmade, home-farmed foodie movement is transforming how consumers view processed food, is education’s equivalent—Waldorf-style schooling that favors hands-on art and personal exploration while shunning textbooks and technology—just what school reform needs?”

Of course, coming from Harvard, the article repeatedly refers to the fact that there isn’t proof of Waldorf’s effectiveness.

That may be because standardized tests don’t reflect the multi-faceted human being. Regardless, it is an interesting read. Check it out.

Waldorf Education in Public Schools.

This is the first time the AAP has updated its policy on screen time since 1999, when the group first recommended kids under 2 don’t watch TV and that parents limit screen time for older children.

In this newest policy the AAP tells parents that screen media has absolutely no benefits for children under 2, but has potentially negative effects.

The AAP research found that 90 percent of parents with children under 2 say they use some type of electronic media. The AAP says parents are being fooled into thinking some of these materials are educational.

The AAP warns that screen time takes away from valuable unstructured playtime. The report also warns of possible adverse effects of screen time for children including developmental delays in language and attention problems. The AAP warns media use has also been found to be associated with sleep issues, obesity and aggressive behaviors.

Waldorf schools have long been in the forefront of encouraging limiting or eliminating screen time for children. Waldorf education realizes the negative developmental impacts of screen time, while also recognizing that media interferes with imagination and that images from screens interferes with the learning process.

Read the full statement on media use by children under 2 in Pediatrics.

Read the New York Times article, Parents Urged Again to Limit TV for Youngest

Read the Washington Post article, AAP reaffirms no screen time for young children even though few parents listen

LOS ALTOS, Calif. —The chief technology officer of eBay sends his children to a nine-classroom school here. So do employees of Silicon Valley giants like Google, Apple, Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard.

But the school’s chief teaching tools are anything but high-tech: pens and paper, knitting needles and, occasionally, mud. Not a computer to be found. No screens at all. They are not allowed in the classroom, and the school even frowns on their use at home.

Schools nationwide have rushed to supply their classrooms with computers, and many policy makers say it is foolish to do otherwise. But the contrarian point of view can be found at the epicenter of the tech economy, where some parents and educators have a message: computers and schools don’t mix.

Read the rest of this New York Times article, A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute, about the Waldorf School in Los Altos, CA