Teach With Joy and Wonder

Halfway through my last year of teaching in public school, I looked out over my classroom of wiggly, four year-old balls of energy, and wondered, “What am I doing?” Each on their own colored carpet dot, they sat: biting their lips, sitting on their hands, hugging their legs close to their chest, trying not to explode. At that moment, I realized why I was so unhappy with teaching.

Because this was not teaching at all.

Not the kind of teaching I believe in, anyway.

The year prior I had decided I needed more opportunity for creativity and fun than I was able to implement in 1st grade, where every spare moment outside of covering the state standards (if there was a spare moment) was for drilling previously taught concepts in an attempt to raise test scores. So I naively thought, perhaps I should give Pre-K a go. Surely, we will be able to do more hands-on learning, imaginative play, songs, stories, and play dough. Right?

No.

As the school year began, this seemed to be the case. We did play more. We sang. We danced. We practiced fine motor skills with fun crafts. And we went outside! Not just once, but twice a day! For 15 minutes each. This still seemed like a pathetically minimal amount of outdoor playtime for a four year-old, but who was I to complain? The other grades only got one recess. (In an 8-hour day. One fifteen minute recess.)

So I sailed along in my new Pre-K wonderland for a few months, until the district adopted a new thought. Our students needed to be better prepared for Kindergarten…so they would be better prepared for 1st grade, so they would be better prepared for 2nd grade, so they would be better prepared for 3rd grade when state testing begins and life gets really serious. Then it’s off to college and careers. So we can’t waste any more precious time.

No longer was it acceptable to simply reach the state expectations for Pre-K. Now, not only would our students know all of the letters and their sounds, they would be reading! Before kindergarten.

And how would we accomplish this? By getting rid of play time and rest, of course! In place of rest time, we would learn science. In place of our privileged 2nd recess, we would have reading groups.

Don’t get me wrong. The idea of students reading books at the age of 4 is a lovely one. And some children do just that. Except many of them aren’t developmentally ready for that yet. Their brains literally aren’t physically ready for it. And when they don’t perform as expected, even though that expectation is unrealistic (and let’s be honest, ludicrous), they feel stressed out, depressed, and like failures. Please read that again.

Four year-olds are stressed out, depressed, and feel like failures.

Four. Year. Olds.

Having spent the previous 15 years of my life, happily reading books on the couch with my own kids, taking hikes, and watching butterflies hatch, I felt something was seriously lacking in my current position. I couldn’t take it anymore. So I quit.

I vowed to never set foot in a classroom again. I just couldn’t do it.

And then I met Reggio Emilia and my perspective changed.

Reggio is not a person. It’s actually a town in Italy where a philosophy of learning originated. The Reggio philosophy holds that children are capable, curious individuals who are eager to learn and interact with their environment. They do so through long-term projects that are chosen based on the students’ interests, and carried out through a framework of activities that are intentionally directed by the teachers. It is hands-on, child-driven, creative, and play-based.

Play. Imagine that.

As it turns out, play is essential to healthy brain development. It strengthens and increases connections in the brain which are used for thinking, reduces anxiety and stress, fosters creativity, promotes physical health, and…wait for it…even improves language skills and literacy. (Ha! I know you caught the irony in that.)

It’s a whole new way of thinking! Or is it? Actually, no. Play has been an integral and sweet part of childhood since the beginning of time. For some reason, though, we have been programmed to believe that it is not important. Or perhaps, we have simply just become too busy to notice that it has disappeared from our lives.

But let us step back, take a deep breath, and explore the option of learning through play once more. Perhaps we will see a difference. Because goodness knows, what we are doing right now isn’t working.

If you are as disillusioned with the current state of our educational system as I am, I would love to share with you some of the treasures that I have found on my educational journey from homeschool, to public school, to Reggio. In the coming days I will be sharing ideas and resources that will help spark curiosity and creativity in our kiddos. In the meantime, let us raise high the banner of play and may we rediscover the joy and wonder of learning (and teaching too!).