I’ve Got Good News and Bad News – Neither of it New News

First, the good – there is a wonderful, welcome, outstanding trend in Early Education that is definitely not new, but still terrific. It is the return to play-based, child-centered, developmentally appropriate practice; the increase in the number of outdoor and forest schools; the use of ‘loose parts’; and the increase in programs incorporating the excellent aspects of Reggio Emilia, Waldorf, and Inquiry and Challenge-based curricula.

And now the bad – there is this foolish, misguided and just plain wrong philosophy/practice taking place simultaneously in US schools of creating educational goals for learning and behavior that are not in line with what we know to be true about child development; setting young children up for failure by disallowing the very methods they use to achieve high quality learning; and then expecting the children to attain these goals and their teachers to measure their progress by use of standardized tests. 

So, What Do We Do?

First, you must believe, live by, and insist on the philosophy that each child from birth to age 8, be allowed and encouraged to use these six methods of learning on a daily basis:

1. Movement of his body
2. Exploration with his senses
3. Manipulation of a huge variety of raw, natural, and manmade materials
4. Construction, destruction, and reconstruction
5. Role playing through imitation and imagination
6. Self expression through facial expression & gesture, spoken word, art, music, drama, dictation, and written word

All of these are PLAY and all of them result in quality learning!

And Then:

• Set developmentally appropriate educational goals (I call them Strength Expectations)
• Create a physical and emotional environment that encourages play (see 1-6, above)
• Let the children play (see 1-6, above) while you join in to supervise for safety; offer facts or language as needed; and ask open-ended questions like ‘what if’? ‘how did you’? and ‘what do YOU think’?
• Observe the play
• Recognize learning when you see it
• Document the learning by photo, samples of saved work, & notes for a portfolio
• Compare your observations & notes to your stated educational goals (Strength Expectations)

Voila! Learning Measured.