It used to be that kindergartners could play — which is how early childhood development experts say young children learn and are socialized best. Today 5- and 6-year-olds are forced to sit for hours at a time doing academics, often with little or no recess, and in some places, no time for a snack. Homework goes home every day with many kindergartners. Stories about the bastardization of kindergarten come from across the country. John Gemmill of Dodge City, Kansas, told me in an e-mail that he spent at least half of the 186 days he teaches a year giving some sort of mandated standardized assessment — with strict rubrics to follow — to kindergartners in his classes last year. One veteran educator described his granddaughter’s Houston kindergarten class as a “sweat shop.” This past spring the interim principal and four teachers at an elementary school in Elwood, N.Y., sent a letter to parents saying the annual year-end kindergarten play was being cancelled so kids could keep working hard to be “college and career ready.” (This really happened.) So what’s next? How about final exams for kindergartners? washingtonpost/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/08/22/and-now-final-exams-for-kindergartners-really/ #optout #teach #parenting #FLDOE
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 13:05:01 +0000
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