The current absurd obsession with test scores is destroying schooling and childhood. Nowhere is the devastation more visible than in state and local policies turning kindergarten and nursery school into academically rigorous boot camps. Pre-K is supposed to get children ready for kindergarten. Kindergarten is a time to learn reading and writing and math. Kindergarten prepares the child for first grade. It is the first step towards “college and career readiness.”
But kindergarten has been warped beyond all recognition from what it is supposed to be. The founder of the kindergarten was Friedrich Froebel. His ideas were first brought to America by William Torrey Harris, the superintendent of schools in St. Louis (later the U.S. Commissioner of Education for 18 years under various presidents) and a devotee of Hegel.
To learn more about what kindergarten should be, go to the Froebel website.
Here is an excerpt from the opening page:
“The name Kindergarten signifies both a garden for children, a location where they can observe and interact with nature, and also a garden of children, where they themselves can grow and develop in freedom from arbitrary imperatives.
“In 1837, having developed and tested a radically new educational method and philosophy based on structured, activity based learning, Froebel moved to Bad Blankenburg and established his Play and Activity Institute which in 1840 he renamed Kindergarten.
“Kindergarten has three essential parts:
*creative play, which Froebel called gifts and occupations)
*singing and dancing for healthy activity
*observing and nurturing plants in a garden for stimulating awareness of the natural world
“Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child’s soul.
“To Froebel belongs the credit for finding the true nature of play and regulating it to lead naturally into work. The same spontaneity and joy, the same freedom and serenity that characterise the plays of childhood are realised in all human activity. The gifts and occupations are the living connection which makes both play and work expressions of the same creative activity. ” W N Hailmann
“Friedrich Froebel introduced the concept of gardens for children, where they could participate in all aspects of growing, harvesting, and preparing nutritious, seasonal produce. As educational tools, these gardens provide real world applications of core mathematical concepts. The Edible Schoolyard educates children about the connections between food, health, and the environment through activities which are fully integrated into the curriculum.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thanks. All mammals play. It’s their way of learning. Froebel was acknowledging something inherent and elevating it in the process. And it’s a quality we lose as we grow up at our peril. It flourishes when we are safe and free but it’s spirit survives even. When we’re not if we’re lucky.
Sent from my iPhone
>
LikeLike
Kindergarten?
Nein, Kinderfabrik!
It’s much harder to monetize the free/structured play of five year-olds than it is their “academic” production, thus the demands for “rigor” (mortis) in pre-school and K.
It’s also cruelly ironic (but to be expected) that just a few years ago the so-called reformers were exhorting us to eliminate the “factory model” that public schools were supposedly following, whereas now thy’re insisting that Kindergarten be turned into a sweatshop.
LikeLike
Yes, it’s all about money. I was recently asked in an interview for a public school preschool job if I had experience with boxed curricula. (They have a box for literacy, math, social skills, etc.) I do not! We didn’t have boxes 30 years ago. I have always created my own curriculum based on play and children’s interests and needs. I refuse to use a box! What a waste of money that should be spent on clay, paint, blocks, caterpillars, etc. etc. I was offered the job, but did not accept.
LikeLike
Your second paragraph—
Exactly!
And no surprise that their factory model is a sweatshop.
Literally. Not symbolically.
The Donald would be so proud of them…
😎
LikeLike
It is a tragedy. After 30 years as a preschool and kindergarten teacher, I am now looking for a public school teaching job. I’m not sure where to look. There are very few schools where I can teach preschool or kindergarten as it should be done. I refuse to abuse children with useless assessments and inappropriate (Common Core) expectations!
LikeLike
“I refuse to abuse children with useless assessments and inappropriate (Common Core) expectations!”
Yes!, yes, and another big YES! A thousand font size YES!
LikeLike
Thank you Dr. Ravitch for this meaningful post in order to remind educational leaders and authority about the goal of educating and cultivating all BEGINNERS learners.
It must be the end of the world so that savage become ruler, and civilized scholars become submissive followers.
What a life and what meaningful humanity is it about? Back2basic
LikeLike
While preparing the soil for flowers, herbs, and vegetables, I thought about educatng our young and how similar they are. We need to prepare the environment of learning so all can flourish. DUH…the deformers don’t garden so how would they know about preparing the soil so our young can flourish. Also considered is how much light and water each plant needs and how we prune and weed. I would like to WEED out all of those standards and tests and let teachers teach.
LikeLike
“To Froebel belongs the credit for finding the true nature of play and regulating it to lead naturally into work.”
But… but…
If we “backward map” from College and Career Ready standards to…
12th grade, then backward map to…
11th grade, then backward map to…
10th grade, then backward map to…
9th grade, then backward map to…
8th grade, then backward map to…
7th grade, then backward map to…
6th grade, then backward map to…
5th grade, then backward map to…
4th grade, then backward map to…
3rd grade, then backward map to…
2nd grade, then backward map to…
1st grade, then backward map to…
Kindergarten, then it will all magically work out!!
Except when kids flunk Kindergarten, then backward map to…
Pre-kindergarten, then backward map to…
0-3 Skinner boxes!!!
Don’t take my word for it. Just ask the Atlanta superintendent. She’ll backup what I say.
LikeLike
Your backmapping exercise is wonderful.
Backward mapping as if everything you learn has or should have a neat tidy system of prerequisites works for some aspects of training but not for education.
LikeLike
Backward mapping from a performance of Beethoven’s 9th in Carnegie Hall leads one to put four-year olds on a stage with a violin and score of music and the command “Struggle child! This is the rigor you need!”
Ed Johnson puts his finger on the stupidity of the current regime in education these days. It’s not just Common Core. They’re doing the same thing in science and history. The “logic” is that we need more experts; ergo, we should have little kids ape experts. But no expert was ever created by aping experts at a young age You need to isolate elements of expert knowledge/performance and teach those to mastery/automaticity. Dan Willingham writes about this in his last book. He points to a study comparing the Brazilian and English soccer teams. England has historically underperformed in world competition, while Brazil has overperformed. England subscribed to the “backward mapping” model of soccer player development: have little kids replicate the adult game by playing on big field with a full team. Brazil rejected this approach. They have kids do mini-matches on smaller fields with three kids per team. This gives each kid more “touch” time with the ball, thus strengthening their ball handling skills. The backwards mapping approach is simplistic and stupid; it betrays the complete lack of wisdom and hubris of David Coleman and the other “authorities” who have hijacked education in this country.
LikeLike
Young students in kindergarten are now labeled as having specific learning disabilities if they do not receive a certain score on district universal screeners(STAR, iReady, MAP), which are taken on computers. I watch this happen in my district. I’ve watched it happen in other districts in which I’ve worked. First graders are given Reading Improvement Plans if they do not receive a certain score on district universal screeners the first time they take the test in August, in the state of Ohio. Once on a Reading Improvement Plan (RIMP), they are expected to receive instruction from a prepackaged, “research based,” scripted program…with fidelity. Without real books. Kindergarten teachers talk more about close reading strategies, than they do about Eric Carle, Leo Lionni, Dr. Seuss, or Stone Soup. Even the interactive read aloud has become a thing of the past. What did you think would happen to unstructured play? Literacy is being systematically killed. The blood is on our hands.
LikeLike
“The current absurd obsession with test scores is destroying schooling and childhood.”
And harming many if not all of the most innocent in society, the students who are but little children (even in high school even if at times it doesn’t seem that way).
Why? Why do the educational professionals, the teachers and administrators allow this to happen?
It is a misguided sense of professional ethics wherein a loyalty to and adherence to malpractice mandates hold sway over the ethics of serving and protecting the children in their charge. I’ll post Ch. 7 of my almost printed book in separate posts to explain what I am talking about:
Ethics in Educational Practices
‘Ethics are more important than laws.’ Wynton Marsalis
1 plural but sing or plural in constr: the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation.
2a: a set of moral principles: a theory or system of moral values –often used in plural but singular or plural in construction b: the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group c: a guiding philosophy d: a consciousness of moral importance
3: a set of moral issues or aspects (as rightness)
LikeLike
A number of different professional teacher and teacher preparation organizations have promulgated their own code of teacher professional ethics. In examining a few of them I’ve chosen to use three organization’s codes as typical to extract common statements that will serve as guides to what teacher professional ethics can be. The American Association of Educators (AAE) code of ethics lists three main categories of ethics: 1) In relation to the students and parents, 2) In relation to practices and performance and 3) in relation toward professional colleagues. The National Association of State Directors of Teacher and Education Certification (NASDTEC) code details five: 1) responsibility to the profession, 2) respect for professional competence, 3) respect for students, 4) responsibility to the school community and 5) responsible and ethical use of technology. The National Education Association (NEA) has only two: 1) in relation toward students and 2) in relation to the profession of teaching.
LikeLike
Right on. The argument I constantly hear is “but the OTES (Ohio Teacher Evaluation System) rubric asks for…” OTES has no criteria on its rubric for measuring ethical practices in response to those we are supposed to be servicing. It does, however, measure loyalty to the vision of the District. You can be a good (ethical) teacher, or you can be a good employee. It’s becoming almost impossible to be both. Ethics are becoming compromised in order to win favor on our evaluations.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Please realize LTL that my post is just a part of the chapter, the rest of the chapter is above or follow, from my book “Infidelity to Truth: Education Malpractices in American Public Education.
If you would like an advance/draft copy of the book feel free to email me at dswacker@centurytel.net and I’ll send it to you-free! (hard copy will be $17).
LikeLike
In regard to ethical considerations in relation to professional competence and practices the NASDTEC code states: “The professional educator demonstrates responsible use of data, materials, research and assessment . . . and the professional educator acts in the best interests of all students. . . .” And the AAE code offers: “The professional educator assumes responsibility and accountability for his or her performance and continually strive to demonstrate competence. The professional educator endeavors to maintain the dignity of the profession by respecting and obeying the law, and by demonstrating personal integrity.”
“Should we therefore forgo our self-interest? Of course not. But it [self-interest] must be subordinate to justice, not the other way around. . . . To take advantage of a child’s naivete. . . in order to extract from them something [test scores, personal information] that is contrary to their interests, or intentions, without their knowledge [or consent of parents] or through coercion [state mandated testing], is always and everywhere unjust even if in some places and under certain circumstances it is not illegal. . . . Justice is superior to and more valuable than well-being or efficiency; it cannot be sacrificed to them, not even for the happiness of the greatest number [quoting Rawls]. To what could justice legitimately be sacrificed, since without justice there would be no legitimacy or illegitimacy? And in the name of what, since without justice even humanity, happiness and love could have no absolute value. . . . Without justice, values would be nothing more than (self) interests or motives; they would cease to be values or would become values without worth.” [my additions]
LikeLike
Keeping that in mind, let’s examine the two most dominant educational malpractices of today–educational standards and standardized testing by utilizing the condensed statements of teacher professional ethics with our fundamental ethical statement of the purpose of American public education in conjunction with a discussion of the demonstrated invalidity and lack of fidelity to truth in educational standards and standardized testing regimes and how all of that plays out in relation to ethical and justice concerns.
LikeLike
In “Standards of Educational and Psychological Testing” it states at the very beginning of Chapter 1-Validity that “validity refers to the degree to which evidence and theory support the interpretations of test scores for the stated proposed uses of tests. Validity is, therefore, the most fundamental consideration in developing tests and evaluating tests” (my emphasis) and I would include the standards upon which those tests are supposedly based in that development. Noel Wilson has addressed those validity concerns in his review of the prior version of the “Standards. . .” in “A Little Less than Valid: An Essay Review” stating “To the extent that these categorisations are accurate or valid at an individual level, these decisions may be both ethically acceptable to the decision makers, and rationally and emotionally acceptable to the test takers and their advocates. They accept the judgments of their society regarding their mental or emotional capabilities. But to the extent that such categorisations are invalid, they must be deemed unacceptable [and unethical] to all concerned.” (my emphasis) The brilliance of Wilson’s proofs of the invalidities of educational standards and standardized testing is in his flipping the concept of validity as proposed in the “Standards. . .” into one of invalidity as far as the test taker is concerned.
NO!
LikeLike
I think I have identified the problem in wordpress as far as the font size goes. If any text has a footnote in a paragraph, wordpress picks up the footnote font and uses that instead of the font of the paragraph itself. Weird, eh!
LikeLike
I figured you were just trying to make it so we didn’t have to scroll so much.
LikeLike
Thank you Thank you Thank you🤸♂️
LikeLike
“A Child Garden”
Growing kids for bucks
Kindergarten is
Kindergarten sucks
But Kindergarten’s biz
LikeLike
The Deformers (people like David Coleman, Bill Gates, Arne Duncan, Betsy DeVos) are very uncreative people.
They simply can not comprehend the value of play in kindergarten (and beyond).
LikeLike
Do you think that’s it? Or is it that you can’t make money from play?
LikeLike
New Generation science standards so heavily emphasize the chemical nature of reality that biology students today do not study natural history. If I were a conspiracy theory guy, I would see anti-environmental bias in these standards foisted upon an unwitting public who cannot possibly be aware that their kids are not learning ecology, earth science, and the other scientific fields necessary to make good political decisions.
Because we are trying to get students ready for biochemistry by 7th grade, what little natural history is pushed down into the lower grades by new curricula. Appreciation for local history, local flora and fauna, local geology, all these topics are now out of school. Half the world’s species could go away and no one would know.
LikeLike
The irony is that ecology is the most important science by far for our own survival.
But I think it is no accident that ecology is relegated to “backwater” status (even among scientists ) while physics and chemistry are celebrated as “fundamental”.
Ecology and ecologists tell us things that we do not wish to hear: the earth is our life support system (and there is no “backup”) and our economics based on eternal growth in a limited world is simply unsustainable (in violation of physical laws, actually).
That’s why politicians rarely consult with ecologists and prefer physicists, who (like Freeman Dyson) are always ready to tell them about how we can innovate our way out of climate change or any other problem we face. Or leave earth in a rocketship if things become too bad here on Earth.
LikeLike
Those who study Ecology and those who study Physics have far more in common with each other than they do with Chemists. Chemistry is more aligned with Engineering, accepting an ‘accepted scientific’ model and trying to use it to produce a novel product.
Both Ecologists and Physicists understand that the basis of all of human ‘knowlege’ is a mirage, an attempt at understanding based upon the limitations of our nervous system. Ecologists deal with huge system and understand the limitations of our capacity to comprehend the entirety. Physicists deal with the tiny, and understand that our mental models are only a useful, temporary guess. Chemists and Engineers assume (fallaciously) a platform of certainty.
LikeLike
Thanks for this reply and thanks for wading through some pretty garbled prose in my post. I think that some of this curricular change comes from biochemistry as it advances as a new science. Biochemists looks down their noses at natural scientists unless they are going into the chemical part of why a certain population is declining. Loss of habitat is too easy to understand. Meanwhile, the vital signs of environmental stress are monitored only by citizen scientists who carefully study and report species numbers in their spare time.
LikeLike