What happens at the Kindergarten? High-level tests, worsening of educational standards and rigid education have led to consider the Kindergarten no longer as a play space for the child, but as a new first cycle of studies. KINDERGARTEN: THE RETURN TO THE “CHILDREN’S GARDEN”

How can we go back to the original idea of ​​Kindergarten as a “children’s garden (the English name for kindergarten is in fact Kindergarten (from German) –   children garden , literally children’s garden) and support the restoration of play?

WHY THE KINDERGARTEN IS IMPORTANT

The Kindergarten is the bridge between pre-school and primary school. It is the moment in which children are most curious about the world and its wonders. They are developing their scientific, linguistic and acting skills.

The British researcher Vivian Paley has defined kindergarten as “the university of fantasy”: it is the phase in which children’s imagination is most flourishing, the phase in which they begin to approach role-playing in a mature way using it as an engine of mental and socio-emotional development. Cutting off this wonderful stage of the child’s growth with inappropriate pressure reduces their freedom and rights.

 THE ORIGINAL IDEA

Much of what we know about pre-school education we owe to the revolutionary work of Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852). Before he invented Kindergarten there was no recognized value in teaching children under the age of 7 . His careful observation of human development led to the confirmation that the first years of life are fundamental for educational development . Froebel recognized that the child’s free play or “the child’s spontaneous impulse to explore and act” is the first mode of learning. Taking advantage of this natural attitude of the child was one of the foundations for the creation of the Kindergarten (Brosterman, 1997).

Froebel believed that the relationship between educator and child was of great importance for learning. He saw children as individuals to be respected and nurtured, just like young plants, conceiving the kindergarten (Kindergarten – children’s garden) as a fertile space in which children could flourish and grow. The Kindergarten environment, for him, had to be full of playful experiences. The teacher therefore had to be both a “gardener” and an “explorer” alongside the children (Zinguer, 2015).

In order to foster this “natural” learning Froebel devised materials, known as “Gifts” and “Occupations”, to engage children in playful learning.

Froebel’s ten “Gifts” were a series of educational and practical toys, such as balls, blocks and tiles, with which children played on large slate tables, taking care of analyzing, making and building themselves, under the guidance of a teacher . The “Gifts” were aimed at understanding and outlining the practical and abstract attitudes of children. The children, in turn, learned to mentally build inner relationships and understand oppositions, similarities and differences.

If the Gifts concerned the child’s innate abilities or there were those for thinking and doing, Froebel’s ten “Occupations” were, on the other hand, materials and activities derived from traditional crafts and manual activities related to the child’s environment. Children were given materials to use in activities such as embroidery, cutting, weaving, weaving and manipulation . These educational activities were teacher-led and were intended to promote two-dimensional and three-dimensional thinking (Hanschmann, 1897).

Although the Prussian government, in 1851, had obstructed and made all kindergartens illegal (considering them subversive), Froebel’s progressive idea of ​​asylum did not die and soon spread throughout the world (Brosterman, 1997). The first Kindergarten was opened in London in 1851.  In 1856, some German immigrants opened the first Kindergarten in the United States, in Watertown, Wisconsis. It was Elizabeth Peabody who opened the first English-language Preschool in Boston in 1860.

Froebel’s innovative classroom objects (Gifts and Occupations) were exhibited in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.

It is interesting to note that parents at the time argued among themselves that kindergarten should take precedence over learning to read (Beatty, 2000).

Peabody and other educators emphasized that Kindergarten was a bridge between home and school , making Kindergarten a wonderful place to prepare children for subsequent study cycles and for academic learning. They also emphasized the fact that the Kindergarten was not a public primary school or a renewed old kindergarten, but a new and very different educational institution, a “children’s garden” (Baylor, 1965). This original view was followed until the mid-twentieth century.

In recent years, this has changed everywhere, so much so that what we call Kindergarten the “first cycle” (Bassok, Latham, & Rorem, 2016).

THE CURRENT REALITY

Rapid changes have occurred in the school system over the past 20 years . Public preschools have become places where children often suffer under the weight of wrong academic content (too rich soil), direct orders (aggressive watering) and insensitive assessments (pesticides). In kindergartens, children rarely have the opportunity to play . There is a crisis in which teachers and children are under siege (Miller & Almon, 2009).

Miller and Almon called attention to this problem in their text Crisis in the Kindergarten (2009). More recently, Bassok et al. (2016) provided empirical confirmation of this representation through data from a survey that compared teachers and kindergarten classrooms between 1998 and 2010.

Comparative results showed that, for example, kindergartens with a dramatization area fell from 87% to 58%, while the use of reading and math worksheets rose by 17%, respectively. % and 15%. The questions in the 1998 survey also did not include teachers’ use of classwork; Alarmingly, in 2010, around 30% of kindergarten teachers reported having such tests carried out at least once a month.

HOW TO TRANSFORM THAT

The first step in transforming this situation is to recognize that it is a problem. As long as teachers, principals and public bodies in general do not admit that we are putting pressure on the children of the Kindergarten, the situation will not change.

The harm to children caused by school pressure is carrying over to the next generations. We are losing sight of what research has shown: children learning better through play and joyful discovery.

Knowledge, strategies for change and political support are indispensable to solve this problem. Even before that happens, however, we can do something to change this trend.

Teachers could find ways to adapt the activities carried out to different children: the lessons should be tailored to the interests and attitudes of the children, based on their level of development, they could use teaching strategies focused on play and planning.

The children of the Kindergarten are at the perfect age to be able to try their hand at games of various kinds. A wise teacher will use this need for play to promote the child’s development in all areas, including education . Play-based strategies will allow the child to experiment, explore, manipulate and transform the concepts and materials introduced in the classroom. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to teaching!

HOW THE KINDERGARTEN SHOULD BE

First of all, Kindergarten shouldn’t look like a classroom full of desks and chairs. Instead, it should appear as a comfortable space in which children can interact with each other and with various materials. Classrooms should reflect the attitudes of the children who attend them. Materials and activities should be culturally relevant, flexible, open, and easily accessible to children.

What are you supposed to hear? A buzz of activity! What should you see? Children absorbed in various activities! What could the teacher do? Interact with small groups of children; facilitate learning by involving children, not directing them.

This was Froebel’s original vision when he coined the term Kindergarten! After years of searching for a term to describe his educational approach, Froebel found the answer by combining the words children (Kinder) and garden (Garten).

Children need to have the opportunity to freely explore the world in a stimulating environment. The result of this careful cultivation is the “ creation of a sensitive and curious child, with a genuine respect for nature, for the family and for society; a reasonable and creative child who would later have very few problems learning anything else ”(Brosterman, 1997).

Froebel’s view of childhood and early education is desperately needed today. Perhaps, by looking back and observing how Kindergarten was born, we can acquire data for the future and try to restore the game.

A preschool should be filled with buzzes of child-directed activity!