I hold on to only a few intense memories from my preschool days (back then, we called it nursery school). One is of making brownies. We stood around a long table, and passed a big bowl down the line, each child carrying out the next step in the recipe, whether it was to break an egg into the bowl, measure the flour, add the melted chocolate...by the time the bowl made it down to me, we were down to the boring part -- three stirs with a wooden spoon, then pass it on.

Who knows why that mundane activity made such an impression? Maybe it was the great smell of chocolate, or the fear that I might have to be one of the ones to crack an egg.

I do know that not only did we engage in precious little pencil-and-paper work back then, but if we had, I sure wouldn't remember it today. It was all about doing stuff: wrestling with construction paper and dull little rounded scissors; peeling dried Elmer's glue off our fingertips; spinning around the blacktop on red tricycles.

It bothers me that Head Start 4-year-olds are sitting down in their little kid-sized chairs and suffering through a bunch of dull yet mysterious exercises that pass for "standardized testing". It bothers me that the success of their year will be measured in terms of letter recognition and ability to name that color, rather than how nicely they share the kitchen corner, make up stories about an orphan dinosaur, or zip their jackets without help.

Which is why I applaud the Alliance for Childhood, which has recently issued "Call to Action on the Education of Young Children". The alliance, which includes educators, health care professionals, researchers, advocates, teachers and others, is standing up against "the pushing down of the curriculum that has transformed kindergarten into de facto first grade," calling for research into "the causes of increased levels of anger, misbehavior, and school expulsion among young children."

While the alliance strongly supports state efforts to make preschool accessible to more low-income children, it argues that those children deserve to have an emotionally rich experience grounded in play, one that fits their young minds and developing senses and social capacities, just as those little chairs fit their small bodies.

The group argues that there is no body of research to support the assumption that pushing the youngest children towards early letter and number recognition will improve their school readiness. Instead, says the alliance, "creative play that children can control is central to their physical, emotional, and cognitive growth...Preschool is the place to...restore childhood play."

And bake brownies.