A mark of an exceptional teacher is the ability to engender a love of learning in his or her students, coupled with providing each child with an excellent foundation in education. We’ve spoken a lot about our 3 pillars at Shreiner: Family Feel, Whole Child (Approach to Learning), and a solid pedagogical Foundation. Let’s break that down a bit this week by looking closely at what educators are recognizing about the role “play” has in a child’s development.
Washington Post staff writer Emma Brown recently wrote an article entitled: The Playtime's the Thing. (Washington Post, Saturday, November 21, 2009). Besides a clever nod to Shakespeare in the title (which I love, by the way), Ms. Brown spotlights the polar positions of two educational camps—those who believe in raising standards and student achievement by “teaching to standardized tests” and those who believe in the fundamental value of games and make-believe as an important part of a child’s preschool education and socio-emotional development.
The upshot is this, Ms. Brown’s article quotes education experts who support the value of play in a child’s education –especially and particularly in the preschool years. Among other things such as cultivating creativity and harnessing imagination, play also allows children to develop “…the roots of empathy and the capacity to take turns, negotiate with peers and understand how their behavior affects people”. And, as far as play versus “proficiency”, “…proficiency is measured on tests, but the far-reaching effects of play don’t show up in answers to multiple-choice questions. They show up in life”.
At Shreiner, we embrace the importance of play as an essential part of a child’s development, and we do this, we believe, without sacrificing the rigor or stimulation of a broad and rich curriculum. Know this: we are constantly evaluating what we do and improving upon it, too. Currently, we are revamping and aligning our curriculum across the grades, preschool through grade 8 for the 2010-2011 school year, and, rest assured, an important part of the plan is to continue to incorporate our play and creative components of the Shreiner approach to education. So stay tuned as we incorporate the wonders of technology with the old-fashioned benefits of an 8 acre campus and 9 playgrounds!
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