AT ONE SCHOOL , A PUSH FOR MONEY PLAY TIME ...................

Some kindergarten parents at Public School 101, a
graceful brick castle in Forest Hills, Queens, wanted more free play time for their children; so they decided to do something about it. Gone were the play kitchens, sand and water tables,
and dress-up areas; half-days were now full days. Instead, there were
whiteboards, and the kindergartners, in classes of up to 27, practiced reading
and math on work sheets on desks at P.S. 101, also known as the School in the Gardens. Play came in the form of “choice time,” a roughly 30-minute afternoon period during which each child chose what blocks or toys in the classroom to work with, and at recess, which was often truncated by the time it took for every child to calm down and form an orderly line back to class.

About a month ago, about half of the kindergarten
parents signed a letter to the principal, Valerie Capitulo-Saide, asking for
more unstructured time in the school day, an extra recess period and better
procedures in recess. Ms. Capitulo-Saide gave them one extra gym period a week and no longer required students to form perfect lines at recess, one parent
said.

P.S. 101 “is a high performing school,” Ms.
Capitulo-Saide said in an e-mail. “Our collaborative decision-making process
includes input from parents, teachers and administrators. As a result of our
collaboration, we have added 30 minutes of additional physical education
instruction per week for kindergarten students while maintaining strong
instruction.”

Time and space for imaginative play in city schools
seem to be shrinking as the academic emphasis on reading and math grows, said
Clara Hemphill, who researches the city’s schools. “Across the city, we’ve seen
dress-up areas taken away and replaced with computer desks,” Ms. Hemphill said.
That has brought a quiet backlash from some parents.

Some parents at P.S. 101 said they wanted to see a
greater emphasis on play on days when children cannot go outside; now, they are
sometimes plopped down to watch television cartoons. “We wanted something like
board games or Simon Says, but I think the staffing was too much to organize,”
Donna Chin, a kindergarten parent, said.

The school also organized an effort to win money
from an online competition to fix up a disused outdoor area into a garden it is
calling a “kinder” (rhymes with minder) garden. The school is asking for
$25,000; the deadline to vote is Jan. 31. The goal is to use the garden as an
alternative learning site that creates an enriching outdoor learning
environment instead of an all-day confined classroom model.  Early childhood homework is another issue. Each
Monday, the kindergartners get a packet of worksheets they are supposed to
complete by Friday. There are generally 10 to 12 reading, writing and math
worksheets each week. Parents are also asked to read to their children.

Victoria Zunitch, who recently withdrew her
daughter from P.S. 101 to send her to a private school, said kindergarten homework
ended up being parent homework because the children had trouble working
independently.

The School in the Gardens has a rigorous academic
curriculum, and it is the sort of place where homework assignments by third
grade can stretch to an hour.

About half of the parents support the idea of
kindergarten homework, and about half do not, said one parent, Norberto Maio.
Mr. Maio said his son, Francisco, generally came home tired, making homework
difficult.  “I don’t think it’s appropriate for a 5-year-old,”
Mr. Maio said. “At least not on a regular basis. They do have, like, 20 more
years to do homework.”

Ms. Chin, the mother of 5-year-old Kristin, had no
complaints about the homework. “It’s manageable,” she said. “They have to take
the standardized tests soon.”

Asma Khan, another parent at P.S. 101, said she saw
both positives and negatives to a kindergarten focused on academics, especially
when a talented teacher is getting results. Her daughter, Zainab, 4, has
already learned how to read and would sit around writing all day if she could,
Ms. Khan said.

Zainab, for her part, said she liked school just as
it was: no more play needed.

And homework? No problem.

“I love homework,” she said. “I write my numbers and my A B C’s.”