Joe^ Amon/the^ Denver^ Post^ via^GettyImagesEDUCATION
W
hen the members of the class of 2032 enter school for the first time this month,
they’ll make history as Colorado’s first recipients of universal state-funded, full-day
kindergarten. Proponents hope the new model will help eliminate the achievement
gap between low-income students and wealthier ones. (Previously, many parents
had to pay tuition for daylong kindergarten.) But since Governor Jared Polis signed the
$175 million bill into law in May, prominent early education experts have been pushing
to usher in even more shifts in the way the Centennial State educates its children. “People
are reflecting on kindergarten planning a lot right now,” says Rebecca Kantor, dean of the
University of Colorado Denver’s School of Education and Human Development, “so it’s the
perfect time to consider curriculum.”
In August 2018, Kantor recruited University of Washington early learning specialist
Kristie Kauerz, who moved her grant-funded National P-3 Center to CU Denver. While P-3
(shorthand for “preschool through third grade”) advocates for a slew of initiatives, Kauerz and
Kantor also argue that longer days should trigger an increase in a childhood mainstay: play.
Twenty years ago, 87 percent of kindergarten teachers nationwide said they devoted an
area of their classroom to play. By 2010, the most recent year for which data is available, that
number had dropped to 58 percent. Many experts say the decrease was caused by the 2001
adoption of No Child Left Behind, whose reliance on test preparation cut into cavorting.
Sentence writing and arithmetic tables replaced time spent, say, playing with blocks or pre-
tending to shop for groceries. Some research suggests these changes stymied development.
A 2018 report from the American Academy of Pediatrics, for example, shows that play
carves neural pathways in the brain that assist in learning. No wonder that a 2010 study
showed that preschoolers remember vocabulary words better if they recreate after lessons.
When the bill passed in May, Kauerz began leading workshops across the state to teach
administrators the importance of experiential learning. Kauerz says schools leaders have
met her lessons—which will resume this month—with enthusiasm. She believes play could
start to become more prominent in Colorado schools as early as 2020. So parents shouldn’t
be surprised if they notice more, well, fun in the classroom. Don’t fret: It could be sending
your young ones down the road to brilliance. —DANIELLE ATKINLearning Curve
Full-day kindergarten in Colorado could transform early
education—and should be pretty fun, too.
The percent-
age of third
graders in
Colorado
reading at
grade level
or above40 %
Denver streetscapes re-
created from photos) for
Washington Park’s Park
Lane Hotel in 1964.
In the CIA, Mendez’s
ability to reproduce
anything he saw made
him a master forger. He
proved to be a skilled
chameleon, too, and
for a time served as the
agency’s chief of disguis-
es, using a talent he’d
honed at Englewood
High: When neither he
nor his buddy scored
prom dates, he dressed
up as a girl and went as
his friend’s sweetheart.
Eventually, he became
an expert in the art of
“exfiltration,” or getting
assets out of danger-
ous situations. During
the 1980 Iran hostage
crisis, Mendez snuck six
Americans out of Tehran
by having them pose as
a Canadian film crew.
The incident inspired
the Affleck-directed,
Academy Award Best
Picture–winning Argo.
While Mendez be-came an international
man of mystery, his
Park Lane paintings lan-
guished in a warehouse
after the hotel was de-
molished. A local man
later salvaged them, and
his daughter, Lesa Leiter
of Thornton, discovered
the true identity of the
“A. Mendez” who had
signed the pieces.
Following Mendez’s
death at age 78, Leiter
sold the paintings to Si-
mon Lofts, the co-owner
of Workability, a Denver
co-working outfit. Lofts
plans to hold a public
unveiling on August 26;
they’ll permanently hang
in Workability’s Sherman
Street office. “My father
would be thrilled that
his work is in the public
eye,” says Toby Mendez,
one of Tony’s four chil-
dren and an esteemed
sculptor himself, “and
being seen once again.”
—KASEY CORDELLContinuedGovernor
Jared Polis
reads to a
kindergarten
class earlier
this year.40 |^5280 |^ AUGUST^2019