Teaching , Play, Joy

Loving To Learn and Other Fun Stuff

Testing, Teaching

This week I read an article by Tim Walker, entitled The Joyful, Illiterate Kindergartners of Finland. I found the article both interesting and intriguing. Evidently, in Finland, they call kindergarten "pre-school" and the children in these classes are five and six year olds. Finland believes that young children should have plenty of playtime, in fact that is how they learn at that age. Arja-Sisko Holappa, a counselor for the Finnish National Board of Education and who also leads development of the country's pre-primary core curriculum stated, "Play is a very efficient way of learning for children. And we can use it in a way that children will learn with joy." In the United States, we give lip service to the belief that young children learn through play, but on most occasions we don't act like we truly believe that. In this country the pendulum has swung far the other way. American kindergartners are expected to no longer learn just the letters of the alphabet and numbers to twenty, but now must be able to read and understand text, identify real-life connections between words and their use, demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking and writing their own stories. I'm not saying that children shouldn't learn these skills, they are important, but should it be at five years old? There is much more testing of skills....and testing...and testing. Shew! No wonder the kids are stressed out, not to mention the teachers.

If we have teachers being forced to teach to the tests, and our youngest students feeling the pressure to perform, what happens to the joy of learning? The kind of learning that comes naturally and is fundamental to future success? As a special education teacher, it is my responsibility to write my student's individual education plans. I write goals to help them learn and to be successful in their learning. I wish I could write a goal that was specifically to allow joyful play. I believe that goal is just as important, and maybe even more so, to a rich and productive life. Joy in learning should not just be for young children, but older children and adults too. A child who has a genuine joy of learning, will become an adult who remains a life long learner.  

Ms. Holappa states her country's early childhood education program indeed places a heavy emphasis on "joy", and along with play, is written into the curriculum. I don't know about you, but that sounds really good to me. "There's an old Finnish saying," she said. "Those things you learn without joy you will forget easily."  Well said, Ms. Holappa, well said.