Universal preschool is coming; let’s prioritize social-emotional learning and play

Students in Alicia Simba's classroom learn social and emotional skills as well as academic concepts through play.

Courtesy: Alicia Simba

In the summer of 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the rollout of universal preschool across the state of California through the expansion of transitional kindergarten for all 4-year-olds by the 2025-26 academic year. Once in effect, millions of children will have access to free, high-quality early childhood education with the intention of improving future academic outcomes, particularly important for students from marginalized backgrounds.

As a third-year transitional kindergarten teacher in the Bay Area, I have seen the effectiveness of the program up close. My students spend the year learning school-readiness skills like how to hold a pencil and sit at a desk. They are all introduced to early academic concepts such as the alphabet, counting routines, and phonemic awareness skills through nursery rhymes and children’s songs. Many of them have never been around dozens of other kids their age and TK allows them to learn social skills through play like working together, sharing and being empathetic.

I am excited for more 4-year-olds to have the opportunity to engage in this learning, but as preschool becomes folded into the K-12 public education system, we have a duty to protect the sanctity of the early years, and we must make sure we do so.

Social and emotional learning is central to early childhood education. From the tears of the first day of school to the squeals of graduation, young children carry with them many emotions that they learn to manage and regulate with the help of their teachers and caregivers. Being able to name and navigate when they feel frustrated and excited and upset through read-alouds, art activities and one-on-one interactions and conversations set up the littlest learners to be successful as diligent, determined students and — later — patient, considerate adults.

Ask any successful early childhood educator, and they will tell you that much of the best social-emotional learning occurs during play. Whether it is a group of students engaging in dramatic play by pretending to run a restaurant, or one student pushing a toy car through the fibers of a rug, the freedom of play facilitates the natural teaching of emotional regulation, in addition to introducing the egocentric TK-er to the merits of social relationships. Play organically teaches students how to negotiate and compromise as they learn how to build positive relationships and be in community with their peers. Moreover, play-based learning exposes children to early literacy, number sense, scientific discovery and more in ways that are cognizant of where students are developmentally as they take a constructivist approach to their learning by drawing their own stories, counting the Lego they use to build a house, and observing what happens with the plants and animals in the school garden.

The challenge facing the expansion of universal preschool via induction into the current K-12 system is that in the decadeslong movement toward raising academic achievement and school accountability, standards and testing have become not just the norm, but the guiding principles of education.

At a time when the priority in kindergarten is making sure 5-year-olds are learning in order to pass computer-based assessments and standardized tests, while also losing playtime to meet instructional minutes, transitional kindergarten cannot and will not be the same.

We know that social-emotional learning and play are more developmentally appropriate for where our young students are neurologically, and by ignoring that and enforcing our narrow notions of what learning in schools can and should look like, we also run the risk of raising generations of students burnt out before even completing elementary school.

California has an opportunity to be an example of what can be possible with the future of universal preschool, and that begins with making sure that the educational experiences we are designing for the little ones are appropriate and engaging, and set them up to be lifelong learners and caring members of society.

We need leaders at school sites, districts and state agencies to learn more about the research around social-emotional learning and play and put forth the best mandates and recommendations. We need teachers to speak up in the protection of their students by asking questions early and often when pushed to turn preschool into something that it is not.

Most importantly, we need families and caregivers to collaborate with stakeholders early in communicating what they want their students’ first year of school to look like and holding us accountable for making sure that students experience schools as places of joy, growth and care because that’s what we want them to be, and it starts now.

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Alicia Simba is a transitional-kindergarten teacher in the Oakland Unified School District.

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