From the Back Cover
Evaluation, Not EducationThe Problems With Standardized Testing
Union members, Army recruits, even trained animals get scheduled breaks during their workday. But not schoolchildren. With an increasing focus on standardized tests, many educators say there simply isn't time for fun and games. So preoccupied are they with preparing children for tests, that the very concept of recess is regarded as superfluous.
What Happened to Recess and Why Are Out Children Struggling in Kindergarten? is both a poignant commentary on the present state of our children's education and a useful tool to help the adults change it. From California to Chicago to New York, teachers complain that they "teach to the tests, not to the children." Education should be a process, they point out, not a commodity. The pro-standards faction isn't listening. The result? The act of educating is giving way to a reckless method that more resembles job training. The need for change is urgent.
Filled with actual stories from the classroom, What Happened to Kindergarten arms parents and teachers with the knowledge they need to fight this damaging trend. Drawing on her twenty years of classroom experience, author Susan Ohanian documents the grueling tests (some going on for five days), the fear and exhaustion children experience as a result, and how the final evaluations are often dead wrong. She then describes in detail the forces behind the pro-Standards movement, which often place political and business interests above those of the children's education.
Well-informed, highly readable, and often comical, What Happened to Kindergarten educates parents so they can make sure their kids are taught--not merely evaluated.
About the Author
Susan Ohanian spent twenty years teaching grades one through college. She has penned six other books on education and over 300 articles appearing in The Nation, USA Today, Parents, and Parenting, as well as educational journals such as Language Arts and Education Week.
