The wrong lesson for kindergartners

As an early childhood professional, I was disturbed by your Page 2 photo of a kindergarten class "demonstrating standing-in-line skills during a bathroom break" ("Underway at last," Sept. 7). It's a pity The Sun chose to promote this ineffective transitional activity.

It is developmentally inappropriate to expect young children to stand in line, keep quiet, keep their hands to themselves and do absolutely nothing while waiting to use the bathroom.

If it is necessary to take a group of children in line, there are many transitional activities that can serve to engage kids in learning opportunities during such daily routines. For example, children can play word games with their teacher, sing songs or make up silly rhymes, all activities that increase phonological awareness and vocabulary development.

Additionally, the walls near the bathroom can be decorated with hands-on activity charts that allow children to manipulate objects that represent patterns or numbers. The charts can be theme-based to reflect the subjects covered during classroom instruction.

Transitions can and should be a creative, interesting time for children, not a "demonstration of standing-in-line skills," which does nothing to honor children's intellectual dispositions or social and emotional competencies.

I would think Superintendent Joe Hairston and the Baltimore County Early Learning Office would object to this image being printed with a caption promoting standing still in line for a bathroom break as a valuable "skill" that five-year-olds need to master.

Linda M. Wicklein