Last week, I left southern living for a new job in southern Japan. For the next year, I’ll be teaching in three Nursery Schools in Fukuyama and Okayama city. The job was offered to me by Japanese school directors and researchers who have been collaborating with Education professors at UAB for the last 20 [...]
My absolute favorite part of last year was reading children’s writing. It is pretty amazing to be handed paper marked with a string of letters, seemingly incoherent, then after saying “can you read this to me and point to the words?” watching the message come into existence.
Maybe that sounds odd, but I’ve posted some of [...]
I thought about this word more than any other this spring. Kindergarten, which I remind myself literally means “a children’s garden” and used to embrace children’s play, is increasingly becoming more focused on early instruction in reading, writing, and math.
You hear play often used in everyday language as something opposed to work, devaluing its merit. [...]
