Returning to the Value of Play for Kindergarten Students
In this thoughtful report from August 20, 2025, schools may want to reconsider the emphasis on kindergarten as the first step to preparation for state tests. Today’s kindergarten students are the first generation of the post-COVID generation. Both anecdotal reports and comprehensive research reports suggest that behavior has been significantly worse, with students failing to have essential self-regulation skills such as taking turns, avoiding inappropriate contact, and respecting the space of classmates. The authors make the counterintuitive point that the best way for students to succeed in future grades is not the trying to make 5-year-old students focus like their 3rd grade elders, but rather to allow more unstructured play time. The key, they said was to avoid adult interference unless it is necessary for student safety. Students must learn to resolve conflicts and listen to one another without adult instruction.
The bad news is that states continue to pile on curriculum demands to kindergarten teachers, essentially robbing teachers and students of the time required for free play. New Hampshire teachers quoted in the article said that they needed to hide their play time to avoid being reprimanded by administrators for failures to follow the prescribed academic curriculum. I confess to being conflicted about this advice. Many readers have heard of the “thirty million words” – the gap between the language to which economically advanced students have compared to their low-income peers. See https://www.speechbuddy.com/blog/language-development/building-a-childs-brain-with-the-thirty-million-words-initiative/#:~:text=The%20TMW%20is%20a%20parent-directed%20program%2C%20which%20emphasizes,spread%20the%20word%20about%20the%20importance%20of%20language. If students don’t catch up in kindergarten, it becomes more difficult each succeeding year. This is especially true not only for economically disadvantaged students but also for multi-lingual students. Surely there must be a thoughtful balance between academic demands and free play time. One thing we do know is the best answer for academic support for kindergarten and every grade level is not summer school or after school, but support for student learning during the school day. That means that in practice, there are fewer standards and curriculum demands and more time for teachers to personalize instruction and academic support.
Here’s the link for the full article:
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