What I did and What I saw...

In Kindergarten

It was September of 1964. As I recall I bounded out of the front door of our house with Mom and enthusiastically jumped into the back seat of the car. This was to be my first day in kindergarten. At that time in Chattanooga, Tennessee, kindergarten was a private institution housed in our neighborhood school. I was, and am, the fifth child out of 6. The oldest in the fall of 1964, Shannon, was a freshman at the University of North Carolina. My only brother, Johnny, was a Junior in High School. My two middle sisters, Hannah and Polly, were in 5th and 7th grade while my little sister, Bess, was two. I had an idealistic perspective about going to school driven by what I had witnessed through my older siblings. I was ready, willing, and eager!

This would turn out to be a very disappointing day. Mom had misunderstood the date for my registration. When we arrived at the school, I was crushed to learn that this day would not be my first day. I’m sure my mother had a pang of guilt as I cried, no wailed, all the way back home. I would have to wait a week. An eternity to this 5-year-old.

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I do recall a few opportunities at the time out table, but it didn’t seem to

dampen my enthusiasm to go to school every day

My memories of kindergarten are for the most part positive. I made new friends, played, painted on giant tempera paint easels, watched as bulldozers leveled huge oak trees to renovate our playground, and observed the birth of baby chickens right in the middle of our classroom. I do recall a few opportunities at the time out table, but it didn’t seem to dampen my enthusiasm to go to school every day. I remember sitting at the carpet with my classmates attentive to my teachers reading or class discussions. In those days we attended kindergarten for half a day. I went home for lunch and after a nap often ran down the street to play with a friend. I didn’t lack for confidence because none of my day was about achieving anything. Exploring my world was the activity. Kindergarten and home life fit hand and glove. School was everything I thought it would be….

As A Principal…

The Joy of a Hug Around the Knee

Fast forward to the fall of 2015. I’m an elementary school principal at this point. It was my 9th year in this job at two different schools in two different states and districts. My first principal assignment was at Myers Park Traditional School, a magnet school in Charlotte, NC where I began in 2007. I loved visiting kindergarten classrooms where student enthusiasm was high. While the current phonics curriculum was taught, the academic did not overwhelm play and exploration at Myers Park.

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There is nothing like having a kindergartener enthusiastically hug you around the knees because he knows that he is going to have a great day once he enters the building.

I had been told by a friend who was a retired high school principal and superintendent that he regretted never working in an elementary school. I, prior to this job, spent 25 years in secondary schools. I quickly learned what my friend meant. There is nothing like having a kindergartener enthusiastically hug you around the knees because he knows that he is going to have a great day once he enters the building.

Struggling with Change

In my school in Huntsville, Alabama on that day in 2015, I was struggling with a change. I had been Principal there since 2012 and noticed a profound difference in the approach toward 5-year-olds. They were there to learn to read. Most of the toys for play were not present. Kindergarteners were working at tables completing letter sound exercises on work sheets or working on Ipads where games were used that focused on reading and math. There was little time for learning about the world around them or tactile exploration critical for development, and literacy and math were now a 4-hour enterprise. Recess was supposed to last only 15 minutes while they did get 30 minutes of structured PE. Nap time existed after lunch, but teachers were encouraged to wean their students of it as the year progressed. I rebelled quietly by never checking how long classes were at recess or formally asking teachers to end naps. I left both to the discretion of the teacher.

Perhaps my greatest frustration was watching kindergartners take standardized tests on their tablets in formal testing settings. 5-year-olds have not mastered fine motor skills much less reading. They would become profoundly frustrated trying to understand what they were being asked to do. Simply scrolling through and completing the test was an accomplishment. Right answers, what are they? I would frequently leave each classroom angry after watching children cry out of frustration. The minority of students who had some success at this endeavor quickly saw themselves intellectually superior to their classmates while the others considered themselves stupid.

Misguided Priorities

The district priority was to prepare students through reading exercises on these devices at the expense of other activities that could address fine motor skills, critical thinking, and socialization, not to mention curiosity. Through my last eight years as a principal, it became evident that deficits in social skills, apparent through various forms of bullying or social withdrawal, and motor development were causing numerous relational and academic challenges as children matriculated through elementary school. This also resulted in growing student boredom and disinterest in school that too often led to resentment toward attendance and discipline challenges.

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The basic belief as I grew up was that reading would come.

Encouraging Curiosity

My experience as a student along with my family’s priority toward education helped lay the foundation for a successful school experience. It all began with the wonders of my environment and encouragement to explore. The basic belief as I grew up was that reading would come. Don’t force literacy, introduce life. It later turned out that I was a latent reader but not a passive learner. This discovery gave me the time to adopt reading while still being curious about the wonders of the world around me.

When the Hyper Focus on Reading Discourages Learning

In my experience as a principal, I encountered a different circumstance. An education philosophy that saw reading as urgent learning. A perspective that interpreted reading struggles at five as a sign of potential learning issues down the road that too often resulted in diagnosis of attention disorders or learning deficits.

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Reading was the end rather than the means. Interventions that restricted

exploration and activity were prescribed.

What students learned no longer mattered. Reading was the end rather than the means. Five-year-old’s who could not identify letter sounds or recite the alphabet were seen as deficient. Interventions that restricted exploration and activity were prescribed. Teachers were judged for the minutes and hours they spent in small groups working from basil readers and letter sounds while students not in a small group were expected to dutifully complete rudimentary exercises that reinforced small group lessons. Yes, social emotional learning eventually became the mantra to address student maturity and social deficits but reading blind non-fiction text remained the focus. What principals, teachers, and parents saw didn’t matter. Tests scores as data gave us our marching orders.