With pre-K and the early grades expected to be a key element of President Barack Obama's education agenda, early-childhood experts are urging policymakers to arrest what they see as the loss of free, unstructured playtime for children both in and out of school.
"Play is interfered with at every turn," Vivian Gussin Paley, an author and expert on young children's play told a group of 900 gathered last week for a conference at the 92nd Street Y, a cultural and community center known for its sought-after nursery school program. “What is happening to the preschoolers and the kindergartners when they are barely given any time to set the table in the doll corner, which is not even there in some places?”
Participants at the Nov. 14 meeting were urged to push for more recess periods in elementary schools and to spread their message to boards of education and government groups.
The event comes amid ongoing warnings about today’s students needing skills to compete in the workplace, and when the federal No Child Left Behind Act's accountability mandates have fueled an increase in test preparation and test taking in the early grades.
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Copyright 2009 by Editorial Projects in Education. All rights reserved.
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