"The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves." -- John Adams

"No money shall be drawn from the treasury, for the benefit of any religious or theological institution." -- Indiana Constitution Article 1, Section 6.

"...no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish enlarge, or affect their civil capacities." – Thomas Jefferson

Sunday, April 11, 2010

What Happened to Play in Kindergarten?

I read the following passage a few days ago.

"What kind of professional wants to spend every working hour doing what research says is best for children and best practices only to be second guessed and overridden, asked to do things that aren't developmentally appropriate? (Can anyone say play in Kindergarten anymore?)" -- Natalie Holland

We (the American public) are going to get what we pay for. When teaching becomes (continues to become) simply reading the script and instruction on how to fill in bubbles, then we're going to get teachers who are adept at reading scripts and showing kids how to fill in bubbles.

Right now, in Florida, the attack on Public Education has reached a new level. Teachers will be judged by their students' scores on a test - experience doesn't count for anything. The politicians are pushing it through...and when it fails to close the achievement gap between rich and poor, as it surely will, teachers will, again, be the ones to blame.

It doesn't seem to matter what research into best practices says...

1 comment:

james boutin said...

Keeping my fingers crossed the Crist will veto it.