Kids go to school for many reasons. Where and when depends on their age, location, parental preference and local policies. Parents send their kids to school to expose them to experiences that are different from their own at home and in their communities. Schools are designed to provide spaces for exploration, self-awareness and connection with other kids. Teachers encourage kids to strengthen the skills they have and help them gain new ones as they advance from grade to grade.
I have spent the last 20 years studying and working with children from birth to 21 years of age in a variety of settings. I often think about how to create the best learning environment for children, beginning with preschool. To me, that means ensuring that all children have the opportunity to be in a school that can fulfill their learning needs as well as their physical, social and emotional well-being at all stages of their lives.
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Preschool
Around 61% of 3-to-5-year-olds in the U.S. are enrolled in some type of preschool. Because these are critical years for brain development, attending a high-quality learning program is essential.
What makes a good program for young children? Since children learn through play, it’s important for play to be the focus of most activities. It’s also essential for teachers to interact with their young students and respond to each child’s needs.
During this important developmental stage, children also form a sense of self. For example, they might start to think of themselves as a big brother or sister if there’s another child at home. They also begin to connect more deeply with others, learn to communicate their feelings, practice sharing and more. When schools include children’s identity, cultural norms and traditions in the classroom, students feel a sense of belonging and inclusion. This helps children form associations that are important for learning.
Elementary school
Children entering kindergarten at age 5 or 6 can have many different feelings, including nervousness and excitement for this new experience. Perhaps kids have heard adults say that starting kindergarten is the start of “real learning.” But this isn’t the case; kids learn from the day they are born.
With the transition to kindergarten, kids begin to work on personal and social skills, like managing their behaviors and reactions, problem-solving and logical thinking. Kids’ early experiences expand their ideas of how the world works. And as they mature they become better able to understand more complex thought processes, like reversibility, or water turning to ice and then back to water. Another concept they may start to explore is how matter takes the shape of the space it occupies, like sand filling a star-shaped container, and why that happens.
As students advance through elementary school, their reading and comprehension skills improve and they are able to use different resources – from reading books and watching documentaries to taking trips to the museum – to help them understand ideas they encounter inside and outside of the classroom. The education students receive in school further builds on these experiences.
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