Louisiana Educator: Child's Play vs Common Core

Louisiana Educator: Child's Play vs Common Core:

Child's Play vs Common Core

This story aired recently on National Public Radio. It reports on a study of children by Canadian scientists that finds that unstructured play may be more important to a child's healthy brain development than much of the highly structured curriculum being mandated in our schools today for very young children. The problem for schools is that now with the forced implementation of highly structured Common Core compliant lessons, many very young children are losing unstructured play time. The Canadian scientists believe that unstructured play with other children may be part of a genetically directed maturation process that occurs in humans that is crucial to proper brain development. The researchers believe that any restriction or redirecting of these natural developmental activities may stifle or stunt healthy brain development.

The researchers found that school systems that provide regular time for recess within the school day, had students who performed better on standardized academic tests. They concluded that the students who were allowed adequate time to participate in unstructured play with other children  seemed to have superior brain development because of the natural development of effective social strategies. The trend in the U.S. with more and more emphasis on strict academic skills, is that recess time is being shortened to provide more time for test prepping.

To further complicate the problem, over 500 early childhood educators sounded the warning very early during the consideration of Common Core that much of the material required by Common Core for very young children is not age appropriate. Many parents have complained that their children have been unnecessarily Louisiana Educator: Child's Play vs Common Core: