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  1. WOW, Julie’s presentation totally spoke to me! I am a retired primary school teacher with 30+ years. I retired
    early by today’s standards because I felt compromised as the teacher I “really” was, a developmentalist. I taught full day Kindergarten (“Child’s garden”) for 21 years. In the beginning it was exactly what my spirit needed. We had time to do academics (age appropriate), which part of my center rotations included a play (children’s work) center complete with housekeeping and dress-up clothes. We had time for rest with me playing soft music on my guitar. We had time for outside play (recess) to exercise their bodies and always time left over for story time and making those connections with their lives. We celebrated making mistakes as an opportunity to learn from them then make corrections. I chose to leave Kindergarten when it deteriorated to strictly academics with play being frowned upon. Rest time was out. More “time on task” was needed for this updated curriculum! Each child was expected to perform on the “Kindergatrten” level (developmental impossibility) which now included a sight vocabulary, reading on a level some “specialist” (who isn’t in the everyday classroom) has deemed appropriate, and writing complete sentences. I moved up to 1st grade at another school and in the end found the same thing happening. Speaking with fellow teachers it was happening on every grade level. I made a promise to myself and my future students when I first started teaching that when I no longer felt excited about teaching every day it was time for me to leave. So I did!
    I really admire what you are doing! This noble profession needs to be kicked into the 21st century!

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