With the introduction of full-day kindergarten programs in
Ontario, British Columbia and Prince Edward Island last fall,
Canada is leading the shift away from pen and paper exercises
toward play-based learning. Politicians have staked billions of
taxpayer dollars and the success of the next generation on this
more subtle approach to teaching young children. So we decided
to investigate for ourselves. Is full-day kindergarten anything
more than a very expensive, vote-winning form of government-
backed daycare? The Globe and Mail spent the past year following
four very different children inside their Toronto-area
classrooms. A reporter, researcher and videographer were given
access to 100 kindergarten students, their teachers and school
leaders and we assessed the progress of four children through
measures developed by researchers at the Ontario Institute for
Studies in Education. The project’s objective was to delve
deeper than reading, writing and arithmetic, to track the more
complex but less measurable devel