Here is a growing list of books and articles, videos, and websites that can help you advocate for young children and defend children’s right to play, grow, and learn in an era of misguided standards and harmful assessments:

BOOKS AND ARTICLES

Changing Times, Changing Play – What Does it Matter? by Diane Levin, Child Care Exchange, September/October 2012

A Child’s Work: The Importance of Fantasy Playby Vivian Gussin Paley (or any of the many books by Vivian Gussin Paley), University of Chicago Press

The Crisis in Early Education: A Research-Based Case of More Play and Less Pressure by Joan Almon and Ed Miller (Alliance for Childhood states: “This four-page article succinctly makes the case for play-based education.”)

The Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch, Basic Books

Defending Childhood edited by Beverly Falk, Teachers College Press

Different Learners:  Identifying, Preventing, and Treating Your Child’s Learning Problems by Jane M. Healy, Simon & Schuster

ECA EYF Unhurried Pathways by Early Childhood Action. This is a free .pdf version of the report published in Winchester, England in October 2012

Facing the Screen Dilemma: Young Children, Technology and Early Education by Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Alliance for Childhood, & Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment

Finnish Lessons by Pasi Sahlberg, Teachers College Press

The Flat World and Education by Linda Darling-Hammond, Teachers College Press

How Ed Policy is Hurting Early Childhood Education by Geralyn Bywater McLaughlin, Nancy Carlsson-Paige and Diane Levin for The Answer Sheet at The Washington Post

A Mandate for Playful Learning in Preschool: Applying the Scientific Evidence by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Laura E. Berk and Dorothy Singer, Oxford University Press

New York’s Common Core Pre-K Standards: They’re Not Kidding Around by Susan Ohanian.

Playing for Keeps: Life and Learning on a Public School Playground by Deborah Meier, Brenda S. Engel and Beth Taylor, Teachers College Press

Reclaiming Childhood by William Crain, Owl Books

Seen and Heard: Children’s Rights in Early Childhood Education by Ellen Lynn Hall and Jennifer Kofkin Rudkin, Teachers College Press

Taking Back Childhood by Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Plume

The War Play Dilemma by Diane E. Levin and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Teachers College Press

Why Preschool Shouldn’t Be Like School by Alison Gopnik for Slate, March 16, 2011

VIDEOS

A Year at Mission Hill 10-part video series chronicling the rhythms and relationships of a year in the life of one of America’s most successful public schools

The Learning Child Series produced by Jonathan Diamond Associates in collaboration with Sarah Lawrence College Child Development Center

Occupy the DOE 2.0 : a series of YouTube videos from a range of speakers, including Diane Ravitch, Deborah Meier, Nancy Carlsson-Paige and more.

The Role of Play in the Overly Academic Kindergarten by the Gesell Institute. This seven and a half minute YouTube video is well worth your time and is easily shared with others. “Play is being banished from kindergarten classrooms across the U.S. Learn how this is impacting the nation’s youth. Narrated by Marcy Guddemi, Executive Director of the Gesell Institute”

What Kindergarten Should Be a Tedx Talk by Dr. Doris Fromberg

When Education Goes Wrong: Taking the Creativity and Play Out of Learning a Tedx Talk by Dr. Nancy Carlsson-Paige

 

WEBSITES

Alliance for Childhood
Bridging Differences Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch blog at Education Week
CCFC Campaign for a Commercial- Free Childhood
The CAYL Institute  Community Advocates for Young Learners
Child Development Institute Sarah Lawrence College
Clearinghouse on Early Education and Parenting
Collage Magazine Community Playthings
CEASE Concerned Educators Allied for a Safe Environment
Early Childhood Leadership Institute University of D.C.
Early Childhood Action, Winchester, England
Empowered by Play Geralyn McLaughlin
FairTest The National Center for Fair and Open Testing
Mission Hill School Progressive Public School in Boston, MA
SOS Save Our Schools
TRUCE Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment