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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

I love it. A 36-month-old can now be in a grade.  With a curriculum.

And yes, I know that really is the case in dcps but I think it's stupid.

-- mom of talented 5th grader who was pooping his pants occasionally at age 3, squeezing play dough, building free-form towers and so on.  It's so weird to me that a dc resident now has to PAY serious cash to get that kind of developmentally appropriate nursery school experience in a private preschool. "I want my kid to fingerpaint all day, so that means tuition!" [/quote]

But this goes right to the heart of it. DC is a historically struggling school district. Thus almost every dollar is focused on remedial work, and that's why there is a curriculum at 3 yrs old yet no gifted magnet for MS or HS.

The public preK3/4 program wasn't designed to provide free daycare as a perk to affluent DC residents. It exists because of the high % of impoverished, female-headed households in the district.

The charter schools weren't designed to provide a free alternative to private school for the wealthy. They were a solution to a broken public school system with off the charts drop-out rates and poor test scores.

None of this was designed with the DCUM segment in mind.

Well-adjusted people in affluent school districts don't worry terribly about their 3 yo olds - they just let them play (with some pre-reading, pre-numeracy). That's a key aspect of privilege in america: not having to worry too much about things, because you know they will work out. DC's parents historically have not had that luxury, and the system as a whole is not built around that luxury.

I totally agree with you (PP) from a parenting perspective, BTW.

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