What Does Your Child's Education Mean To You?
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GoogleI was driving a friend and his daughter home after a playdate with my son and the conversation drifted to kindergarten and the utter panic this dad experienced at the parent orientation meeting he'd gone to a short time back.
Basically, it was explained to him that the expectation was that, by year's end, his daughter would need to write a three page essay in order to graduate. He was saying that, given his daughter's current grammar ability, he's expecting that they'll need to hire her a tutor in order for her to pass the grade.
I don't know what your reaction is to this, but for me it's--
What the $%^$^^&^!!
This brings me to heart of this blog: where is the line between making sure our kids get a good education and pushing them over the edge?
There seems to be two opposing camps of thought in terms of what education should mean for the 5 year-old set:
1) Kids should be as academically challenged as possible because otherwise they're not going to be able to compete later on. They can do more than we think they can and should be pushed to excel.
2) Kids should be treated like kids. They need time to play and explore. Don't stymie their creativity by giving them too much structure or pushing them academically harder than where, historically, kindergarteners and nursery schools have treated them.
My feeling is that there's a balance in all of this and that in the school system that my son will be entering (he missed the Kindergarten cut-off for this year) is a pendulum-swinging reaction to the generation of kids who were all handed trophies as kids so that everyone would feel like they were winners.
While my elder son missed the cut-off, he's currently attending a nursery school that is trying to push his academic limits to better prep him for kindergarten because "time is running out to give him the necessary tools for him to excel for next year in public school." While I see the value in this thought, the notion that 4-5 year old kids should be put to the gun to become more productive, lest they screw up their lives, is deeply troubling for me.
As a concerned father, who is starting to deal with such issues as the above, I'd love to hear what you are thinking in regards to these issues. Thanks for your time.
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Dana Glazer is a father of two sons as well as the director of the upcoming documentary, The Evolution of Dad. For more info please visit www.evolutionofdad.com
Better late than early
That is one of the many reasons my husband and I decided to homeschool our kids. If our education system understood that the only way to prepare children to compete in the real world is to let them be kids, meaning, learning by play and imitation from responsible, caring and nurturing adults. I'm no psychologist, but it just makes sense.
With all this pressure on preschoolers and k-graders, society complains why there are so many drop outs in middle and high school. I'll be mad myself if all schools did was to teach me a cookie cutter education, without considering that kids have different styles of learning. That includes not being able to sit still for longer than 5 minutes at the time. And if the kid doesn't, let's just medicate them!
This is the web article and book list those "children education experts" over by the DOE, and every parent with school age children should read, soon!!
http://www.moorefoundation.com/article.php?id=3
I am not saying homeschooling is the best option, although I am a fervent advocate. I am just very concerned for the emotional health and well-being of theses kids and nobody seem to care.
Mara
To Each His Own
Dana:
My son started first grade last year. He's been in daycare since he was six weeks old. Much of it was my parents taking care of him five days a week, but when my mom got sick, he went back to Kindercare. I was not happy about having to do that. As it turns out, the environment was perfect for him: When he was 4, they had a part time preschool program, where he learned in a no-pressure manner. They even gave "homework," but it was optional. Since I am the kind of parent who thinks kids learn better from play ( see my post about it:
http://moondancenight.blogspot.com/2008/06/stuff-i-am-not-ready-for.html), we didn't do it.
In Kindergarten, it was no longer optional, and I hated it. But his teacher taught him to read. Now, I fell like it's up to him. He get's bored easily, because the work is "too easy," he says. So I asked the teacher for harder homework. I am not doing this to pressure him academically, but to keep him interested so he will keep trying.
I read about studies that show that kids who learned computer use at 3 were ahead of their peer in computer skill in K, but that there was no difference by the time they got to third grade. So, while the basics are essential, I don't know if anything more is helpful.
I am looking forward to what other parents say.
Kindergarten Craziness
This is interesting to me because I think that there does appear to be a 'need to succeed' drive at that age (although kindergarten isn't mandatory here in MA, almost everyone does it). Classes, though, usually end up having to teach to the 'middle' since, as the poster above mentioned, some kids enter K being able to read, while others do not know their alphabet.
That all said, I decided to homeschool my kids, not because I'm some major radical, but because I disagree with the standardized tests that put HUGE stress on little, little kids. I also am a big believer that kids that young are sponges if you put the right information out there. My oldest went to 5-day-week preschool, and I wasn't all that impressed with what she learned. My younger two have never done any preschool, and I don't do formal 'teaching' to them (they are only 4 & 5), but they know so much just from playing games, hearing books read to them, and just being kids.
So, as you may guess, I'm more in the 2nd camp, believing kids should be kids. All this drill, drill, drill is going to suck the love out of learning for too many kids.
Kindergarten Curriculum
I am also experiencing a panicky reaction to the start of kindergarten. My five year old is a bright child, and the school she is attending has a competitive army of volunteers helping her and her classmates to succeed. Our introduction to the curriculum meeting expressed the issue of kids entering kindergarten all over the map--some will not know how to hold a book properly, and on the other end of the spectrum some will be reading and writing. Even with my daughter doing some reading and trying to write on her own, I feel like it's too far, too fast. It's like she has a 9 to 5 job, plus a homework calendar to get in the overtime. Not least of all are all the outside activities I feel we are pressured to participate in to show the proper level of interest and enthusiasm. We are no longer permitted any family leisure time, and I am a stay at home parent.
By contrast, her cousins living in The Netherlands (if I understand this correctly) don't do any classic reading, writing, arithmetic until the first grade. Public preschool starts at three, and Kindergarten starts on a child's fourth birthday and lasts until they turn six and advance to first grade in the fall. Only at that point do they learn letters and phonics. From what I have heard, their education system ranks at the top world wide.
If that is true, it seems to me like we're on the wrong track.
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