My friend Julia McCready — the most prolific, dedicated, informed blogger I know — recently wrote a beautiful post about the magic of friendship, play, music and a cold treat on a hot day.
Below that seemingly innocent theme is another theme of programming, prodding, organizing, planning and testing our kids to death.
She beautifully described the happenings of an after-school program she runs at an independent school. After she described the chain of happenings, she was apologetic to her readers for using the word “authentic” to describe the spontaneous menu of activities. I was just grateful she used a word more authentic than “organic.”
But Julia’s post spurred me finally to write about something that I have thought about for many years.
I’m from an era in which kindergarten did not exist at all Baltimore County public schools (my school opened its kindergarten the year I was in sixth grade). Nor was there any great proliferation of nursery schools, day care centers or any other kind of organized gatherings for young children. It was an era in which many mothers were stay-at-home moms and a child’s first introduction to organized education was when he or she marched off to first grade.
Trust me when I tell you that I entered first grade as an absolute clean slate. Not only didn’t I know how to read, I didn’t know the alphabet, numbers or colors. And the 40-some other children in my first grade class were pretty much in the same boat.
In spite of the lack of pre-school learning, my fellow classmates and I did just fine. We left first grade with a good foundation in reading, spelling and arithmetic. We had honed our printing skills and looked forward to learning cursive writing in second grade.
We had recess every day and physical education classes a couple of times a week, that I recall. We enjoyed art and vocal music classes and looked forward to fourth grade, when we could sign up for instrumental music if we so chose. Teachers were allowed to create their own study units and projects, and I remember several creative efforts, including a team project in sixth grade that involved creating large (3-foot by 5-foot) topographical maps of the continents using colored tissue paper and a glue mixture to create the mountain ranges, deserts, bodies of water and plains of each land.
In eighth grade, a well-traveled social studies teacher created a study unit on Europe, during which we traveled throughout the continent as tourists and journaled our “travels.” Using the book, Europe on Five Dollars a Day as a text book and $100 in fantasy money, we were free to roam about the land, choosing restaurants, museums, and hotels to visit during our “stay.”
While in elementary school, I remember taking the Iowa Basic Skills test. But I don’t remember any stressing about those tests, either on the part of students or teachers. We learned what we were supposed to learn when we were supposed to learn it. Then one Friday, teachers would remind us that the test was the following Monday and Tuesday and we were to make sure we had two, No. 2 pencils with us.
I don’t recall any standardized testing in either junior or senior high, but that could be just a faulty memory. In any case, that proves that the testing was no big deal, and teachers were free to take creative and unique approaches to their lessons.
Over the years, there has been a slow and deliberate march to eliminating many of the avenues that allowed students to be creative. Recess is non-existent; P.E. classes have dwindled; and much education is delivered in a cookie-cutter fashion so that federally mandated learning objectives (or “outcomes”) are met. Anything that doesn’t lend itself to the success of standardized testing, including art, music, drama and foreign languages, have been whittled away.
So I read Julia’s blog post with a smile on my face and a sense of hope that not all is lost. Granted, her program is an after-school, recreational/day care program (or at least that’s how many parents probably view it) but the fact remains that educators exist who still recognize the importance of and need for free play and the encouragement of the use of creativity and imagination.
Her experience was at an independent school, which may not be bound by the stringent requirements of state- and federally-funded public schools, but the post provided a glimmer of hope, nonetheless.
Thanks Julia!
We must be about the same age, because that is pretty much how I remember school. I do remember more standardized testing in high school, but that was connected to qualifying for scholarships for college and the SATs and the ACTs. We learned dance, about great artists and their art, music from the simple round of row, row your boat to the differences between symphonies and cantatas and folk music. We played outside in all weather for recess and at lunch. Some kids failed and were held behind so they could catch up. On occasion a student would skip a grade because they did so well. We were introduced to a vast world of learning through classwork and play. The play was important to integrate what was learned in the classroom, burn off excess energy and to teach us to get along with others.
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