Mother Nature

Mother Nature, Meet Forest Kindergartens 1

Running Head: MOTHER NATURE, MEET FOREST KINDERGARTENS

Mother Nature, Meet Forest Kindergartens: Why the Outdoor Environment Must be Integrated into Todays Classroom for the Sake of Children

Katie ClementsSeton Hall University

April 17, 2007


Abstract

Successful all-outdoor learning schools in Europe, forest kindergartens provide three to six year olds with an exploratory, play-based context for learning. The United States educational system stands in direct contrast with the forest kindergarten learning environment. A focus on standardized testing and push-down academics exposes students to developmentally inappropriate practices and undue stress, with no long-term benefits. In these atmospheres, play is relatively inexistent. Accompanying the overly academic environment comes a rush toward premature abstraction; as a result, children are missing out on essential experiences with real-life objects that are necessary to their success as adults. Forest kindergartens stand as a clear solution to these problems and must immediately be integrated into the American educational system to ensure students are learning appropriately and to their full potential. Commitments to outdoor education by school districts must include a focus on teacher development and educational programming for the community.


Mother Nature, Meet Forest Kindergartens: Why the Outdoor Environment Must be Integrated into Todays Classroom for the Sake of Children

The best classroom and richest cupboard is roofed only by the sky.

Educator Margaret McMillian, who pioneered the first nature schools for children under

five years, made this assertion in the early twentieth century; however, this statement of belief

was nothing new (Forest Schools, 2007, p. 1). Despite the overwhelming proof of the benefits

of outdoor learning for the past 200 years, regular nature learning experiences in the United

States have become relatively nonexistent. In Europe, in contrast, there has been an increased

effort toward the integration of forest learning in schools over the past 50 years. Forest

kindergartens in Europe provide ample opportunities for three to six year olds to experience and

bond with nature through structured and unstructured experiences. Many barriers exist and slow

the successful integration of forest kindergartens into the United States education system. The

most prevalent of these concerns include a rapid movement away from play in the kindergarten

classroom and an increased premature rush toward abstraction. Opportunities must be increased

for teacher development through model schools and educational programming for parents related

to forest kindergartens if these programs are to be successfully proliferated across the United

States.

Into the Woods: A Forest Kindergarten Background

From its first moments in the 1950s, forest kindergartens, where three- to six-year-olds

participate in all-outdoor learning, were parent initiatives. Ella Flautau, a mother in Solierod,


Denmark, noted with enthusiasm the discoveries her own and neighborhood children made

during daily adventures she accompanied them on into the woods. It was here she noticed the

positive developmental affects of the experiences on her children which she accredited to the

nature experiences. Flautau shared her discoveries with neighborhood parents. Her ability to

pique parents curiosity, in addition to the presence of a dwindling number of local kindergarten

facilities in her community, led parents to approach her about starting an all-outdoor school

program for their young children ages three to six. It is here the first Slovbornehave (forest

kindergarten) was born. (Henke, 2007, p. 1) Today, the trend continues, with nearly all forest

kindergartens in Europe reporting to have started because of parent motivation.

Purposes for founding outdoor kindergartens vary to a certain degree. Some parents said

they were encouraged by the physical location of their village, seeing an area each day

surrounded by forests and nature and wanting their children to experience its entirety. Others

simply wanted to improve their childrens early experiences over those they might have in a

typical area kindergarten. Imke Venus, a parent of two forest kindergarteners and part of the

operating team for Waldkindergarten Wurzelkinder Leonberg. e.V., said in her experiences, the

major motivation for parents is for their children to have these nature experience. She said

parents believed it was best for young children to spend their time outside in nature, equipped

with no toys, just their imagination and a teacher to guide them, increasing their ability to watch

and learn from their surroundings (Personal communication, February 1, 2007).

Two types of forest kindergartens exist to date: traditional and integrated forest

kindergartens. Traditional forest kindergartens utilize a full- or half-day outdoor education

program and keep students outdoors every day school is in session, except in severe storms or

when temperatures drop below 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Integrated forest kindergartens are


affiliated with more traditional kindergartens that weave outdoor education into their curriculum.

These kindergartens might offer a partial outdoor program for two hours or more each day.

Others host kindergarten groups that alternate between a week at an affiliated, more traditional

kindergarten and a week outdoors in a natural site. For example, the Duffryn Infants School in

Monmouthshire, Britain, has students alternate weeks between traditional and forest settings to

provide a greater number of children with out-of-classroom exposure (Haigh, 2004, p. 1).

Although both types offer benefits for students, traditional forest kindergartens will be used for

analysis and comparison throughout this paper due to their widespread nature in Europe and

more developed programs and operating organizations. Trends general to all forest schools will

be discussed, even though it is assumed all schools operate slightly differently due to several

factors such as geographic location, government laws and restrictions and teacher training, to

name a few.

Both traditional and integrated forest kindergarten programs are spreading. The number

of Danish children attending forest kindergartens doubled from 1,627 in 1996 to 3,030 in 2000.

Norway and Sweden reported they had more than five percent of their students attending these

centers in 2003 (Borge, Lie & Nordhagen, 2003, p. 607-608). Forest schools in the United

Kingdom are still in experimental stages, with the first introduced to the area in 1995 by nursery

school professionals who visited Denmark and observed the idea firsthand. More than 20 forest

schools now exist in Wales, and the first in Scotland will open in the fall of 2007. Many of these

schools employ partial week outdoor education programs, and that number also includes schools

that make a significant commitment to the outdoors even though their base of operations is inside

(Murray, R., 2003, p. 8). In the United Kingdom, many of these schools differ from their

European counterparts due to their communitys focus on outdoor education throughout life, not


just in the early years (Murray & OBrien, 2006, p. 3). Small country size and close proximity to

neighbors has helped forest kindergartens quickly spread across Europe. Visits to these

kindergartens allows for knowledge transfer from one area to the next. Alfred Cybulska, who

founded a forest kindergarten in North Berlin, Germany, in 1999, first visited a similar program

in Denmark. I knew from that moment, whenever I would need a kindergarten or I would start

one, it would always be a Waldkindergarten (forest kindergarten). It was the quiet, the calm, that

high degree of individual doing and the connection to nature (Personal communication,

February 12, 2007).

Typically situated on the outskirts of rural areas, forest kindergartens are generally

located in forests of varying sizes; nevertheless, some do operate in open meadows or fields.

Utilized forests are primarily public owned, although a small number of forest schools do own

their land. A majority of programs include a small trailer or tent on site which can be used for

indoor activities on stormy days. A stove inside the trailer warms students when they get very

cold; however, parents report they usually move themselves enough so they keep warm (P.

Vollmers, personal communication, February 5, 2007). Despite their overwhelming presence in

rural areas situated close to more urban dwellings, forest kindergartens do exist in urban centers.

Komazawa Park International School in Tokyo, Japan, offers an integrated forest kindergarten

where students have two hours of outdoor experiences each day in a small, but convenient city

park. In both urban and rural situations, city transportation is sometimes employed to give

children access to nearby nature. At a forest kindergarten in the city-center of Berlin, children

are picked up and dropped off at a city location by a shuttle each morning, making the commute

more manageable for parents (T. Culsen, personal communication, February 5, 2007).


In a forest kindergarten, play becomes a childs serious work. Reporter Gerald Haigh

(2004), in an attempt to summarize the philosophy of forest kindergartens, wrote that through

their play, children practice and consolidate their learning, play with ideas, experiment, take

risks, solve problems and make decisions individually, in small and in large groups (p. 2). This

play is most often unstructured by teachers, allowing children to construct their own games and

through them make sense of their world. This is well aligned with the Icelandic view that

children should play in and explore their outdoor environment from an early age without direct

adult supervision (Wagner, 2004, p. 56). Although children in forest kindergartens are closely

supervised by their instructors, they still are given the freedom to make their own choices and

often play freely with the materials and people of their choosing. This necessary access to play is

recognized as an essential right of the child under Article 31 of the United Nations Convention

on the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 1990, p. 9).

Forest kindergartens do not make traditional toys such as blocks, dolls and balls available

for play. In fact, these objects are banned in several forest kindergartens and allowed in others

only for weekly show-and-tell. However, to say forest kindergartens are toy-free would not be

correctit is the definition of a toy that must shift and expand. In a forest kindergarten, children

can play with loose parts, thought to be the most creative toys available for children. These loose

parts can be almost anything in a forest, from a rock to a stick to a blade of grass; since they have

no defined function, they encourage creative play and imagination. Increased vocabularies and

communication skills are often observed in forest kindergarten students. Here, a stick is no

longer just a stick; They have to tell them whether their stick is a paddle, a cooking spoon, a

gun, a stick for skiing or anything else (E. Schulle, personal communication, March 4, 2007).

This open-endedness means students cannot rely solely on the appearance of an object to convey


its meaning. German Waldkindergarten Erdweg said this is necessary to contrast the modern life

situation of three to six year olds that is characterized by a lack of movement and filled with

function-certain toys that allow little creativity (Concept, 2006, p. 1).

Parents, especially those with one child who attended a traditional kindergarten before

discovering forest kindergartens, report lower rates of illness in their forest kindergarteners due

to increased time outdoors in all weather. The immune system is trained as children run, climb

and play outside in fresh air, escaping diseases common in enclosed kindergartens (E. Lacis,

personal communication, February 6, 2007; A. Gink, personal communication, February 7,

2007). Gross motor skills are frequently engaged as children run, climb and play. This movement

is especially important for young boys who, at kindergarten age, often lag behind their same-age

female peers developmentally (Jacobsen, 2001, p. 11). Fear of accidents is decreased, even as

children traverse bumpy ground sand scale trees. Dr. Helga Grohmann-Harpain, president of the

Waldracker Forest Kindergarten Society, found that since forest kindergarteners have increased

movement experiences in a variety of settings, they learn how to judge their own abilities, in

effect reducing the danger of accidents (Personal communication, February 23, 2007).

The natural variety that exists in the forest, in addition to its ever changing seasons and

endless opportunities for discovery, make the forest the ideal location for genuine learning. The

most successful forest kindergartens are those whose educators can identify and capitalize on the

various opportunities for learning that present themselves spontaneously in the forest. Subjects

can be tackled as they arise in real-life situations. Mathematics no longer seems isolated and

abstract when students measure and compare snow depths, observe changes in quantities of

water, examine real objects they find to show concepts of small and large and discover round and

angular objects displayed in the natural world. On any given day, a student might be asked to


collect 10 sticks of the same length to use for fire building. The student must not only ensure he

has 10 sticks but also must compare the stick lengths to see if they are longer or shorter than

desired.

Here complex science topics usually withheld until the upper grades are experienced in

day-to-day interactions with nature. Life cycles come alive with changing trees, new growth and

death, which children learn is a natural occurrence in healthy forests. Forces of gravity can be

directly observed as acorns fall from trees to the ground. Condensation on morning grass

prompts conversations of the water cycle. Since children typically explore the same areas each

day within their forest kindergarten, they are able to observe the natural processes of the forest

over the seasons. German caretaker Natacha Lautenschlager contrasted this with the play

structures students commonly experience:

A playground doesnt change. A slide remains a slide. But nature evolves and lives. When it rains, theres a small brook to run over; when it snows, they can slide. They experience the years cycles. They can touch and comprehend nature (de Pommmereau, 2003, p. 1).

Elisabeth Lacis, chairwoman of a forest kindergarten interest group, mentioned another

advantage as the unique opportunity to install basic natural science knowledge during walks and

other activities (2007). These beneficial learning opportunities often occur spontaneously, based

on childrens questions or a small rabbit print observed on a path. As the common saying in

Europe asserts, Nature is the best educator for the child.

The forest also presents students with a natural understanding of limitations and borders.

As Lacis put it, Nature gives rules that cannot be discussed by the child, and they have to go

with it. Nature is so strong, so children will eventually agree to the rules (2007). Rules no

longer seem arbitrary when placed in context and when a matter of common safety and group

survival. They are instead become understandable because they are applied directly to students


lives. For example, students must stay in sight of their educators at all times to avoid being lost

in the forest. Angelika Gink, founder and current head of Waldkindergarten Freiburg e.V (2007),

said the students are used to living with certain dangers, like ticks, bees, wet ground, where they

may slide, stones they may roll down, open fire, and know what to do in such a situation. For

example, students must avoid putting any objects in their mouth; very early lessons about the

potential dangers of unknown leaves and berries help to prevent this. Nature also presents very

natural boundaries. A brook that is too wide cannot be jumped. A tree with weak branches

cannot be climbed. However, brooks exist narrow enough for students to transverse, and most

trees in the forest have branches strong enough to support the children. These natural limits help

children respect the forest and its boundaries.

Forest kindergartens still incorporate routines into their day-to-day operations that are

necessary for young children. Morning greeting circle time allows a consistent start to the day.

Story time occurs daily in nearly all programs, where students gather together over a story which

is read and discussed. Flexibility is taught through this exercise; students must be willing to

change their plans on rainy days when a book would get ruined if taken out. Daily bread time

allows students and teachers to gather together over a communal snack in the woods. These

routines occur without the typical distractions found in a classroom. There are no phones to ring

or organizational duties to tend to. Instead, entire periods can be focused on learning and

children development. Daily routines and activities are supplemented by themed days and trips.

Project Day in one kindergarten allow students to investigate seasonally varying natural

phenomena. They may observe the indigenous resident creatures of the pond in the nearby

Biotope or journey to discover the species-rich plant world of the forest (Andrea Schwarz, Antje

Schwarz, M. Jerusalem & T. Schwarz, personal communication, March 7, 2007). Special


programs at another German forest kindergarten teach about the fruits and vegetables growing in

the region and where the childrens food comes from (B. Saile, personal communication, March

5, 2007). Field trips to local farms, community buildings and other natural areas are also

common, with some forest kindergartens taking a field trip as often as once per week.

Forest kindergartens tend to nurture a close relationship with parents and incorporate

them into daily operations and rituals. Since children in the typical forest kindergarten range

from three or four to six years old, this tight bond with parents is important and helps ease the

separation between home and school. Morning circle activities at the start, and sometimes also at

the end, of each day include parents in discussions about their childrens experiences and

interests. Through this, children learn to converse with adults on focused topics, and a necessary

home-school partnership is solidified. A state-of-mind is cultivated where parents are allowed,

even encouraged, to come spend time with their students as they learn. In many kindergartens,

this support goes further than the morning circle, with parents assisting the educators on walks

and activities (C. Trompka, personal communication, February 7, 2007). At Evelyn Schulles

school in Scotland, parents are encouraged to walk with the children into the forest to feel and

appreciate nature for themselves (2007). Parent-teacher meetings and individual talks are

common to increase trust and cooperation between the kindergarten and the childrens parents,

occurring more regularly than typical school conferences (Schwarz, et. al, 2007).

Children in Scotland (2005), the voice of 350 organizations and individuals working to

ensure best practices are used in Scottish education, found forest kindergartens are especially

successful at including hard-to-reach groups of parents in daily school proceedings. A high level

of involvement by fathers has been observed in centers across Scotland (p. 3). This parental

presence reduces the teacher-student ratio significantly further than exists in a typical


kindergarten. In most states in Germany, for example, two teachers must supervise groups of no

more than 15 students. In Norway, the number of adults to children in a forest kindergarten also

falls slightly lower than in conventional care centers (Borge, et. al., 2003, p. 607). Smaller class

sizes allow for higher teacher attention per student so individualization can occur. Student

attention stays focused on a task due to a smaller number of classroom distractions. The residual

benefits of smaller classes sizes in kindergarten do not stop when students enter first grade. A

class-size analysis performed by economists Alan Krueger and Diane Whitmore found students

who had small classes in the first four years of school were more likely to take a college-entrance

exam near the end of high school (Nabhan & Trimble, 1994).

Although exact kindergarten costs are difficult to quantify, many forest kindergartens

report decreased operational costs. German Forest Kindergaten Flensburg said their yearly costs

are substantially less than in a traditional kindergarten due to a decreased number of materials

needed and non-existent building maintenance costs (Introduction, 2005, p. 1). Others call

forest kindergartens the cheapest way to offer parents a high quality of pre-school education

with many benefits (H. Grohmann-Harpain, 2007). These decreased costs make it possible to

hire two educators who oversee the smaller number of enrolled children. Close access to public

transportation and government and private subsidies currently help keep costs low at most forest

kindergartens. Parental fees typically supplement these costs (Borge, et. al., 2003, p. 615-616).

At Waldkindergarten Eschenlohe Berglowen und Waldelfen e.V. in Germany, fear of becoming

a kindergarten catering only to the wealthy prompts the center to keep costs low. They never

want to set the monthly rate so high that a normal family with several kids could not afford it

anymore (Trompka, 2007).


Forest kindergartens do not exist in the United States to the extent they exist in Europe.

Currently nine nature centers exist in the United States that operate fully licensed nature

preschools for ages three to five; these primarily include outdoor experiences for the children,

although some indoor experiences do occur at these centers, even on days when the weather is

not poor. Most have structured play yards that allow students to experience a variety of materials

such as sand areas, fort building areas and open spaces. Some use the natural wooded areas

around the center as a context for learning, taking the children into the woods as is done in

traditional forest kindergartens. Strong examples include the Dodge Nature Center in West St.

Paul, Minnesota, which also takes students to its 40-acre working farm, and the Schlitz Audubon

Nature Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (K. Finch, personal communication, January 26, 2007).

However, these centers are primarily for children up to age five, so they do not cover the

kindergarten-aged students included in forest kindergartens. This is a trend that must be rectified.

Kindergrind and the Rapid Departure of Play

Todays kindergarten classroom is changing rapidly, and its twentieth century

developmentally appropriate kindergarten counterpart is becoming nothing more than a distant

relative. Kindergrind, a term coined by Amy Dickinson (1999) to describe the push-down

academics in primary grades, is flooding districts across the country (p. 1). Instead of a homey

environment where students focus on developing social skills over toys and dress-up,

kindergarten children must spend their time sitting still, with attention focused on their teacher,

to learn the academic basics. Most states have standards that describe what skills and abilities

must be taught to all students through the kindergarten year. These standards do not include

learning how to socialize, developing appropriate school behaviors or strengthening motor skills


(Jackson, 2005, p. A1). With the majority of schools still employing a half-day instructional

program, limited time is available to reach the more than 100 standards and objectives that grace

many schools curriculum. These three-and-a-half hour programs typically share the room with

afternoon kindergarten classes, and expanding programs to full day is expensive and out of the

question for most districts. This leaves a hefty amount of content to be squeezed into a relatively

short period. Kindergarten, in the form it existed in the 1960s, has disappeared.

Trends toward making kindergarten more academic are not new in America. Early

German educators who attempted to bring kindergartens to the United States faced significant

resistance due to this problem. Matilda Kriege, a leading kindergarten trainer in Germany, noted

the desire of American parents to have their children taught to read at an early age was a major

source of difficulty in implementing kindergartens in the United States. William Hailmann, a

German-American kindergarten educator, noted similar trends and even criticized American

parents for demanding premature academic work from their young children (Beatty, 2000, p. 45).

Although a swing away from inappropriate academic work did occur for some time, the process

has been reversed.

Kindergarten teachers participating in a study about the nature of kindergarten all

reported kindergarten had shifted significantly from a developmental focus to an academic focus.

One teacher who summarized her beliefs for researchers said, I think its what first grade used

to be (Parker & Neuharth-Pritchett, 2006, p. 71). In August in Mobile County, Alabama,

kindergarten teachers learned they would be required to give letter grades to students in five

academic subjects (LaCoste-Caputo & Russell, 2006, p. 2). Although this example may be

extreme, in many kindergarten classes formalized assessments occur weekly or bi-weekly to

ensure students are meeting state education standards and are not falling behind. Students in low


income communities who fail to meet specific standards may be kept after school or required to

come in early for tutoring. Here, students learn how to read up to 100 common words, write

simple sentences and complete basic addition and subtraction sentences. Academic achievement

is valued, and other successes are pushed aside with the fun and playtime to make room for what

is viewed as important.

New academic kindergartens standards are accompanied by an increased focus on

standardized testing and grading. As mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law

January 8, 2002, all schools are required to provide standardized assessments to students in

grades three through eight in mathematics and English, with science assessments beginning in

2007. Although these assessments are not mandated for the youngest school children, they do put

increased pressure on kindergarten teachers to have the students ready academically for first

grade (http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml?src=ln).

It comes as no surprise that members of the United States Senate and House of

Representatives are currently battling to overhaul No Child Left Behind legislation to make it so

states could opt out of the mandatory standardized testing requirement for five-year periods.

States would instead be required to submit a five-year plan to the Secretary of Education

detailing how they would raise and measure achievement of students (Rosen, 2007, p. 1).

However, these changes appear to be made for misguided reasons. Congressmen seek to provide

greater flexibility for states and school districts, not to provide more developmentally appropriate

conditions for students. The law is up for reauthorization in 2007. This significant revision of the

law contrasts sharply with Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings opinion that the law, like

Ivory soap, is 99.9 percent pure, with not much needed in the way of change (What

NCLB, 2007, p. 1).


Where in a system where even administrators cannot notice its flaws is room made for

celebrating and cultivating other intelligences? Howard Gardner, in his theory of multiple

intelligences, presented 10 types of intelligences, even including a naturalistic intelligence, seen

as humans ability to recognize plants, animals and other parts of the natural environment (Louv,

2005, p. 71). While this type of intelligence is encouraged in a forest kindergarten, in a typical

United States kindergarten its closest application would be sorting pictures of animals based on

similar characteristics during an indoor science lesson. Test-based kindergartens also appeal best

to visual and auditory learners both in instructional and assessment modes; they often ignore the

needs of those who learn kinesthetically, relying on hands-on experiences with the content they

are exploring. No Child Left Behind Legislation brushes over these alternative intelligences and

learning styles by reporting that despite educator and parental concerns, standardized tests, with

their limited paper and pencil formats, do adequately assess those who learn and express

themselves in different manners (Stronger accountability, 2004, p. 1). Often most at risk in

test-based environments are students with emotional or behavioral problems; in these

classrooms, a rising number of children are diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactive disorder

each year. In 2003, there were six million American children taking medicine to help with

attention disorders. This number contrasts with the 130,000 British students taking Ritalin in a

similar time period. Sax (2003) found overly academic kindergartens and primary classrooms

encourage the classification of students as ADHD; by committing an excessive amount of time to

academics, they leave those students who before would have benefited from the multi-modal,

sensory kindergarten experience (p. 1).

In studies following students from kindergarten through their elementary school careers,

research found a heavy reliance on academic, teacher-directed methods of teaching in


kindergarten did not translate into achievement in later grades. Marcon (2002) found those

children who experienced overly academic preschools earned significantly lower grades by the

end of sixth grade than their peers in developmentally appropriate classrooms (Parker &

Neuharth-Pritchell, 2006, p. 67). These studies focused primarily on academic achievement; they

did not explore the long-term effects that academic, didactic kindergartens had on student

personality, motivation and self confidence; these effects could be even more damaging and

harder to recover from. This environment, fortified by standardized tests, also causes high levels

of stress for many youngsters and their teachers. Rosemarie Truglio, vice president of education

and research for Sesame Street, has watched students struggle with high stress.

Acknowledging that stress is not conducive to learning, Truglio said, If you are put in a stressful

environment, youre not going to learn (Scelfo, 2006, p. 1). Stressful environments can cause

struggling students to tune out to avoid failure and additional stress, decreasing their learning

potential and increasing their likelihood of failure later in life.

The kindergarten/kindergrind debate flourished in San Diego, California, in 2005, when

the Kindergarten Leadership Committee examined city benchmarks for academic achievement in

kindergarten and found they were too advanced for students. These demanding objectives

included having young students achieve specific reading goals on a timetable, instead of at their

own pace. Lower reading benchmarks were reinstated by a vote of 3-to-2 of the San Diego

Unified Trustees. Teachers in this district are still expected to diversify instruction for students

moving faster or slower than the general class pace. Rosemary Young, president of the National

Association of Elementary School principals, summed up the school districts dilemma. The

reality is we all have benchmarks and standards to reach, but we are all agonizing over whether

we are meeting the needs of the children, or the needs to meet standards (Gao Copley, 2005, p.


1-2). Too often in these situations, young children silently lose the battle to the standards as their

greatest allies, their teachers and parents, do not fight for developmentally appropriate practices.

Kindergartens increased academic focus is causing redshirting. Formerly a practice

reserved for college athletes who would be kept on the bench for a year until they become more

able to serve the team, redshirting has worked its way to the kindergarten ranks. Parents are

choosing to hold their young five-year-olds out of the kindergarten classroom for an additional

year. The program first became popular in the early 1980s, and it has been accompanied by a

plethora of extra-year developmental programs to prepare students who are not quite ready for

todays demanding kindergarten classroom. Prior to this, parents were encouraged to send their

children to kindergarten as soon as possible, and many districts had children who were four years

old attending (Richardson, 1995, p. 4).

Redshirting occurs for several reasons. Rates of redshirting are higher among boys, who

due to delayed developmental rates and higher needs for movement, often appear not quite ready

for todays academic classroom. In affluent communities, families often hope their child, who

will be a year older when he enters kindergarten, will outpace his classmates and have higher

rates of future success (LaCoste-Caputo & Russel, 2006, p. 1A). Dr. Ada Beth Cutler, dean of

the College of Education and Human Services at Montclair State University, said she fears

parents are redshirting students for the wrong reasons. I worry about parents making the

decision not because the child is not ready, but to give the child a leg up (Nussbaum, 2003, p.

2). Some parents project this added boost will allow their children to outperform peers

competing for spots at the same highly competitive middle school due to higher verbal abilities

and increased life experiences or help their children receive sports scholarships later in life due

to physical abilities that increase with age. New York Times writer Elissa Gootman (2006)


referred to this practice by parents as an almost Darwinian desire to ensure that their own child

is not the runt of the class (p. B1).

Barbara Willer, spokeswoman for the National Association for the Education of Young

Children, said there is great concern in the education community due to redshirting. Willer said

research is clear there are no long-term positive effects of red-shirting on students and research

has begun to show there may be negative effects (Richardson, 1995, p. 1). United States

Department of Education research shows that for the six percent of children considered late

starters in kindergarten, academic benefits disappear by around the end of first grade. At this

age, late starters appear slightly more proficient than their classmates at reading, but they are less

proficient on average in mathematics (Gootman, 2006, p. 2). As parents delay their childs

kindergarten entrance, kindergarten classrooms are, in effect, given permission to become more

demanding due to the increased mean age of students in the classroom. Joan Moyer (2001), a

professor in the College of Education at Arizona State University, argued that even though six-

year-olds may possess increased abilities to meet these goals, such programs try to fit

children to the curriculum rather than adjusting the curriculum to respond to the nature of the

learner (p. 162). These arenas with increased academic focus, accompanied by paper-and-

pencil, teacher-directed tasks, have the same expectations for all children, despite differing

developmental and intellectual abilities.

As classrooms become more academic, developmentally appropriate elements of the

traditional kindergarten classroom of the 1950s and 1960s are being quickly abandoned. The

most evident of these omissions is the rapid movement away from play. This trend stands

contradictory to what parents feel is best for their children. Drake, Muran, Price and Tellijohann

(2006) conducted a survey to determine Ohio parents perceptions of the role of the elementary


school in preventing unnecessary childhood weight gain. They found nearly all of the parents,

99.7 percent, believed recess should be provided to elementary students each week, and recess

was allotted the most amount of time each week at 137 minutes when compared to other health

initiatives (p. 504). However, recess across the country is rapidly disappearing. University of

New Orleans associate professor Judith Kieff noted that by the year 2000, recess had disappeared

from more than 40 percent of elementary and middle schools in the United States (Gao, 2005, p.

1). In some areas, new elementary school buildings are being constructed without playgrounds,

making recess not even an option, and many schools have larger areas for parking than for

supervised play experiences. Rates of outdoor experiences for educational learning are not much

better. A 1989 to 1990 research project found 16 percent of American teachers had never used

the outdoors for educational purposes, and those teachers who utilized the outdoors on average

took students outside fewer than three times per year (Parker & Neuharth-Pritchett, 2006, p. 1).

The rapid movement away from both structured and unstructured play experiences

represents an abandonment of best practices and conventional wisdom regarding the benefits of

play as part of childhood. Guaranteed under Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the

Rights of a Childhood, all children have the right to engage in play and recreational activities

appropriate to the age of the child (United Nations, 1990, p. 6). The Association of Childhood

Education International reaffirms this right. They believe play is an essential part of healthy

growth, development, and learning for children of all ages (Packer Isenberg & Quisenberry,

2002, p. 2). Play is considered by many theorists, including Vygotsky. Piaget and Dewey, to

serve as the primary source of development and learning for young children (Moyer, 2001, p.

163).


Play, while difficult to define, has several distinguishing characteristics. Play is

exploratory and active. It is self-initiated by the child, with activities chosen based on the childs

preferences. Children also must be intrinsically motivated to play. This motivation helps make

play personally relevant, increasing its meaning and appropriateness in terms of the childs

abilities (Packer Isenberg & Quisenberry, 2002, p. 1). Play can sharply contrast with work,

which is adult-initiated and adult-directed.

Both direct and indirect benefits result from childhood play opportunities. Gross and fine

motor skill development occurs more rapidly as children manipulate real-life objects in natural

ways. In a forest kindergarten students benefit from daily motor experiences, be it climbing over

a log or examining the intricacy of a bark pattern. A longitudinal study of students with poor

motor skills found these students typically exhibit higher rates of behavior problems, lower

achievement levels and may harbor feelings of intense dissatisfaction with their own

performances (Rule and Stewart, 2002, p. 9). Studies have found significant correlations between

the development of motor skills and academic and social performances later in life. A study by

Meisels and Son (2005) found that early kindergarten motor skills have a small but significant

effect on reading and mathematics levels measured at the end of first grade; these results hold

true even when initial skill levels and demographic breakdowns are controlled for. Visual motor

skills tend to have the highest impact on academic achievement, although gross motor skills were

also found to have a significant influence (p. 755-757). Since motor skill development correlates

directly to childrens cognitive preparedness for school, forest kindergartens play a unique role in

ensuring students encounter significant opportunities to develop motor control. These motor

skills allow students to attempt and succeed in situations they before would have been unable

and unwilling to try.


Gunhild Westman (2003), a professor of education at Uppsala University in Sweden, has

observed a high link between language and vocabulary development and play. As children play,

they must describe the events they are experiencing. Although play offers the freedom to make

mistakes in the descriptions of actions, it is also demanding for children in that they must pay

attention to each others choice of words and actions and decide how to respond appropriately (p.

5). High levels of excitement during play activities, especially those that are outdoors and

unstructured, leave children more encouraged to share their experiences with their teachers,

parents and peers. This also encourages the use of higher-level vocabulary as children find the

words to describe the natural phenomena and play concepts they encountered. An England-

Wales forest kindergarten study found these results were also consistent for students with

language difficulties aligned with emotional or behavioral problems, especially those students

with receptive language disabilities (Murray & OBrien, 2006, p. 36). Role-playing through play

allows children to develop and clarify societal roles and personal ideas; by acting as someone

other than themselves, they learn to see others point of view (Moyer, 2001, p. 163).

These increased opportunities for language development and communication

enhancement led naturalists Gary Paul Nabhan and Stephen Trimble (1994) to consider the

necessity of play in childhood. They wrote:

Given that it has long been known that children up until about seven years of age communicate with each other more adequately by play than in speech, an argument can certainly be made that their childhood right to play is the same as our adult First Amendment right to free speech (p. 9).

Dorothy and Jerome Singer, child psychologists at Yale University, found that strong

imaginative play opportunities in childhood correlate with more pronounced leadership skills in

the classroom and higher desires to cooperate with others (Hannaford, 2002, p. 132). Carol

Seefeldt, former professor of human development at the University of Maryland, noted improved


learning skills in students who had opportunities for physical activity at school. Increased

abilities were observed in the areas of concentration, memory and problem solving (Wineberg,

2000, p. 27). Physical movement and play with others also contributes to decreased stress levels

and increased learning potential. These results were observed by Gabbard and Rodriques, whose

research found movement activity plays an essential role in encouraging brain development and

learning cementation in children (Burlingame, 2005, p. 6).

In classrooms, the disappearance of play has led to what Robert Michael Pyle termed the

extinction of experience (Nabhan and Trimble, 1994, p. 86). Instead of children participating in

direct contact with nature and wildlife, their new experiences are more academic and less

effective. As part of their schooling, students may learn about the rainforest during an in-depth,

cross-curricular unit of study, but they might spend little to no time learning about the deciduous

forest in their own backyard. Instead of observing animals and nature first hand, children may

visit zoos or watch nature films where others experience the nature and interpret it for the child.

Instead of being allowed free time to observe and truly understand a tree with all senses, children

are finding their outdoor experiences as part of the school day to be highly teacher-directed and

dictated, if and when they occur. The National Association for the Education of Young Children

worries that childrens perceptual abilities may suffer due to the overwhelming amount of school

experiences that require only two senses, such as computers, worksheets and books. The

powerful learning tools of smell, touch, tasted and physical engagement are being relatively

ignored (The Value, 2006, p. 1).

Almost concurrent with plays dismissal from the classroom comes a new type of play at

home. When it does occur, this play is much more supervised than it was for kindergarten

counterparts in previous generations. Children under five years of age rarely participate in


unsupervised outdoor play experiences, and a majority of five- to 10-year-old students are still

supervised when playing outside. Many factors contribute to this increase in supervision,

including adult fears of strangers and violence, particularly in urban areas, and a decreasing

presence of outdoor play spaces close to the home (Rivkin, 2000, p. 1-2). Play even looks

different. Today play experiences are often highly structured and over-planned by parents who

want to provide high levels of stimulation for their children and who seek to prevent boredom.

Competitive sports and physical education programs, music lessons and play with toys that ask

for little imagination contribute to these trends. The high appeal of technology also contributes to

keeping children away from true physical engagement in an activity. As child psychologist

Brian Sutton-Smith put it, Play has become too domesticated and regimented while playgrounds

themselves have become more and more barren (Nabhan and Trimble, 2004, p. 8-9). Today,

children spend a mere one percent of their time each week, about one hour, outdoors engaged in

unstructured free play (Wells, 2007). While schools indoor, academic nature used to be an

appropriate balance for the outdoor-rich lives of children, todays children now face a lack of

outdoor activities from both fronts.

Could curricular goals be pushed down too far, to the point where they are harming

students future abilities rather than giving them a head start? Walter Gilliam, a child

development expert at Yale University, believes so. He questioned the ever rising academic

focus of kindergartens. There comes a time when prudent people begin to wonder just how high

we can raise our expectations for our littlest schoolkids (Tyre, 2006, p. 2). This does not mean

expectations should be lowered. High standards are necessary, especially when students from

some high income communities enter school with four years of preschool experience and basic

abilities to read, write letters and simple words and add single and two digit numbers. They are


also essential to meet the needs of children in some low-income communities who enter school

with no pre-school experience and limited concepts of language and print. However, challenging

these students does not have to come at the expense of the rest of the kindergarteners, who need

opportunities for play, socialization and physical engagement in their learning. It also needs not

come at the expense of those children prepared academically for kindergarten; opportunities to

socialize, make concrete connections with natural objects and learn through self exploration

provide innumerable benefits to these students. Instead of making the classroom more academic

to meet the needs of these students, it must instead become more developmentally appropriate.

Academic learning will follow as a direct result.

Forest kindergartens stand as a clear alternative to problems raised by the overly

academic kindergarten. Forest kindergartens provide a unique context for play found to be most

beneficial for children. Here, ample opportunities for outdoor play are created and allowed to

evolve. While planned lessons do often occur in forest kindergartens, frequently surrounding a

story or a topic students observed in their natural environment, time for free play is structured

into the daily schedule for all programs. With loose parts such as twigs, grass and mud, students

creativity blossoms. Teacher observations and assessments occur informally; no student is

subjected to time sitting still, attempting to put paper to pencil to accomplish a task.

Fredrika Martensson (2003), a Swedish environmental psychologist and researcher,

found children play more freely in natural environments, such as a forest or meadow, because

they are not restricted by traditional playground rules and government regulations limiting free

movement. Play without these rules and restrictions becomes more complex for children since

they are not told how to think or act. The forest also provides opportunities for movement and

engagement of gross motor skills as children conquer hills, trees and other natural obstacles not


found in a classroom. In this way, outdoor play becomes more vigorous than indoor play (p. 3).

In a 2001 study, Wells observed that childrens movement changes as their environment

changes. She found that as children moved from places with less nature to places with more

nature, the movement was associated with increased cognitive functioning (Wells, 2007).

Outside, students can at times play without regard to noise level. Whereas in a school

environment children must constantly control their noise level to avoid disrupting others in the

classroom and other classes in the building, a forest absorbs noise and allows students to play

loudly without disrupting others. In a survey by British organization Playday, four out of five

children responded they prefer this type of outdoor play to indoor play; seventy-five percent said

they would prefer to play outside more often (Outdoor play, 2006, p. 1). This preference for

outdoor play is encouraging as the amount of overweight children continues to climb. Amount of

time spent outdoors is directly related to level of physical activity, which is associated with

higher levels of health and physical wellness. Nature play has been found to be more physically,

emotionally and cognitively valuable than indoor electronic play which is passive in nature

(Green Hearts, 2007, p. 2.)

Nature also provides a restorative environment for children and their teachers. The

attention restoration theory, developed by University of Michigan professors Stephen and Rachel

Kaplan, examines the difference between directed and involuntary attention. Directed attention,

where individuals must focus or direct their energy on a task that does not fascinate them, is

tiring and causes fatigue with overuse. Impulsive behavior, agitation and irritability often occur

as results. As individuals are required to direct their attention for long periods of time, their

ability to fully learn and comprehend experiences is diminished. Involuntary attention, in

contrast, is easy to maintain and is captured effortlessly. Since attention in the forest is captured


without effort, directed attention is given a chance to rest. The Kaplans observed four

components of a natural environment that help prevent this directed attention fatigue. When

these elements are present, they lead to a restorative environment. These elements include:

fascination, such as the babble of a brook or the shimmer of leaves; being away and experiencing

a mini-break in the woods; compatibility due to the support a forest provides for varied interests

and grouping arrangements; and the vast extent or scope of the forest. The Kaplans found nature

to serve as the most effective restorative environment, with over 100 studies backing their

findings (Louv, 2005b, p. 1; Wells, 2007). It comes as no surprise based on these findings that

decreased stress levels are reported in forest kindergarteners and their teachers.

A 2006 study by Wells and Lekies and previous studies by Palmer and Tanner suggest

childhood exposure to nature, both wild and domesticated, is indicative of environmental

attitudes and pro-environmental behavior in adulthood (Wells, 2007). Environmental curricula in

academic-based environments that teach of environmental injustices and travesties have, in

effect, an opposite then desired effect on environmental beliefs in adulthood. In schools, children

are often exposed to environmental problems before they have had real opportunities to connect

with the environment and develop a reverence for it. This creates what educator David Sobel

(1999) refers to as ecophobia, or the fear of ecological problems and the natural world (p. 1).

Without first having direct opportunities to experience nature, desired pro-environmental

attitudes are less likely to develop.

The constantly fed fear of the natural world by both children and adults must be

addressed, and the United States view of childhood and kindergarten will have to change to

accomplish this goal. In Norway, which stressed nature experiences in its Organization for

Economic Co-operation and Development report on early childhood education, happy children


are those outside playing without regard of season and weather. Forest day care centers, which

offer children these experiences on a daily basis, represent a child-care practice in harmony

with images parents held for their children in Norway (Borge, Lie & Nordhagen, 2003, p. 606).

In the United States, the recent movement has been toward adults serving as protectorate of

children, not as a guardian. Where Norwegian families allow children to play outside without

supervision or may loosely observe their children to provide educational support, United States

families tend to keep children inside for their own sake, to protect them from community

violence and danger. While fears must be acknowledged, so must the fact that the number of

childhood stranger abductions in the United States did not increase from 1988 to 1999

(Finkelhor, Hammer, Porcelli & Sedlak, 2004, p. 1).

Caution must also be taken to prevent parents and educators from unnaturally passing on

a culture of fear to young children. A 1994 study by Wilson showed preschool children are

acutely aware of these fears and harbor an increasing number of personal fears. Thirty-three

preschool children were interviewed individually to obtain insight into their environmental

knowledge and opinions. Some children commented they disliked rain because it could make

them sick. Similarly, wildflowers were viewed as dangerous because of their ability to attract

stinging bees. Boats were frightening due to their potential to tip over. Simmons conducted a

similar study in 1994 and found many children were afraid of trees because their branches or

trunks might fall without notice. Poisonous fish, birds that swoop down from the sky and attack

children and the sharp rocks in the water were common outdoor fears listed by young children

(Wilson, 1997, p. 2). These studies demonstrate how children are becoming increasingly fearful

and distanced from the natural world, afraid of the small animals and experiences that fascinated

children for centuries.


The nurturing environment of a forest kindergarten helps to eliminate these fears by

setting clear ground rules, while, at the same time, allowing children to experience the properties

of nature on their own, even if it might mean an occasional bump or bruise. Forest kindergartens

provide direct nature experiences that allow students to construct their own understandings of the

world instead of learning about nature primarily through stories about witches and wild beasts.

Here, opportunities are providedto be in the natural world with modeling by a responsible adult,

which Sobel (1996) feels is necessary to address issues of fear and ecophobia (p. 200). After

these nature experiences, students will be much more likely to construct their own positive

opinions of the forest. Overtime, a study of forest schools in England and Wales showed that

parental opinions of nature even changed while their children attended a forest kindergarten.

Fears and perceptions of risk showed marked decreases, and parents were more likely to provide

less structured outdoor experiences for their children, especially when they had previously

limited these experiences due to personal fears (Murray & OBrien, 2006, p. 46).

Educator, writer and biologist Carla Hannaford (2002) observed these phenomena first-

hand when she encountered a forest kindergarten by surprise on a walk through the woods during

a visit to Europe. She observed that play opportunities, both alone and with friends, emerged

like raindrops from a moisture-laden cloud. The limitless opportunities provided by the forest,

in addition to the freedom of unstructured play, left the door open for children to pursue their

interests and ideas. Hannaford observed gross and fine motor skill development as students

climbed on logs and fingered patterns on pine needles. She saw conversations sprout up over

new finds and imaginary games. Hannaford observed high levels of cooperation in the forest as

children interacted with one another through varied groupings. They could move fluidly between


activities and were not mandated to continue one project for a required amount of time.

Flexibility and respect to individual differences and preferences were paramount (p. 141).

Integration of forest kindergartens into the United States educational system will help

more schools reach success with their students in areas of education where the United States is

currently lagging sorely behind. In an Organization for Economic Co-operation and

Development report on the state of early childhood education (ECE), Norways review

demonstrated its high regard for the role of play and the outdoor environment in education.

Norways framework for childcare centers validated the importance of childrens free time,

individual choices and play. Educators emphasized the importance of protecting children from

too much adult control and direction in their play activities. All ECE programs described in

Norway were designed to develop childrens love of nature, going deeper than a basic

understanding of an ecosystems functions and struggles. This report contrasts greatly with

OECDs report on the state of ECE in the United States, in which there is no mention of outdoor

or play activities in education (OECD- Norway, 1999; & OECD- United States, 1999).

While the report focused on a number of educational concerns, such as testing, state standards

and the need for funding, it completed neglected aspects of schooling significantly important to

children and their development. It is no surprise then that school in America has become

synonymous with staying inside, out of touch with the natural world and real-life experiences.

These nature experiences are not hard to come by and do not require long trips to faraway

national parks. Nearby nature, which is close to the home, can instead be explored. This attitude

is realized at the Komazawa Park International School in Tokyo, Japan, where an integrated

forest kindergarten in the heart of the city uses a one-acre city park for its daily explorations.

Although this plot of land may be considerably smaller than most forest kindergartens, it still


provides free exploration and limitless possibilities for kindergarten children playing in it. The

National Association for the Education of Young Children (2005) outlined the importance of

outdoor play in its ten signs of a well-functioning, beneficial kindergarten classroom, regardless

of location and resources. Number seven reads: Children have an opportunity to play outside

everyday that weather permits. This play is never sacrificed for more instructional time (Top

Ten, p. 1).

The most beneficial outdoor play opportunities, as realized through forest kindergartens,

are very inexpensive. Here, traditional, often age-inappropriate toys that provide limits to

imagination and fantasy are abandoned. Children can use only the basic earth elements of sand,

water and mud to create castles and faraway lands, without fear of spilling materials or making a

mess of themselves or a classroom. Loose-parts are inexhaustible in the forest. These open-ended

materials can be used in many ways and combined with other loose parts through imagination

and creativity. Nearly any forest material can be a loose part, with common examples including

trees, flowers, long grasses, sticks, etc. Naturalist Richard Louv (2005) argued that nature,

which excites all the senses, remains the richest source of loose parts to engage children from all

directions (Last Child, p. 86). In its imperfection, nature, and all its loose parts, becomes the

perfect landscape for outdoor play and self-expression.

A forest kindergarten education can also help eliminate the push-down academic trend.

With nature as their teacher, students learn at their own pace in a forest kindergarten,

independent from a scripted curriculum. However, a lack of formalized curriculum does not

mean no learning occurs and that play takes place without meaning. Scottish kindergarten

teacher Evelyn Schulle (2007) said lessons are flexible, and teachers are willing to change the

agenda when necessary. She said the instructional plans for the day cannot forsee the snail on the


trail or a squirrel that lies on the ground dying. Planned lessons occur in the forest each day, in

addition to spontaneous learning opportunities. In some states in Germany, forest kindergartens

only receive financial support from the state if they adopt the educational plan and standards of

the state (N. J., personal communication, March 1, 2007). Even with the standards requirements,

educators and parents have observed children in these communities learning at their own pace, as

they are developmentally ready. Imke Venus (2007), a mother of two forest kindergarteners,

shared this story of her sons development throughout his time in the forest kindergarten:

What I found so amazing about my sons development was that he had the time to find out what he can do. He was able to realize his development. At the beginning there was a tree, and he was too small to climb up that one. He had to watch the older children doing it. A year later he could climb up the first part of the tree, and when he left the kindergarten he was at the top of the tree as the others before him, and he was deathly proud of it.

Dominic Gullo, professor and deputy chair of the elementary and early childhood department at

Queens College, believes this independence to learn when ready is necessary becuase young

brains advance at uneven rates. Until age eight, children continue to catch up to their peers in

maturity (LaCoste-Caputo & Russel, 2006, p. 3). Scaffolded activities that can be experienced

and interpreted at a variety of levels are necessary at younger ages so all students can benefit

from learning experiences.

The flexibility and freedom provided by the forest kindergarten curriculum also means

children have to find ways to mediate personal boredom; they cannot sit back and merely listen

as they do in many traditional kindergarten programs. This eliminates a traditional lack of

motivation and negative attitude toward learning that can be found even in the youngest students

in a typical school atmosphere. It is through these child-led, meaningful experiences that children

can best construct knowledge from their interactions with their environment, teachers and peers.


Academically, children who attend forest kindergartens perform as well as and often

better than peers educated in a typical kindergarten setting. German educationalist and researcher

Dr. Peter Hafner (2003) examined the abilities of students who attend forest kindergartens

compared to their regular kindergarten peers. He found children from forest kindergartens were

much better in three necessary areas: motivation, concentration/social behavior and class

participation. Hafner noted the renunciation of standard toys also inspired greater verbal

communication among these children (p. 3). Studies by Play Scotland (2005), the leading

Scottish body for play, found children who attend outdoor kindergartens are strong, confident

and good at problem solving due to the freedom to explore and inherent challenges provided by

their high-quality outdoor play experiences (Savin, p. 3). These outdoor experiences can also

boost test scores. The California Department of Education found in a 2005 study that schools

who used the outdoor classroom as a frequent context for learning saw their students testing

scores in science improve by 27 percent. Significant gains were also observed in the areas of

mathematics, social studies and language arts (Louv, 2007, p. 4).

Reported academic benefits are not only found in studies but in reports from first-grade

teachers whose students previously attended forest kindergartens. Evelyn Schulle, a teacher and

founder of an integrated forest kindergarten, said, What I usually hear is that the children from

my kindergarten listen more carefully than others, are more patient and can solve problems more

easily than others (2007). Others report higher concentration levels due to an increased ability

to focus on the task at hand (Kremkus, D., personal communication, February 16, 2007). A 2003

forest school study from the United Kingdom by Murray that examined a forest school primarily

designed to service low-income children found those children who appeared vulnerable and

easily upset at beginning sessions, often due to problems at home and separation anxiety issues,


demonstrated significantly higher levels of self confidence and success as the program

progressed. These experiences can have a significant impact on future classroom experience.

According to teachers, these children are at least as prepared as their peers to enter first grade,

and their entrance to the classroom is accompanied by a rich set of life experiences due to forest

kindergarten experiences. These studies effectively disprove accusations that students run wild in

the forest without purpose and have few opportunities for real learning. By not sitting at a desk

and discussing what cannot be seen, a forest kindergarten provides richer experiences for its

students as they interact with objects to form their own meanings and understandings.

The multi-year atmosphere most forest kindergartens provide makes developmental

differences which stick out in a typical kindergarten non-existent. No children need to be red-

shirted for a year. In these small, intimate settings, three- to six-year-old students learn the

importance of the group and social relationships through nearly constant interactions and play

with their peers. The multi-age dimension of the groups requires older students to guide and look

out for their younger counterparts (Schoenebaum, B., personal communication, February 1,

2007). This pro-social behavior, noted by giving, helping, sharing and comforting behaviors, is a

key indicator of successful social skills. With distractions minimized due to the absence of toys

and noise reflecting from walls or surrounding rooms, young students are more able to focus

attention on one another. According to Lacis (2007), this is often observed in forest

kindergartens. You wait for slower/weaker/younger children as they are lost without you, so

were you when you were young. She said children remember these behaviors of kindness and

reciprocate by helping younger children as they mature and take on a leadership role in the

kindergarten (2007). This relationship is natural since in the forest, small situations can get

serious, and each student must contribute to the group if obstacles are to be tackled.


Development of group behavior, especially realized through successful group

conversations, is essential since in most out-of-school activities students are discouraged from

free talk. These groups, such as soccer teams and Girl Scouts, are more geared toward individual

development than the creation of a successful group. In a forest kindergarten, as children are

given the autonomy to make decisions in groups, they learn the communication strategies

necessary to make decisions and reach effective compromises. These skills must be taught young

to successfully develop, and forest kindergartens provide that opportunity (Clements, 2000, p.

203). Small group sizes also allow frequent opportunities for all students to take on leadership

roles, whether it is organizing the collection of same-size sticks for fort building or watching the

tea kettle to see when hot water will be ready for the group to drink. Opportunities must be

presented for students to develop these skills, and a focus on social skills must be integrated into

existing state standards in the United States.

Unfortunately today, camps currently provide American students with the highest amount

of access to nature. Many students attend camps part- or full-time over the summer for periods of

one week or more. While camps are somewhat effective in providing nature experiences to

children, they are often highly structured, allowing few chances for participants to actually

experienced nature. Approximately 12,000 of these camps exist across the United States and

offer various focuses. Some are nature-centered, providing experiences fire building and tent

pitching, along with miles of hiking trails. An example is Camp Woods Play in New York.

Director Marcie Matthews started the camp in 2005 to provide necessary nature experiences for

children she felt spend too much time indoors. Matthews said she found the camp to be a major

success in providing students with these experiences. When they were out in nature, they

seemed to drink it in with every pore of their bodies (Personal communication, February 11,


2007). However, Matthews only saw the children for a few hours a day for one to two week

sessions. She found this was nowhere near enough to resolve the severe need the children had for

nature.

From Hands-On to Hands-Off: How Abstraction is Replacing Experience

If the pushed-down academics of kindergarten do not create enough problems, premature

abstraction of content most surely makes up for it. Abstraction, in this sense, is the process

through which a concept or idea is presented separate from physical experiences. Through

abstraction, children recognize new experiences as sharing qualities similar with previous

findings. In primary schools in the United States today, premature abstraction is the norm. Due to

factors such as an increased amount of content to cover which leaves seemingly less time for in-

depth lessons, educators are replacing primary experiences with nature and other phenomena

with one-way experiences with non-reactionary, abstract materials.

George Maxim (1997), professor of childhood studies and reading at West Chester

University, found that through preschool and primary years, childrens ability to physically

experience and manipulate objects represents the primary way they gain knowledge of the

objects themselves (p. 42). These experiences help children discover new ways to represent

objects as they begin to think more abstractly. For example, students who have physically

experienced a farm are more likely to later transition to using blocks and paper shapes to

represent the farm buildings. This beginning ability of four to six year olds to think abstractly

grows gradually through these experiences.

Although many criticize technology as the signifier of a move toward abstraction, Lowell

Monke (2005) said this trend began long before the introduction of computers into the


classroom. Even relying on books too much or too early inhibits the ability of children to

develop direct relationships with the subjects they are studying (p. 1). Due to the strong

qualities of books and computers to transport people to a different world, individuals come to the

incorrect understanding that the overwhelming amounts of information available via these

sources can somehow replace real-life experiences. Wherever they turn, students are being

inundated with symbolic representations for physical objects, often before they have had a

chance to connect with the physical objects. For example, how can a tree be experienced through

a website? While a website may provide facts about the a trees origin and history, an incredibly

essential physical experience is being neglected. Children need opportunities to experience real

trees with their five senses before they can successfully comprehend abstract information about

them.

The rush toward abstraction has been addressed uniquely in mathematics instruction in

many school districts. Due to an inability to connect the abstract signs and symbols on their

papers to the real world, more and more children began displaying signs of math phobias in the

primary grades. Instruction focused on the procedures on mathematics instead of their

applications to everyday life. Rote memorization of facts was a highly rewarded skill. Textbooks

and curriculum guides reflected this approach, making it all too easy for teachers to perpetuate its

ideals. Failure resulted when children did not have enough concrete experiences to construct

relationships with objects before transitioning to formal operations. Although abstract

mathematics can successfully be learned through this process by a small number of students over

time, concrete connections to the real world help solidify learning for all children, especially in

beginning learners.


Over the past two decades, mathematics instruction has been reinvigorated by the

introduction of concrete materials. These hands-on manipulatives include Cuisinaire rods,

fraction bars and clocks. Numerous opportunities must be presented for students to engage with

these materials before more abstract numerals and concepts are introduced. In addition to

manipulatives, mathematical procedures are now connected to real-life problems and experiences

(Sobel, 2007, p. 2). Now, children receive many experiences when learning a concept such as

addition. They might begin by adding together physical apples, then transition to cubes with one

cube representing each apple. As abstract thinking develops, appropriately supported by concrete

experiences, these physical manipulatives may give way to tally marks and eventually to the

numbers themselves. This mode of concept acquisition is essential since, as Stice (1987) found,

students retain only 10 percent of what they read, 26 percent of what they hear, 30 percent of

what they see, 50 percent of what they see and hear and 70 percent of what they say. However,

learners remember 90 percent of what they do (Felder & Henriques, 1995, p. 28). Tall (1994)

argued that the continuation of these methods is necessary for the development of successful

mathematicians later in life; he said it is only when children are immersed in an environment

where they can construct their own knowledge from experiences that they will learn to think

mathematically (p. 2).

The National Science Teachers Association (2002) recognized the importance of this

type of instruction in science. In a position paper outlining essential practices in an elementary

school science classroom, they prioritized first-hand experiences and investigation as most

essential; however, to be effective, they note these experiences must build on a students

conceptual framework (p. 1). This movement must occur across the board in primary school

instruction, especially in kindergartens.


Children are prematurely being asked to think about and respond to complex

environmental problems when they have never had a chance to connect with the natural world

and become close to it. As Sobel put it, So much of environmental education has become a

didactic focus on the dispersion of environmental facts. Instead, children need an immersion into

nature. Sobel (2007) argued that one transcendent nature experience is of equal worth to a

thousand nature facts. Opportunities to experience nature, provided each day by forest

kindergartens, will help create future developing generations that will display a vested interest in

the planet due to their early childhood experiences. Encouraging and providing opportunities to

develop this indirect side-effect may be necessary as debates over how to address global

warming escalate and sustainable living becomes more commonplace.

In a similar style, and with increased emphasis, learning must allow primary aged

students to make appropriate concrete connections with their environment. Before students can

create understanding from abstract information, they must be able to connect what they know

about the information to their concrete experiences. Uri Wilensky (1991), researcher at the

Center for Concrete Operations at Northwestern University, suggested the definition of

concreteness is directly tied to the number of connections a person has between one object and

other objects. As students have numerous opportunities to play with, experience and discover a

new object, the object becomes more concrete for the student based on these experiences.

Concreteness, then, is that property which measures the degree of our relatedness to the object

(p. 1). Any object can be made concrete for learners, even those not frequently associated with

the senses. For example, textured letters can allow beginning readers to touch and feel the

alphabet, and moveable letters allow new writers to manipulate words. While the letters are

primarily an abstract concept, they become concrete for the learner as students experience


multiple modes of engagement with them and a sufficiently rich collection of models to represent

them (Wilensky, p. 5). Especially in kindergarten, efforts toward concreteness require multiple

opportunities for engagement with physical manifestations of the concept, in addition to a

diverse collection of models to represent the concept in real ways for the students. Real-life

experiences with objects also increases student interest and curiosity about the materials,

supplementing opportunities for later successful studies. Without these methods, von Glasersfeld

(1989) believed teaching would remain a hit-or-miss affair, with diminished prospects of success

for all parties (p. 1).

Schools directed under the educational philosophy of Maria Montessori adopt this

philosophy to benefit their youngest students. The Orno Montessori School in Wayzata,

Minnesota, provides a vast assortment of sensory experiences to accompany every concept

taught in the classroom. Land and water formations are initially taught through three-

dimensional models. Students demonstrate their understanding of words such as run and march

through full body experiences as they act the concept out (Kindergarten curriculum, n.d., p. 1).

The Green Mountain Montessori School in Essex, Virginia, takes a similar approach, using

materials designed to always present a concept concretely. These materials tend to be isolated

and seek to teach only one concept at a time (Our Montessori, n.d., p. 1).

Concrete preoperational experiences are not, and should not, be limited to the classroom;

instead, they are well suited to the out of doors. As L.B. Sharp, author of Outside the Classroom

commented, objects occurring in or dealing with nature should be taught there (Dissinger, 1987,

p. 1). Child development theorist John Dewey took Sharps belief a step further. He believed all

studies arise from aspects of the earth and the lives lived upon it. Because of this, Dewey felt the

outdoor environment could provide meaningful contextual experiences to complement and


expanded instruction in all subject areas (Knapp & Woodhouse, 2000, p. 1). These activities

could include role playing, where students attempt to take on the characteristics, feelings and

essential qualities of a natural object of their choice. Through the role play, students develop

language skills and learn to connect their mental symbols with concrete objects. Another

example could be the collection and sorting of different natural materials by the students based

on characteristics; this demonstrates the fluidity of relationships between objects. While

classification tasks may be difficult for students this age, appropriate experiences with concrete

materials allow them to make attempts at the task earlier (Hrecz, 1995, p. 1).

No foreign materials representing other concepts are introduced to the forest. By relying

on natural materials to teach all educational concepts, forest kindergartens successfully provide

concrete experiences for students who desperately need them. Here learning is active as students

engage in nature with all their senses. Forest kindergartens provide necessary immersion

experiences with natural objects to ensure children have a database of experiences to draw from

to produce real meaning as adults. These concrete experiences are also necessary because they

provide children with direct exposure to the natural world. Loose parts in the forest provide an

appropriate avenue through which students can develop abstract thinking skills. As students use

simple objects, such as sticks, to represent more complex objects, they practice high levels of

abstraction appropriate to their ability levels. These experiences also help students develop

strong language skills which are essential to abstract thinking. Language abilities developed

young benefit students through their educational career and life experiences. Through concrete

experiences, chi

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