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Lea Winerman's 'Playtime In Peril'

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Playtime and Academics in Kindergarten
Kindergarten, the most exciting educational time for anyone’s life. Every child’s dream of finally going to school and having time to play with children they just met. But now a days is playtime still considered a learning way for kindergarteners? Lea Winerman, writer of “Playtime in Peril,” explains how psychologists and educators have found research that young children in New York and Los Angeles spend less time on playtime when they are in kindergarten.
Kindergarteners have been having way less playtime than twenty years ago, they barely have time to learn while playing. Since children are spending less playtime in school, Winerman believes that these Kindergarteners are not having playtime at …show more content…

Most kindergarteners are forced to take on critical learning material that a first grader should be learning. In Maryland’s Montgomery County, kindergarteners are given a reading exam by the end of the year and most of them pass it (Curwood, 2014). Last century, kindergarteners did not received any type of reading exams, they were not even introduced to reading. Kindergarten was fun and children did not have to stress about not being able to learn how to read or write. There was also hardly any homework that would take children hours to finish. I remember my cousin about two years ago being stuck at home not able to go out and play with her neighbors because she had so much homework to do. Keep in mind, this is only kindergarten and she already had a lot of homework to do and on top of that, she had to learn how to read or else they would held her back before going in to first grade. Grades have shifted now, first grade has become second grade and so on (Curwood, 2014). So is there a point in kindergarten now? Since it is now first grade, should children go to kindergarten before going in to first grade? That would be like repeating the grade all over …show more content…

The disappearing of playtime is causing a mental health problem in children (Jacobson, 2008). As mentioned before, Winerman also believes that the lack of playtime in schools is causing health problems like anxiety and stress in these young children. Education is putting a lot of pressure in learning a lot of material and not giving them enough playtime. Keeping children healthy is a key while in school, if children are healthy they will not miss a day of class and will be on top of what is being introduced; To keep a child healthy, they have to exercise and play. If preschools and kindergarten are going to diminish playtime, they should at least have physical education. It is the same as playtime but it will focus more on exercising. Physical education will teach children the importance of exercising and staying healthy throughout their life time. Playing is important for children because they learn capabilities of the body and how it moves (Sanders & Graham, 1995). Exercising and learning about the body interests children, anything that has nothing to do with writing and reading will interest children. Children will learn a lot and fast if it interests

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