Edge Note: What Did We Forget After Kindergarten?

What did we know at five years old that we somehow forgot along the way?
Tiffany Dennison is a kindergarten and first-grade educator with 22 years of experience whose work centers on play, belonging and social-emotional development. Her classroom offers a fascinating reminder that children may understand some of the fundamentals of being human long before adults complicate them.
In this conversation, Tiffany and I talk about what happens when children are given enough time to actually play, why belonging and emotional safety have to come before learning, and what five-year-olds can teach adults about repairing conflict without dragging yesterday’s resentment into today. We also get into screen time, storytelling, nervous-system regulation and Tiffany’s own journey of recognizing and releasing people-pleasing.
In this episode:
Play-based learning and why unstructured play matters
Social-emotional learning and childhood development
Belonging, emotional safety and nervous-system regulation
How children repair conflict differently than adults
The effects of screens on connection, creativity and attention
Storytelling as a tool for learning and human connection
What adults model for children without realizing it
People-pleasing, identity and learning to listen to your body
Why slowing down may be one of the most important things children can teach us
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