Reply to Long term affects - good or bad - of holding back from kindergarten

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]16:07 -- first you are arguing a straw man b/c kindergarten is set up to be age appropriate.  They don't sit in desks and recite material for 7.5 hours.  Frankly, they do a lot of fluffy stuff.  Kids are curious and formal education at the kindergarten level is not the same as being in a HS classroom.

Secondly, the studies actually show that kids who get formal preschool (and kindergarten would be similar to that) actually do better later on.  It's a savings for our entire culture/country/system if kids get age-appropriate stimulation and exposure to numbers and reading and thinking through problems and imagining and writing.  If a child has special needs it would seem especially important for them to be getting services that the public school system provides (and they put a lot of effort into this-- my kids ES has a special preschool program for kids with special needs that runs all year and all summer).  In school they get the special attention they need.

As for "being a kid" and "having time to play" my kids had fun IN kindergarten and they consider it FUN to think about new things and hear stories and do dress up and draw pictures, and play the xylophone, and run around, and play with shapes, and play "store" and go to the library, and even looking at books ---- which is EXACTLY what they do in PUBLIC kindergarten.  It's not exactly stretching them beyond their capacity.  In fact, 2nd child was more than a little bored and wanted to go straight to 2nd grade as he was finishing kindergarten.  HE wanted more and still does.  Kids like to be challenged.  It's not a prison in kindergarten.

It's not about pushing our kids to read before they are ready -- many are actually "ready" long before we realize it.  And they are ready to learn, learn, learn.

I think you're vision of kindergarten is not based in reality... but hey -- you're entitled to do what you wish with your kid.  [/quote]

I wish it wasn't based in reality but the FCPS that I actually did observe was not play-based.  I saw a group of children receiving a lecture during which they were expected to sit still and be quiet.  The teacher subtracted points if they whispered.  She wasn't mean about it but the standard she expected is not one my son could meet.  He sits still only when he is working on legos or some other project of his own.  He is in a private play-based preschool that provides the amount of structure that I think he can handle but he would be the "bad kid" in the class I observed.  And, if he were not, he would be a very different child from who he is today and I do not view pressuring this change as a positive thing.  I agree that kindergarten is supposed to be age-appropriate but I do not believe it is -- at least not in Fairfax County.  [/quote]

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