No Time For Nap Time?

03/30/2004

"I have a simple philosophy: Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. Scratch where it itches." - Alice Roosevelt Longworth

NO TIME FOR NAP TIME?

MSNBC News recently published a story questioning whether, in the increasingly urgent world of public education, nap time is it a luxury that 4-year-olds no longer can afford? Prince George's County schools chief André J. Hornsby, has suggested, "Nap time needs to go away. We need to get rid of all the baby school stuff they used to do."

Hornsby wants to convert his pre-kindergarten classes into a full-day program. If he secures the funding to begin that next fall, there will be no mats or cots allowed, he said. In Anne Arundel County, where full-day pre-kindergarten is in place, Superintendent Eric J. Smith also has opted not to build nap time into the schedule.

Educators including Hornsby and Smith find themselves under growing pressure to make school more rigorous -- even in the earliest grades -- in the belief that children who are behind academically by the time they are 6 or 7 have a difficult time catching up. "The time is very precious," Smith said. "When they come into first grade or kindergarten for the first time, they learn within a few weeks of the school experience that they're not as capable, and that's a burden that is extremely damaging."

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