Kindergarten “Robinson Crusoe"

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32564, 25 March 1971, Page 7

Kindergarten “Robinson Crusoe"

(By

KIMMIS HENDRICK,

in the "Christian Science Monitor.”)

PACOIMA (California). Some 16 years ago, Stanley Kiesel became a kindergarten teacher in the Los Angeles city schools.

“I’m the only man I’ve ever heard of,” he says, "who has made a career of it, and Fm getting pretty lonely. I feel like Robinson Crusoe.” He is not complaining. He is a happy man. But Mr Kiesel thinks that the more complex society becomes, the more important it is for men to get involved in education at its earliest level. “I was a dropout in college,” he says. “I left home and went to New York City and ended up working nights in a Planters Peanut window on Times Square with a chefs cap on. “The thing I liked about that job were the kids that used to come by, even at a late hour. “I lived with a family that

had two young children, one a kindergartener and one a pre-schooler, and it was then I decided I’d like to teach kindergarten. I saw this as a way to make my living that I’d be happy with.” NOT ACADEMIC Mr Kiesel says it was not academic work with children that interested him—it was the child as an individual, a

character. A child has to develop self-awareness, and to help with this struck him as a marvellous challenge. “It’s still central," he insists, “but it’s being lost. There’s a tremendous emphasis now on academics.” Mr Kiesel believes that too many pressures are being exerted to make the child competitive —by legislators and others who fear that American youngsters may lag behind. This worries him.

One of the pressures now put on teachers is to get children to read. Mr Kiesel points out that if a small child does learn to read readily, it’s usually because his home environment favours it. His parents value books. Hence, his concern is with cultivating a home like environment favourable to children. His school is situated in a better-than-average economic area, Where homes are attractive and prosperity shines everywhere. But he finds he

'is dealing with numerous tots whose home lives are insecure. More than a few, for example, have no father at home.

OPPORTUNITY This presents a major opportunity for the man who teaches kindergarten to offer youngsters a strong, steadying relationship at a time of extreme impressionability. Mr Kiesel’s whole career has been in Los Angeles city schools. He has had the good fortune, he observes, to teach in a school where the principal is a capable administrator who supports the work al! the teachers are trying to do. Kindergarten also has the advantage, he says, of being less supervised than the other grades. “It’s a place where kids aren’t pressured—at least not in my room,” he says. "They can paint, they can work with clay—anything. They don’t have to produce anything. “My feeling is that when kids are ready to do something, they’ll do it. Then if they’re not ready, why aren’t they? That’s my job to try and find the ‘whys.’” Mr Kiesel structures his programme, as kindergarten teachers usually do, to start with a work period. Because of California climate, part of his class can work outdoors. A teacher, he says, must have 100 eyes—for painting, woodworking, housekeeping, and so on, go on simultaneously. RESPONSIBILITY His youngsters get things out and put things away. He’s eager to see them be responsible.

“A lot of children,” he points out, "almost never talk to the teacher. But they talk to each other, and I can listen. For me, that’s a valuable part of the work period.” His room has animals—rats, for instance. It has a playhouse. Mr Kiesel thinks it is as important for a boy to hold a doll as for a girl —he will be a father sometime. It is just as important for girls to learn to use tools as for boys, he claims. Once in a while he hears of other men teaching kindergarten, but he says they never seem to stay with it. They are using it as a step to something else. He is convinced it is a good goal in itself.