The Importance of Being Little: What Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups by Erika Christakis

Author:Erika Christakis [Christakis, Erika]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2016-02-08T23:00:00+00:00

MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH SCHLOCK

I don’t know who decided that primary-colored plastics were the tent poles of early childhood education, but preschools are among the phoniest physical environments imaginable. As we’ve seen, the prevailing preschool atmosphere is profoundly overstimulating to young children. But even less appreciated is how deeply unappealing it is on an aesthetic level, even to a child.

Before the ink had dried on my teaching certificate in early childhood education, I used a gift from a family member to buy classroom supplies from one of those teacher catalogs selling laminated work sheets and brightly colored plastic bins. I was staggered by all the choices and the shocking degree of overlap between the purveyors of educational material and the craft and toy aisles of most big box stores.

I felt like a kid in a candy shop, ordering heaps of what could only be loosely described as educational tchotchkes. My sense of legitimacy as a newly minted teacher masked any nagging unease I might have allowed myself regarding what I knew, deep down, was a tenuous connection between cartoon frog templates and the meaningful inquiry I’d seen in the classrooms I most admired. If I felt any discomfort, I brushed it aside. I had joined a new club whose membership required that I buy seasonal borders to put on my bulletin boards.

In the intervening years, the overlap between education and entertainment has grown far more pronounced. Recently, I was surprised to discover a branch of one of the leading purveyors of teacher supplies, Lakeshore Learning, in a shopping complex near my house, adjacent to the Stop and Shop, T. J. Maxx, and, appropriately enough, Petco. The aisles were packed with row after row of sticker rewards and bright-colored banners, bulletin borders and posters, and all kinds of classroom decor that seemed better suited to the gift-wrapping aisle at a Hallmark store. When I asked the manager about the people who shopped at Lakeshore, he proudly noted that parents have become a big source of revenue because they are worried about their children falling behind. I have absolutely no objections to a robust market economy, and if this is what teachers and parents really want for young children, so be it. But I have to ask: Is this what children really need?

An alternative classroom aesthetic has sprung up to which I confess a strong bias but which nonetheless raises a few questions, too. You can spot this aesthetic by the presence of artistically pleasing natural materials and muted tones that have a decidedly upscale grownup ambience about them. You might find a shelf of woven baskets full of smooth stones and shells or a contemplative corner containing inspirational art books and grownup drawing materials (such as sticks of natural charcoal), or an array of sea glass or beads. The sensory table might contain pleasing natural textures of coffee hulls or pieces of bark, rather than plastic toys. Teachers in such classrooms are very intentional and often describe curating their materials to evoke certain emotional, cognitive, or sensory responses in young children.

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