Teaching Self-Control In Kindergarten

Here’s an interesting question: What is kindergarten for?

People’s beliefs about that pretty much fall into two camps: It’s either to learn through play and exploration, or it’s to prepare children through pre-academic activities for first grade and beyond.

An interesting article in the School Issue of the New York Times Magazine, published yesterday, dives into the different views of both camps. It also discusses an emerging school of thought that holds that self-regulation skills are the most important things to teach children in those early years.

Educators working in a program called Tools of the Mind are using things like directed pretend play to help children learn to think. The idea is that by learning to avoid distractions, order their thoughts, process information coherently, and hold relevant details in their short term memory, they can tackle harder and more academic tasks effectively.

Most kids, after all, are not born with oodles of self-control to say the least. But proponents of the Tools of the Mind approach say that the ability to control one’s impulses is strongly correlated with success in school.

The whole article is very well-written and in a lot more depth than I have space for here. But if you’re interested in the ways that children learn what actually goes on in those little heads, it’s absolutely worth a read.