| A chair and a desk: seemingly innocuous, they represent an unfortunate reality for the majority of elementary school students in the United States. Growing research shows that people increase their capacity for learning and thinking when they engage in motion, yet, most classrooms continue to use desks, neatly lined in rows or groups. Educators and administrators expect students of all ages, preschool to high school, to thrive and flourish while confined in chairs and desks for extended periods of time. Not only are they being instructed to sit still, but they also receive minimal and continuously shrinking breaks or recesses in order to answer the growing demand of academic testing. Young, curious, excitable, and energetic, children enter school somewhere between the ages of three and five, their most formative years. Preschool and kindergarten classrooms offer tremendous opportunities for exploration and growth for children, but the impending need for academic instruction and skills development is quickly overshadowing the time given for creativity and body movement. The emphasis placed on instruction that requires students to remain still in the classroom offers a potentially discouraging message to children. If continued early learners may be disinclined to see their bodies as a source for learning or as a valuable way to engage the world outside of the classroom walls. I argue that one potential answer to the problem is an increased use of dance, a pedagogical strategy that is currently undervalued. The benefit of enlisting dance is two-fold: dance not only supports the academic achievement that our national education system aims for, but it also supports the holistic development and well-being of a child that direct instruction classroom models often neglect. |
