Oh my god, the amount of "my kid is so smart and so much better than yours" on this thread!!!
My child was newly 5 when she started Kindergarten and it was overwhelming for her. She came from a preschool that taught her basically what OP is saying the HBO Kindergarten class did (she knew her letters and letter sounds, numbers, she had the appropriate social skills, she's a smart little girl) yet Kindergarten was tough. She was newly 5 and not ready to read (it's only just now clicking in first grade and even then she is "behind"). I WISH we could go back to the way school used to be. I feel like my generation turned out great - I am an analyst by trade who has a foundation of strong reading, writing, math, and science skills from a good midwestern school system in the 80s. I don't think my child is getting nearly as good of an education as I did. |
FOOOOOOOOORRRRRKKKKK YOU. |
I stumbled on this thread as I've recently discovered the show with my future kindergartener. Here is a reunion that happened fairly recently.
https://www.lohud.com/story/news/education/2021/10/08/life-after-hbo-kindergarten-stars-20-year-reunion-nyack-ny/8264514002/ |
Oh, wow, I just added this to my HBO queue. I work with ES kids and I treasure the moments when I can just sit back and observe preschool or kindergarten kids playing and interacting. |
Most of the people I personally know who are redshirting do so because they want their children to be the “leader” physically, academically, and socially. |
Interesting reading the thread (but yeah, the competitive parenting in here is depressing but also par for the DCUM course).
My DD is in PK4 this year which is the year kids turn 5 in my school district. They are doing most of what is described in the show and a little more. I'd actually be totally fine with what is described for both PK and K -- I don't feel the rush to master academics and I think the social-emotional stuff is actually more important and foundational at this age. I don't mind that my kid is getting more academic instruction though. She likes it and it is really, really cool to watch the pre-literacy process unfold. She's recently gone from being able to just recognize first letters and sounds of words to starting to decode whole words and it's so cool. Just yesterday she asked me out of the blue "what sound does an 'x' make in the middle of a word" because she knew what it sounds like at the beginning of a word and at the end, but was trying to decode the word "Exit" on a sign. It threw me for a loop because it was one of the first times I noticed her trying to read outside of when we read books together. But I also think she could learn that a year later and it would be totally fine. I worry sometimes that the earlier focus on academics makes it harder for kids to learn what they need to learn about interacting with others, taking care of themselves, etc. When I talk to other parents they are only interested in the academic stuff, even for ECE, and I just don't get the sense that there is as much focus from parents on non-academic learning. Fortunately the teachers clearly know kids need it, but like anything, if it's not reinforced at home, kids don't learn it as well. |
Watching Stranger Things. |
Love it when the jealous racists come out. |