Skip to content

NERD 0435 The (Problematic) PreK Push

November 12, 2026 · 47 min

Show notes

Rixa Evershed is an early childhood educator, administrator, and advocate who has some big thoughts about PreK. She's here in this episode to talk with host Heather Bernt-Santy to talk through the ways our current PreK push is missing the point. So many points.

How can we help families understand (and relax about) the panic we've created around covid, learning loss, and academic "recovery?"

Should we be talking about teaching or development?

Why is it so easy to ignore or hide research about "real" quality indicators, brain development, and play?

And where does motor development fit in?

Rixa and Heather cover a lot in this episode.

Order Heather’s book, Using Schema Play Theory to Advocate for Free Play in Early Childhood, here: https://www.tcpress.com/products/using-schema-play-theory-to-advocate-for-free-play-in-early-childhood_9780807783177

Join our new Patreon community! For just $5 a month you can support all the Early Childhood Nerdwork podcasts AND join our Discord server to chat with the hosts and others who are working for children, their families, and their teachers: https://www.patreon.com/cw/EarlyChildhoodNerdworkbyThatEarlyChildhoodNerd

Thanks for listening!

All episodes of That Early Childhood Nerd

Settings

Display

Language

Decides which stations you see first on the home page.

History

Recently played stations and episodes and your latest searches are only stored in this browser.

Notifications

A short notice when a podcast you follow has a new episode. Turn off single podcasts with the bell on their page.

Account

Save favorites – in the app and on the website.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Open search
Space
Play or pause
← →
In the player: back 15 s, forward 30 s (episodes) · in a row: next tile
↑ ↓
In a row: target within the tile
Home / End
In a row: first or last tile
Esc
Close window or menu
?
This overview
Now playing

Go to station page

Play next

    Add episodes with “Play next” – they play after the current episode.