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We Don't Want Kindergarten Cops

Ohanian Comment: The article makes some good points, but I'm worried by that phrases teachers shouldn't have to be wardens. If teachers don't want to be wardens, then they shouldn't kow-tow to the destruction of kindergarten as a children's garden, shouldn't impose academic pressures.

Imagine a "terrible twos" mindset, but in a stronger 5-year-old, a more irritable 13-year-old, or a much more cocky 19-year-old. Aggression doesn't peak sometime in the teens as many think, but when we are much younger-- just before the age of two, according to research on the brain and behavior.

Time magazine reports in its December 15 issue on "kamikaze kindergartners" throwing temper tantrums, shrieking, and hurling books, referring to the trend of younger and younger children acting much more aggressively in
school. These problems with aggression are real as teachers and parents are well aware.

Plenty of reasons come to mind--too much violence on TV, too much time in poor quality day care, and increased academic pressures from an early age. Away from home we give kids time out when they need time off. At home they
spend too little time practicing impulse control and parents give too much latitude to the children's impulses, letting them eat whatever they want or stay up as late as they want.

We must not allow the increasing emphasis on academics to overshadow or neglect children's social and emotional development--a world that is 'in with drills and worksheets, out with play!'

The kind of aggressive behavior we see in preschoolers and kindergartners is just the tip of the iceberg of a larger problem. Lack of self-regulation translates into problems far beyond the more startling aggressive behaviors.

To learn in a preschool or school setting, young children must be able to pay attention and remember things on purpose. For example, they need to be able to ignore the other children around them who are fun to play with while concentrating their minds on the story the teacher tells. This kind of self-control, or self-regulation, represents one of the major developmental accomplishments of the preschool years.

The preschool years offer the optimal time to teach children how to control their own impulses. Along with language and motor skills, in their first five years, young children learn social and emotional patterns that stick
with them for life. Patterns of behavior get wired into the brain as webs of neurons make connections and the brain discards unused ones. Young children who do not acquire develop sufficient self-regulation turn into adults who never adequately learn how to control their impulses and, more generally, how to regulate their actions on their own.

Most children spend time in a preschool classroom, whether it is Head Start, childcare, or a public or private nursery school. We could improve children's self-regulation through these programs, but we do not. Too many
teachers of young children don't know how to help children learn self-regulation.

As this country moves to adopt the systems of early education that will likely be in place throughout the 21st century, we must demand high-quality preschools equipped with preschool teachers who have the knowledge and training to provide young children with a quality education - one that balances academic development with emotional and social development.

As we work to strike that balance it's important to keep in mind that teachers shouldn't have to be wardens, and children shouldn't be subjected to others around them throwing temper tantrums or worse. Let's give our children the tools they need to be responsible and thoughtful neighbors as
well as eager readers and model mathematicians.

W. Steven Barnett, Ph.D.
Director, National Institute for Early Education Research


Dr. Barnett's research has focused on the long-term effects of preschool programs on children's learning and development. He is a professor of education economics and public policy at Rutgers University.




— W. Steven Barnett
Op-Ed: We Don't Want Kindergarten Cops
National Institute for Early Education Research
2003-12-19
http://nieer.org/mediacenter/index.php?PressID=35

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