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The piece outlines effective approaches for early elementary teachers to spark children’s desire to learn using hands-on projects that combine nature study with art and 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does the article describe the risk of focusing too heavily on reading in kindergarten?","Question",{"text":61,"@type":62},"It argues that over-emphasizing reading skills can place younger kindergarten children at a disadvantage, limiting the broader development they need.","Answer",{"name":64,"@type":59,"acceptedAnswer":65},"What kinds of skills does the article say kindergarteners benefit from developing?",{"text":66,"@type":62},"It highlights practical, social, artistic, and oral language skills as key areas that support learning.",{"name":68,"@type":59,"acceptedAnswer":69},"What does the article suggest about effective classroom approaches?",{"text":70,"@type":62},"It describes hands-on aesthetic education and nature study projects as ways for early elementary teachers to awaken children’s desire to 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 \nPermalink  \n[https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2w28q04m](https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2w28q04m)  \nJournal  \nJournal for Learning through the Arts, 18(1)  \nAuthor  \nBrouillette, Liane  \nPublication Date  \n2022  \nDOI  \n10.21977/D918154893  \nCopyright Information  \nCopyright 2022 by the author(s) . All rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. Contact the author(s) for any necessary permissions. Learn more at [https://escholarship.org/terms](https://escholarship.org/terms)  \nPeer reviewed  \n[eScholarship.org](eScholarship.org) Powered by the California Digital Library  \nUniversity of California  \nExpanding Equity in the Early Grades through Art and Nature Study  \nLiane Brouillette  \nUniversity of California, Irvine  \nAbstract  \nThis article examines the goal of kindergarten, along with how the youngest members of a kindergarten cohort may be disadvantaged by an over-emphasis on reading skills. Evidence is examined, showing that kindergartners benefit from learning practical, social, artistic and oral language skills. Effective ways that early elementary school teachers can awaken children’s desire to learn through hands-on aesthetic and nature study projects are described.  \nKeywords  \nKindergarten, Oral Language, Aesthetic Education, Nature Study, Social Skills  \nIn recent years, the early elementary curriculum in U.S. public schools has been transformed by pressures to boost academic achievement. These changes have been most noticeable in kindergarten, which has been converted from a playful interlude focused on children’s social, emotional, and moral development to the beginning of serious academic instruction (Russell, 2011) . Scholars have studied the backward mapping of expectations from standardized tests into earlier grades (Bassok, Latham, & Rorem, 2016) and have warned that kindergarten is becoming one-sidedly focused on teaching academic content (Graue, 2009) .  \nAs Elliot Eisner (2002) observed, human beings learn by forming representations of experiences. Children’s ability to visualize a scene—whether encountered through art or in real life—allows them to stabilize the image and remember it. For adults, this process may be abstract; but, for young children, concrete representation is critical to understanding (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958). As Parsons (1992) pointed out, when aesthetic and linguistic means of comprehension interact, a more complete picture of the world is provided, one that combines insights derived from both language and the arts.  \nBuilding a Foundation for Learning  \nUntil recent decades, kindergarten was allowed to function as a unique learning environment, different from the elementary grades in its emphasis the whole child, on play and on an non-academic climate (Cuban, 1992) . In the 1960s kindergarten teachers had considerable discretion regarding their choice of classroom activities. But soon the focus on social skills, puppets, drawings, vocabulary and games would give way to academic expectations. As time passed, kindergarten came to resemble first-grade classrooms in its emphasis on formal reading and math instruction. Researchers began to warn of dangers inherent in this trend (Elkind 1986; Hatch and Freeman 1988; Plevyak and Morris 2002; Walsh 1989) .  \nShepard and Smith (1988) observed that academic demands in kindergarten and first grade were considerably higher in the late 1980s than they had been 20 years earlier. A narrow emphasis on isolated reading and numeracy skills was proving detrimental, even to children who were successful. But it was especially harmful to children who were labeled failures. Still, academic demands continued to escalate, through a downward shift of next-grade expectations into earlier grades. This shift was caused by large-scale social trends, such as the universality of kindergarten, the day-to-day pressure for accountability tha","cbCainaGR0tkSZX6","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCainaGR0tkSZX6","pdf",113842,"English","# Expanding Equity in the Early Grades through Art and Nature Study\n## Building a Foundation for Learning","[{\"question\":\"How does the article describe the risk of focusing too heavily on reading in kindergarten?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that over-emphasizing reading skills can place younger kindergarten children at a disadvantage, limiting the broader development they need.\"},{\"question\":\"What kinds of skills does the article say kindergarteners benefit from developing?\",\"answer\":\"It highlights practical, social, artistic, and oral language skills as key areas that support learning.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the article suggest about effective classroom approaches?\",\"answer\":\"It describes hands-on aesthetic education and nature study projects as ways for early elementary teachers to awaken children’s desire to learn.\"}]","Expanding Equity in the Early Grades through Art and Nature Study | PDF",12]