The joyful, illiterate kindergartners of Finland. (I'm so jealous.)

[pnwmom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/the-joyful-illiterate-kindergartners-of-finland/408325/

In the U.S.:

“The changes to kindergarten make me sick,” a veteran teacher in Arkansas recently admitted to me. “Think about what you did in first grade—that’s what my 5-year-old babies are expected to do.”

In Finland:

Approaching the school’s playground that morning, I watched as an army of 5- and 6-year-old boys patrolled a zigzagging stream behind Niirala Preschool in the city of Kuopio, unfazed by the warm August drizzle. When I clumsily unhinged the steel gate to the school’s playground, the young children didn’t even lift their eyes from the ground; they just kept dragging and pushing their tiny shovels through the mud.

At 9:30 a.m., the boys were called to line up for a daily activity called Morning Circle. (The girls were already inside—having chosen to play boardgames indoors.) They trudged across the yard in their rubber boots, pleading with their teachers to play longer—even though they had already been outside for an hour. As they stood in file, I asked them to describe what they’d been doing on the playground.

“Making dams,” sang a chorus of three boys.

“Nothing else?” one of their teachers prodded.

“Nothing else,” they confirmed.

“[Children] learn so well through play,” Anni-Kaisa Osei Ntiamoah, one of the preschool’s “kindergarten” teachers, who’s in her seventh year in the classroom, told me. “They don’t even realize that they are learning because they’re so interested [in what they’re doing].”

[Fred Sanders]

1. I also learned much about the physical dynamics of water and water management at age 6 in the mud.

Although not much choice since my school was made of the same stuff.

These socialist states have a lot to teach about how success-driven capitalist education is yesterday's way to learn.

I wish the same respect for innovation and new ways not tied to capitalist ideology and the work ethic as sacred cow was given to non-white socialist states.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. At that age, i ate my first worm.

Which my mother ( RIP) then shared publicly to anyone who would listen.
For 35 years.

i DO remember I walked to Kindergarten.
No mothers had cars during the day back them, kids walked to school if it was less than a mile.

and if you could read, it considered a "bad thing" for reasons I never did figure out.

[pnwmom]

3. Our kindergarten was too far to walk, but my first grade was close enough.

And I remember stomping through snow that was half as tall as I was to get there.

It was fun.

(And no "snow days" either. Snow days are for wimps who drive cars.)



On edit: I also remember having to wear "snow pants" under my skirt that I would take off as soon as I got there. That is one memory of the past that I'm not nostalgic about.

[Warren DeMontague]

4. You know, everyone complains about how uneducated US kids are, until their own kids start getting

tested.

Then- holy fuck! You expect them to know what? Opt Out! OPT OUT!

The thought that maybe Jayden or Brayden or Kayden may not be the little Einstein they thought he was, is too much of a threat. Meanwhile the kid does 4 days of soccer a week and spends a whopping 10 minutes learning math.

Look, I'm not saying drill Kindergartners in Quantum Mechanics; and certainly reading is something that kids pick up at diff. speeds- but at the same time those schools that say "no reading before 2nd grade" are likewise doing kids a disservice.

I'll go out on a limb and speculate that the Joyful Kindergartners of Finland won't be competing with their Chinese and Indian counterparts for the tech jobs of the mid-21st century.

[n2doc]

5. No, they will be creating the companies that hire those others

To do mindless repetitive coding. That's what rote learning gets you.

[Warren DeMontague]

7. I think there's a happy medium--- and with topics like math it has thus far eluded the education

"authorities", to be sure.

My personal ideal with kids and learning is to nurture the natural inquisitive spirt and love of learning. And play is bar none one of the BEST ways to learn IMHO.

Unfortunately I've seen too many situations in the US where people just think facts and science and the like are inherently suspect, (surely you've noticed the anti-intellectualism streak?) and they aren't telling their kids to get a chemistry set and start screwing around, they're methodically loading up the Honda minivan for 3 hours on the soccer field every afternoon because nothing is more important than making sure this kid becomes the next Pele.

[pnwmom]

10. This is not where I'm coming from.

More than half of the relatives in our extended family are in math, science, or engineering fields.

I do strongly agree that play is an important part of learning, and hands-on activities in general. That's why I'm concerned about what's happening in kindergarten. Worksheets and drills fill up too many hours in kindergartens these days. All to serve the test-gods.

[Warren DeMontague]

19. My kids' kindergarten experience wasn't like that.

But they couldn't even get all day state kindergarten- ours did it as their last year in preschool.

I think they've changed it, statewide, since. But not sure.

[Scootaloo]

6. Testing does not equal Education, and education does not equal testing

[Warren DeMontague]

8. No, but people talk out of both sides of their mouths when they gripe that US kids don't know stuff

and then complain about the way schools determine how much kids actually know, which usually involves some form test.

I'm out there in the trenches, Scoot, I know what I'm talking about.

[MyOwnPeace]

15. Weighing.....

the pig every day does not make it fatter................

[pnwmom]

9. Not in my case.

My children are all grown now, but they were spread far enough apart that each one had a different experience. The third got the high-test, high-pressure experience -- and it didn't benefit him or anyone else in his class. He dealt with school-based anxiety starting in elementary school. And the teachers were so anxious themselves (except for the ones on the verge of retirement) that they were no help with that issue.

My oldest, the one with the most relaxed, fun kindergarten experience, ended up with an engineering PhD from a top school. She has no problem keeping up with her Chinese and Indian counterparts.

Reading and math are both subject to developmental readiness. One of my nephews struggled with reading all the way into high school -- even had to use audio books made at "Recording for the Blind" -- but the skill suddenly clicked in 10th grade. And he also went on to get an engineering degree. And a top student of my husband's said he felt dumb until fourth grade, because it took that long before his reading ability reached the level of his math.

So many students like this, students who are very bright but don't learn on the standard timeline or in the standard manner, are at risk these days.

Meanwhile, students in Finland are at or near the top in world rankings, even in math.

P.S. Education these days is driven by tests. And test content is primarily driven by what is TESTABLE. So if something is difficult to test -- like public speaking skills, or empathy, or listening skills -- then it falls out of the curriculum. Not because it is unimportant, but because the testing companies haven't come up with a way to test it.

[Warren DeMontague]

18. I think the system in this country can definitely stand some improvement, no question.

[Octafish]

11. Kids get to like school...

...before they learn to dread going like in another industrialized nation.

[IDemo]

13. Went to a kindergarten for American kids in Turin, Italy ~1962

I can remember drawing pictures of apples and chucking a tricycle out an upstairs window. No calculus.

[Egnever]

14. ugh yes lets not try to teach little babies anything

They are far too stupid to learn. Amiright?

My four year old is well on her way to learning to read and she has only been read to. We are such monsters!

[pnwmom]

20. And that's great, for her. But learning at read at 4 doesn't mean in the long run

you'll end up smarter, or a better reader overall, than someone who doesn't learn till age 7.

Your child is developmentally ready right now. But forcing reading skills on a child who isn't developmentally ready for this step not benefit the child -- and is likely to frustrate her.

[Codeine]

16. I could read before kindergarten.

People underestimate kids; they're made to learn. They can't learn "too soon" or "too much" -- a child is a learning machine. The very structure of their brain is conducive to the learning process.

[eridani]

21. Not all kids are made to learn to read in kindergarten

Forcing them when they aren't ready seems really counterproductive to me. I'm speaking as an early reader myself--always experienced reading as more of a tropism than an actual skill. Oddly, that caused me trouble because the school wanted to teach reading their way, and if you already knew how you didn't fit in.

[Brickbat]

17. I find that gender breakdown really interesting, myself.