American Kindergarten - by Susan Engel (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Kindergarten is a magical year of entry into traditional education. But what can or should we expect that first year of schooling to do for our children? Should five-year-olds learn how to count and write out the alphabet, or is kindergarten mostly about developing the social maturity for future formal schooling? The answer to this question varies greatly from place to place across this country, depending on geography, class, race, culture, and history. Susan Engel visited twenty-nine classrooms in fourteen states, observing kindergarten life. Children running free at recess, rejoicing over a favorite lunch or snack, struggling to follow new rules; also, learning subtraction, mastering new shapes, and sounding out words as beginning readers. The students and their classrooms were remarkably similar despite the wide variety: public and private, traditional and Montessori, urban and rural, to name a few. Amidst these similarities, five promises that schools make to their students emerged: love, reading, order, identity, and thinking. These promises capture a set of values and goals, which drive everything that goes on in a kindergarten classroom. But while kindergartens everywhere seemed pretty alike on the surface, Engel also discovered powerful differences. The differences lie in how well schools fulfilled these promises, which are more personal than curricula, mission statements, or benchmarks. While some teachers might maintain stricter order and leave less time for students to explore their identities, others saw managing frustration as a prerequisite for confident reading and emphasized love. Some teachers fulfill all five promises, juggling priorities throughout the day, week, or year. Other teachers focus on fulfilling one or two. This book is the story of how these promises shape what children experience, day in and day out. They also determine what children get out of their first year of formal education. This unprecedented portrait of the kindergarten classroom gives us a desperately longed for look into a transformative space that remains a black box: our children's classrooms"--

Book Synopsis

An unexpected portrait of the first year of school for America's youngest learners.

When we think of kindergarten, many might imagine joyous free play, and a tangle of trucks, dress-up clothes, and blocks, as five-year-olds explore their vivid imaginations and budding social skills. Others might envision a quiet group sitting cross-legged in a circle during story time. Neither of these scenes would be an inaccurate representation of the pivotal year of entry into traditional education in this country. However, neither offers a complete picture of what children do every day in those seemingly transparent, yet actually mysterious, classrooms. What can or should we expect during the first year of school? How are children learning and growing during those hours spent away from their homes?

Susan Engel embarked on finding these answers in American Kindergarten: Dispatches from the First Year of School. Engel toured twenty-nine classrooms across fourteen states, observing each closely, with a special eye toward the ways each classroom's goals reflect its community. As she made her way across the country, Engel found that on the surface, kindergarten students are similar: good-natured, eager to learn, and deeply affectionate. Their classrooms, too, feature many of the same expectations, routines, and activities. But the differences between the classrooms were striking and often surprising. Over the two years of her classroom visits, Engel identified five promises that teachers and their classrooms make to their students: reading, order, thinking, identity, and love. Engel found that schools differ in how they prioritize and keep the promises they make; some make all five promises, while others emphasize only one or two. The five promises capture a set of values, aspirations, and goals that drive everything that happens in a classroom.

Engaging and incisive, American Kindergarten is the story of the promises our country's schools make to five-year-old children, and how those promises are kept and sometimes broken.

Review Quotes

--Ellen Winner, author of 'Gifted Children: Myths and Realities'

"In American Kindergarten, Susan Engel draws us into classrooms across the U.S., highlighting stark variability in children's daily experiences during this first year of formal schooling. The compelling snapshots underscore diverse pedagogical approaches and leave us thinking deeply about what kindergarteners need to set them up to succeed in school. This book is relevant for all current and future Pre-K to 3rd grade teachers as well as parents and others who are interested in young children's development and how to best foster learning."
--Meredith L. Rowe, coauthor of 'Literacy and Mothering: How Women's Schooling Changes the Lives of the World's Children'

"An astute observer with a trained eye to what matters, Susan Engel has done it again. She has entered the world of kindergarten, and as she wrote, "... in some classrooms she wanted to stay forever, and in others, it took all her self- control not to bolt." In American Kindergarten, organized around 5 'promises' school make to children, Engel has illuminated through her unique lens as a developmental psychologist and educator, what our children deserve and what they usually do not get. And the bonus is, it is a captivating read."
--Roberta M. Golinkoff, coauthor of 'Making Schools Work: Bringing the Science of Learning to Joyful Classroom Practice'

About the Author

Susan Engel is the Class of 1959 Director of the Program in Teaching and a senior lecturer in psychology at Williams College. She is the author of The End of the Rainbow: How Educating for Happiness (Not Money) Would Transform Our Schools, The Hungry Mind: The Origins of Curiosity in Childhood, and The Intellectual Lives of Children.