Jumping Into the Rigors of Learning

As Number of Full-Day Kindergartens Increases, Reading and Math Lessons Supplant Playtime

First in an occasional series of articles about the grades that provide the building blocks of a child's education, starting with kindergarten.

Chloe Ramick sat cross-legged on the floor of her kindergarten classroom, hunched over a super-size edition of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" On a sheet of paper labeled "blue," the 5-year-old carefully wrote her name, then studied the book for a blue-colored animal and found a horse. She put a place marker in the book and then moved on to "green."

Across the room, teacher Trish Fichtner worked with a handful of students who each held the little picture book "Pumpkin Grow" and were taking turns reading -- all seven pages, with three words to a page. "A pumpkin seed," Krishna Kalaruth, 5, read aloud.

Soon it was time for singing, and the words went: "For-ty, fif-ty, six-ty, seven-ty" . . . up to 100, then back down again. Fichtner pointed to each number on a chart as the voices echoed.

Chloe and Krishna declared it all great fun, but that wasn't the real intention, said Susan Benezra, principal of McNair Elementary School in Herndon. The school's curriculum -- called "integrated" because it allows children to explore knowledge in various subjects in connection to their environments -- stresses early reading and math skills to prepare them for the rigors of first grade.

A key goal is for as many children as possible to leave kindergarten with basic reading skills. "It's no longer playing and just socialization," Benezra said. "Everything has an academic bent. The tooth chart isn't really to track lost teeth -- it's to help them count."

Kindergarten, which is German for "children's garden," is serious stuff these days. With half-day programs giving way to full days in state after state, the curriculum once saved for first grade has been pushed down to 5- and 6-year-olds. Nearly 98 percent of youngsters in the United States attend kindergarten, 60 percent of them in full-day programs, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Once focused heavily on a child's social and emotional development, kindergarten is now a largely academic experience -- sometimes with math drills and daily homework and worksheets. In many schools, time for music, art, recess and games has withered.

Kindergarten also has become a political battleground, as lawmakers, educators and parents argue over what should be taught.

"Kindergarten has changed drastically over the years from a 'get-used-to-school' type of experience for young children to one that is very academic," said Susan Catapano, assistant professor of teaching and learning at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. "A critical issue is what the child's experiences prior to entering kindergarten were and how well-prepared they are to engage in the academic requirements of kindergarten today."

Ready or not, kids are expected to do more in kindergarten now than just a few years ago, and many educators say that makes sense in many ways.

"Just because they are little doesn't mean they can't learn and absorb," Benezra said.