#JoyOfLearning Articles from @ScaryMommy + @Palan57 + @ValerieStrauss + @Guardian

Today I have four articles to share with you related to instilling a joy of learning in kids. In the first, Megan Zander describes a school that has announced a "no homework" policy. In the second, Peter Greene reviews a recent report from Defending the Early Years about the importance of engaging young kids intellectually without pushing them too hard, too early academically. In the third, Valerie Strauss shares thoughts from Nancy Carlsson-Paige on how efforts to close the achievement gap have contributed to a "play gap" for disadvantaged kids (irony of ironies). In the fourth piece, the Guardian's Patrick Butler shares methods used by preschools in Finland (for kids up to age seven) to nurture the joy of learning. All of these articles are worth your time! 

Guess we are living in wrong part of CA: San Diego Elementary School Announces No #Homework Policy http://ow.ly/VeYC304doFt  @ScaryMommy

Megan Zander: "McKinley Elementary School in the North Park neighborhood of San Diego, CA recently announced they will not be assigning homework for students this year. That’s right. No more lost worksheets, no standing over your kid’s shoulder while they whine, no screaming matches. No. More. Homework. (Cue choir of singing angels.)...

Parents are expected to read with their child for at least 20 minutes each night, finish any work not completed in class, and support their child’s learning outside the classroom...

While proponents of homework claim it helps students learn both responsibility and prepares them for the infamous standardized tests they’ll take all too soon and too often, there’s been no research that suggests any benefit from assigning homework in elementary school. "

Me: Too far away from San Jose for me to send my daughter, but I'm encouraged to see this story nonetheless. I hope that it's another sign that the pendulum is shifting away from homework for elementary schoolers. My own daughter's homework, in first grade, is ramping up quickly as we close the first month of school. So far, she seems energized by the homework. She's excited to show her work to my husband and me. How long that can last, I do not know... 

Teacher @palan57  on recent @DEY_Project report | gist is to engage young kids intellectually not push academically https://t.co/1hdrolf9Nq

Peter Greene: "Now the folks at Defending the Early Years have published a short piece by Lilian Katz that provides a useful framework for explaining and understanding why some approaches to early childhood education are not useful...

Intellectual disposition can be damaged by "excessive and premature formal instruction," but it's not going to be strengthened by mindless or banal activities (she cites a year-long sharing time built around teddy bears). Do meaningful stuff. Or as we like to say in my family, children may be young, but they aren't dopes. They're just tiny human with fewer skills and less live experience...

Katz' recommendation is brief and clear:

Early childhood curriculum and teaching methods are likely to be best when they address children's lively minds so that they are quite frequently fully intellectually engaged."

Me: Further explanation here on why the downward push (in terms of age) of academic expectations is not only not useful but can be actively harmful. I recommend, as Peter Green does, that you click through to read the Defending Early Years piece that inspired Peter's article: Lively Minds: Distinctions between academic versus intellectual goals for young children.

Our misguided effort to close the achievement gap is creating a new inequality: The #play gap https://t.co/eJYbeWb6PO @valeriestrauss

Nancy Carlsson-Paige (in a Washington Post piece by Valerie Strauss): "Kindergartens and pre-K classrooms have changed. There is less play, less art and music, less child choice, more teacher-led instruction, worksheets, and testing than a generation ago. Studies tell us that these changes, although pervasive, are most evident in schools serving high percentages of low-income children of color...

Many urban, low-income children have limited play opportunities outside of school, which makes in-school playtime even more vital for them. But what studies now show is that the children who need play the most in the early years of school get the least."

Me: I've been personally concerned about the increasingly academic focus of elementary and preschools for a while. This piece, which addresses the disparity of the impact between advantaged and disadvantaged kids is both eye-opening and depressing. It's ironic, really, that efforts to close the achievement gap are making schools and preschools more academic, which is in turn harming the long-term academic performance of the very kids who most need help. 

No grammar schools, lots of #play: secrets of Finland's #education system for kids under 7 http://ow.ly/3RPh304oxnc  @guardian #JoyOfLearning

Patrick Butler: "Indeed the main aim of early years education is not explicitly “education” in the formal sense but the promotion of the health and wellbeing of every child. Daycare is to help them develop good social habits: to learn how to make friends and respect others, for example, or to dress themselves competently. Official guidance also emphasises the importance in pre-school of the “joy of learning”, language enrichment and communication. There is an emphasis on physical activity (at least 90 minutes outdoor play a day)...

Carefully organised play helps develop qualities such as attention span, perseverance, concentration and problem solving, which at the age of four are stronger predictors of academic success than the age at which a child learns to read, says Whitebread (David Whitebread, director of the Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development & Learning at the University of Cambridge). There is evidence that high-quality early years play-based learning not only enriches educational development but boosts attainment in children from disadvantaged backgrounds who do not possess the cultural capital enjoyed by their wealthier peers."

Me: I couldn't help comparing the experiences of the Finnish preschoolers described in this story to my six-year-old daughter's school day. But I am grateful that my daughter's school has three recesses a day with free play, plus PE 3 days a week for additional physical activity. It is, of course, well known that students in Finland have excellent academic outcomes, and it's good to see stories about how they use carefully designed opportunities for play to set kids up to be joyful learners. 

© 2016 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. This post may contain affiliate links.