New and Exciting Kindergarten Options for Peregrine School

My first public school teaching job, in 1969, was kindergarten.  It was the first school setting the children I taught had ever been in, and my colleagues and I did everything we could to make them comfortable.  Our three hour day was composed of singing time, working with playdough, bead stringing, natural science, circle time with a story, and learning to share.  By the end of the school year, we wanted kids to know how to write their name and recognize the alphabet, and above all, how to interact with each other without fighting.   

Today, kindergarten teachers generally encounter children who have been to nursery school, and already recognize their names and the alphabet.  In public school, kindergarten standards include the curriculum that was taught in the first grade thirty years ago.  Children are expected to read simple books by the end of the year, and to write in sentences.  However, these children are still five years old.  For some, attending “first grade” is workable.  For others, it is not.  Many fall behind, or are frustrated with by sitting at a table doing structured reading and writing, when their bodies and minds drive them to move around and play. 

“The kindergarten question” is a challenging one for many parents.  Families debate about when their child should start, and many keep their children home an extra year.  Five-year-olds now enter kindergartens where they are expected to sit down and read or do math: tasks previously given to first graders, and that are not taught in most European countries until age seven. European children show the same or better long-term academic results as U.S. children, though they start the reading process two years later. One might wonder why Americans are in such a hurry.  (Check out new information about Finland, whose students are world leaders on standardized tests but where kids don’t start school until age seven (see Finnish Lessons, by Pasi Sahlberg)).

The reasons for accelerating academics in the United States are political rather than academic.  School districts and politicians are desperate to see kids pass tests at higher levels.  If that is the goal, they ask: why not start sooner, and push harder, to reach that goal? 

At the same time, many public schools have started “transitional kindergartens” to accommodate many children who are not ready for formal, academic schooling. Simultaneously, the eligibility age for kindergarten has changed.  In California, children now must be five in September, rather than December, to attend regular kindergarten.  Those who are not ready are invited to attend transitional kindergarten, to prepare them for kindergarten the next year. 

At Peregrine School, we have thought deeply about “the kindergarten question.”  Should kindergarten remain part of Primaria, a play based program with an introduction to academics, or should it be an academic, standards based program, housed in our elementary school?  The answer is clearly “both”, because it depends on an individual child’s rate of development.  Each of these approaches turns out to be right for some children, if decisions are based, as they should be, on developmental stage rather than chronological age.

What does a developmental approach to kindergarten mean?

Somewhere between age five and seven, children transition between the sensori-motor stage, where they learn through all their senses and through fantasy play, and the concrete operations stage, in which they become fascinated with learning symbols and playing by rules.  Of course, this transition is gradual, and all students benefit from real experiences and play, regardless of age. But the learning of reading, writing and arithmetic is an important step for all children. Parents and grandparents monitor it intently.  The question is: at what age should these activities be introduced? 

At a Reggio Emilia inspired school, we never want to deny students access to things they are ready to do, regardless of age.  On the other hand, forcing activities that children are not ready for causes many children to become frustrated and feel inadequate.  This is a problem in many kindergartens, where a significant proportion of the children are not ready for academic work. 

Peregrine School will offer new kindergarten options for the 2013-2014 school year. Beginning in the fall of 2013, there will be two kindergarten options at Peregrine School. Both offer a cross-age classroom at either the Early Childhood Center or our elementary school.

At the Early Childhood Center, Primaria will continue to be the same highly enriched, play based program it has been since its inception.  This program will be available to four- to six-year-old children, and will offer a “transitional” kindergarten approach for five year old children whose parents would like them to have another year based on play, enrichment, and some academics.  It will continue to be a highly enriched, five hour program (9AM-2PM) emphasizing science, Spanish, and the arts, and introducing language arts and math.  There will be plenty of time for children to engage in our two-year science theme of water in all its forms through experiments, as well as time to garden and to cook, and to understand the wide world by examining nature and participating in the arts. 

Peregrine Elementary will offer a kindergarten through second grade classroom which is more academic.  Five- and six-year-olds will enter this program when parents and teachers agree they are ready to spend the morning learning reading and math, and to handle a six-hour day in an elementary, cross-age setting.  Afternoons and all day Fridays will be devoted to Spanish and to integrated, project based learning in science, social studies, and the arts.  The k-2^nd grade program will be six hours long (9AM-3PM) so that both academic skills and enriched, project-based curricula can be taught. 

What will the normal progression of classrooms be for a student?  Although this will depend on the child, Primaria will continue to be a two year program that offers a balance of play and instruction ideal for most four- to six-year-old children.  We suggest that children who enter Primaria at age 4 stay for two years before going on to the k-2^nd grade classroom at elementary school.  Particularly, children with fall and summer birthdays, who would be young in regular kindergarten classes, will benefit greatly from their second year in Primaria.  We think this program is best for most children.

Primaria and the k-2^nd grade classroom provide a continuum of developmentally appropriate options for each child. Hence, if a child enters k-2 after two years in Primaria, and advances rapidly, it is very possible for him or her to spend only two years in that classroom.  K-2 is designed to teach basic reading, writing, and math through addition and subtraction.  For some children, this takes three years, for others, two.  Since the focus of k-2^nd grade is “learning to read”, and the focus of grades 3^rd-5^th grade is “reading to learn”, children will naturally enter the 3^rd-5^th grade classroom at different ages, depending on when she or he is fluent at reading and writing. It is important that the child is socially ready as well.  At each level of education, higher degrees of independence and self control are needed.

While it would not be common practice, children can also move from one class to another mid-year, just as they sometimes do from Escuelita to Primaria, depending on their readiness.  Hence, giving children the opportunity to mature naturally will not hold them back—they will always have options to move forward when it is appropriate to their own needs.

We are very excited about our new program because we feel that we are one of the few schools addressing “the kindergarten question” in a developmental way that takes into account the needs of individual children.  We also feel we are honoring childhood by providing a play-based but intellectual Primaria classroom that meets the needs of most four- to six-year olds. 

Parents and teachers are both involved in deciding the where to place children. We realize that having two kindergarten options could be confusing.  While parents will have strong input in what they want for their child, teachers will also be involved, as will I as academic director.  Parents must realize that developmental speed is not linked to intelligence. In many children, development in different areas is not even.  Many highly intelligent children do not learn to read and write early, and need more time to play.  There is no evidence that learning to read early leads to better academic achievement later in life than reading at age six or seven. For example, European children all learn to read in school at age seven, and have high rates of achievement later.  This is why we think that most children should do two years of Primaria, then move to the k-2^nd grade classroom, and take two or three years to complete studies there. 

Public schools have accelerated their expectations for children by a whole school year, even though a majority of schools have many students failing to achieve academic benchmarks.   The many best-seller books on “the hurried child” and on childhood anxiety attest to the toll that this decision is taking on children. At Peregrine School, we have made two important decisions.  The first is to meet grade level standards once students enter the elementary program.  The second is to let the pace of progress vary according to the most important variable: the readiness of each individual child. 

A parent meeting will be held at the early childhood center on Friday, January 25 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. to discuss Peregrine’s new kindergarten options.  Please attend if you would like to know more about this program.  Both Jessica and Marcia, the Primaria and k-2^nd grade teachers, will be present.  These teachers and I are also more than willing to hold individual parent conferences to discuss the developmentally appropriate placement for your child.