Play in Early Childhood = Successful Learners

I am a product of the Golden Age of California Public Education (1970's), and remember when classrooms where adequately staffed and stocked; PE was every day; Art and Music were available every week;and children ate paste in Kindergarten and learned to read by Third Grade (without anyone feeling inferior for not being able to read in Kindergarten/First Grade).  I feel that the current push to accelerate children's performance (rote skills established through testing) is extremely harmful to true intellectual inquiry and the creative process. We are producing a generation of de-coders instead of readers and children incapable of problem-solving through their own critical thinking.

I believe the solution to this tragedy lies in convincing parents and politicians that children must have an opportunity in their first six years of life to play, unhampered by adult perceptions and judgements of if that time is "wasted" or "valuable learning time" (it is valuable learning time, just not product oriented).  I believe fostering an attitude of respect for this necessary period of human development is essential to combatting many of the current evils that plague our children: obesity, depression, apathy.

As an Early Childhood Educator, I am very interested in the proposed Universal Preschool, but I am concerned that the curricula would simply be the same watered-down second grade curriculum that currently informs California's public school Kindergarten curriculum instead of a play-based, sensory rich environment.

I fervently believe that children construct their own knowledge through play, and that the goal of Universal Preschool should be to provide for all children a safe environment with nurturing caregivers to interact with peers joyfully.  I will be disheartened if Universal Preschool follows the current classroom mold of insisting that children adhere to standards that do not respect the diverse developmental timelines of each individual child.