By Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 15, 2004; Page A01
[The daily nap is] a daily ritual for the pre-kindergarten students at Hoffman-Boston Elementary School in Arlington, as it is at countless schools across the country. But in the increasingly urgent world of public education, is it a luxury that 4-year-olds no longer can afford? By asking that question, a few leaders of Washington area school systems have begun to challenge one of the pillars of the early school experience: afternoon naps.
"Nap time needs to go away," Prince George's County schools chief André J. Hornsby said during a recent meeting with Maryland legislators. "We need to get rid of all the baby school stuff they used to do." Educators including Hornsby 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 age 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."
Asked what activities would take the place of naps, Hornsby said "We plan to offer a range of electives in that time slot. Some children will be taking intro to modern dance, some preliminary French, and some - the weak ones - will take shop, or as we call it here, 'gluing things to your hair.' Later in the semester, we'll have a series of seminars hosted by our outplacement office in which we cover the basics of interviewing, resume writing, and career-appropriate deportment." Asked if such a level of preparation were truly necessary for children whose next placement would almost certainly be to kindergarten, Hornsby sniffed "you clearly have no idea how competitive the market is these days. It's not enough any more to have perfect attendance and top-flight grades. If you can't show signs of incipient leadership such as being "It" in tag, or leading the class in putting marbles up your nose, then you might as well not bother to learn colors and shapes."
A group of toddlers under the new regime appeared to bear out the premise that naptime could be used more productively. Miss Henderson's group, which last year would have been napping quietly, was seen by this reporter clustered around what looked like a map of Miss Brown's pre-K room next door, and using such advanced vocabulary as 'lebensraum' and 'anschluss.'
Their teacher was enthusiastic about the new regime. "Little children are capable of such great things, I really think we were doing them a disservice by letting them sleep," enthused Karlotta Henderson. "We started by replacing the naps with calisthenics, then we had a unit on world history, which the kids really took to. They had great fun comparing and contrasting civilizations. They were very excited to hear that there were whole countries where people take naps, and others where people work frenetically right through the day. No points for guessing which one they wanted to be - these kids have big ambitions!"
Meanwhile, under a banner that reads "Arbeit macht Grumpy, Old Chap," Miss Brown's class naps quietly, dreaming of Spitfires and green meadows.
Remember, Kids, the part in bold is actual 100% news-flavored media product.
The rest is the fakey part.
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