{"id":99184,"date":"2026-09-14T13:12:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T17:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/?p=99184"},"modified":"2026-09-14T13:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T17:13:11","slug":"the-case-for-prioritizing-play-in-kindergarten-swartz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/2026\/09\/14\/the-case-for-prioritizing-play-in-kindergarten-swartz\/","title":{"rendered":"The Case for Prioritizing Play in Kindergarten [Swartz]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/zero2eight\/the-case-for-prioritizing-play-in-kindergarten\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>The Case for Prioritizing Play in Kindergarten<\/strong><\/a> &#8212; from the74million.org by Mark Swartz<br \/>\n<em>Laura Bornfreund on how schools, families and policymakers can transform kindergarten to better support young children.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">In order for these years to lay a sturdy foundation for everything that follows, the kindergarten experience should\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nationalp-3center.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pedagogy-RB-043026.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">prioritize play and relationship-building<\/a>, including connections with peers and teachers. Over the years, however, kindergarten has become increasingly\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/articles\/tracking-the-winds-of-change-on-the-american-education-policy-landscape-the-emergence-of-play-based-learning-legislation-and-its-implications-for-the-classroom\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cschoolified,\u201d<\/a> according to Bornfreund&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">The book laments the state of kindergarten today, where classroom experiences are overly scripted and funding is insufficient in many communities. At the same time, Bornfreund finds teachers who are providing meaningful experiences for young learners against the odds. In the conversation below, she shares her perspective on what a strong kindergarten experience looks like and offers insights on how schools, families and policymakers can reshape kindergarten to help children thrive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Case for Prioritizing Play in Kindergarten &#8212; from the74million.org by Mark Swartz Laura Bornfreund on how schools, families and policymakers can transform kindergarten to better support young children.\u00a0 In order for these years to lay a sturdy foundation for everything that follows, the kindergarten experience should\u00a0prioritize play and relationship-building, including connections with peers and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[343,347,419,119,46,102,7,838,405,248,66,89,1,321,11,445],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-education-reform","category-ideas-teaching","category-instructional-design","category-k-12-related","category-learning","category-learning-ecosystem","category-learning-experience-design","category-play","category-relationships","category-student-related","category-teachers","category-uncategorized","category-united-states","category-vision-possibilities","category-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99184"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99186,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99184\/revisions\/99186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}