Academic versus Intellectual Learning: What’s Best for the Children?
The last decade or so has brought with it a large shift in the kind of learning we value for young children in this country. Long gone are the days of kindergarten being a place where children went to play, drink a carton of milk, rest on their mat, sing songs, and head home. In its place are kindergarten classrooms that are heavy with academic learning and sitting still, and painfully light on play. The shift suggests a belief that when it comes to academic instruction, “the earlier the better.” This cultural belief has trickled down into many preschool classrooms as well, and with it has come the rise of children as young as three years old being drilled on academic concepts. I’ve even heard of some preschool classrooms that give homework to three-year-olds! As prevalent as this practice is, we have to ask ourselves if it’s really what’s best for children. And if it’s not, then what is?
Academic learning in the preschool years focuses on children acquiring bits of information such as the alphabet, numbers and counting, the calendar and days of the week. Acquiring these discrete bits of information relies heavily on memorization and correct answers rather than understanding and applying skills for a real purpose. For some teachers and parents, it is appealing for their children to learn these skills early. It is one of the few “boxes we can check” as parents – “They know all of their letters and numbers!” versus “They always sleep through the night,” or “They get along well with their siblings,” or any of the other many goals we have for our children. It’s not that academic skills don’t matter, because of course they do, but when do they matter? Also, a focus on these skills too early often comes at the expense of a focus on another important set of skills: intellectual ones.
Intellectual skills include reasoning, hypothesizing, predicting, and the development of ideas. Intellectual skill development does not focus on memorization and right or wrong answers; instead, it reflects a quest for deeper understanding. Renowned early childhood educator Lilian Katz notes that our intellectual lives begin at birth as infants work to understand the world around them and the effects of their actions. The best curriculum in the early years values these intellectual skills and supports children to use them to pursue deeper learning. Children are encouraged to master basic academic skills in service of their intellectual pursuits.
I observed an example of this kind of learning in one of our preschool classes this fall. The Spring Room preschoolers at Inver Glen began writing letters to seniors, families, and friends. As they delved deeper into the letter-writing process, questions were raised: what should we include in the letter? What information are we seeking? Who should we write to? How will the letter get to its destination? As letters arrived in return, children were eager to learn what they said. Through a project that was purposeful and meaningful, the preschoolers were exposed to many academic concepts such as letter recognition, concepts of print, and the functional use of writing.
As we look to the future for our children and our early education system as a whole, we must keep in mind that earlier academic instruction is not better. Longitudinal studies of the long-term effects of a variety of preschool curriculums have found that while formal academic instruction may provide strong test results in the short term, it is preschool curriculums that support children’s intellectual pursuits and integrate social-emotional learning that yield better achievement results in the long term. We must keep in mind the whole child; children are much more than the bits of information they can memorize and recite. It is when we support and value their minds, bodies, and hearts that we lay the strongest foundation for the future.
Source: Katz, L. G. (2015). Distinctions Between Academic and Intellectual Goals for Young Children. Exchange, 18–20. https://hub.exchangepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/5022618.pdf