Backstory: Einsteins at five

As witnessed here, the yearning for learning is, as Edgar might say, pervasive. When a photographer walks into the room, the kids swarm, thinking momentarily it might be Norbert Wu, the famous lensman who took the underwater fish pictures they've been talking about - also in required complete sentences. In the spirit of Socrates, one class last year had a debate about the methods of Michelangelo. Teachers say it came off magnificently.

"It used to be all cut, color, and paste and no reading," says Ms. Lewis. "Now these kids are busting through the ceiling."

The concepts sometimes fly over even parents' heads. "One mom came to me and said, 'My child is telling me I need to manage my impulsivity - what are you doing to my child?' " says Dawn Miller, another Thomasville kindergarten teacher.

Yet many parents endorse the new regimen, noting how it expands their childrens' learning and confidence. One mother, picking up her son, says she saw huge gains in her child within just a few weeks. "I think this class gives them an advantage other kids may not get," she says.

The Duke University pilot program is as much about teaching the capability of learning as it is the nuts-and-bolts of subjects. The idea is to get kids to follow their curiosity toward real knowledge. "One of our problems nationally ... is that we don't have high expectations for our children," says Margaret Gayle of the American Association of Gifted Children in Durham, N.C. "This curriculum is immersing them in essential questions, high concepts, outstanding vocabulary, and also intelligent behavior and habits of mind."

But it's not an easy shift for students or teachers. After four years at Thomasville, where about 70 percent of students qualify for free- or reduced-price lunch, the program is still not ready to be rolled out for all kindergarten classes in the district. Similarly, teachers in San Diego this spring convinced the school board to scale back some of the district's rigorous kindergarten initiatives.

What's more, while it's clear that young children have a large capacity for learning - research shows they learn faster at 5 than any other age - it's less certain whether all this early erudition has an impact in later years. The French have universal preschool starting at age 3, but Swedish children don't begin academic work until 6, sometimes 7. Studies show that both populations end up doing just as well.

The problem is compounded by children trying to figure out what adults want, at a time when they may not comprehend the mysteries of iridescent fish. Researchers say that academic skills sometimes blossom overnight between the ages of 5 and 7, but expecting too much from kids too early can lead to failure and frustration. "The natural intuition that earlier is better - the earlier the start, the better you finish - is the wrong intuition," says David Elkind, a child-development expert at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. "You can understand the pressures [on schools, parents and educators], but it's still wrong."

Still, for the kids in Lewis's sun-filled class, the program seems an unqualified success. Roberto Lopez creates his own patterns from cutout pictures of bats and pumpkins. Other children ignore the assignment to play with a camera or wander off to sleep in a corner.

"Some of these kids come from tough situations, but we now know they can grow up to be doctors, lawyers, and professional photographers - and it's up to us to help them believe they can," says Lewis.

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