Anonymous wrote:I love Reggio Schools! I had to think really hard what kind of schools we have back at home. We don't call them anything but daycares, but they really sound like a Reggio school would.
Kids there start school at 7. They are not required to know how to read and write because their job is to play.
By age 15, however, they have the highest ELA, math, and science score in Europe. They would not be ready for US K or 1st grade. OP, you'd be so upset with these kids not being ready for your classroom.
All this play in Reggio is for long term success though. We start out very slowly. We don't run out of steam by middle school.Graduating from high school is an achievement.
I don't know anyone who didn't love their Reggio daycare. The love of play continued once we got home. I was not ready to read at age 5/6. I did really well by age 8 and by 15, we were and still are unstoppable.

Anonymous wrote:Almost all daycare centers that serve kids in the 3-5 range brand themselves as preschool. It is very hard to sort the actual preSCHOOLS from the daycares calling themselves preschools. And any place can call itself Montessori, Reggio, Reggio Emilia, Reggio-inspired, play-based, etc. these names are more meaningless branding anymore.

Anonymous wrote:Why even call it pre SCHOOL then? Sounds like a free range play group…

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Anonymous wrote:If you aren't going to explain exactly *why* you think Reggio schools fail to prepare kids, this is useless. There is a very broad variety in these schools.

Also, has it occurred to you that the kids you are currently getting in 1st grade in NW DC may have missed most of PK3 and PK4 in person due to Covid? Or even if they were in person, that these programs were very different during these years due to Covid restrictions like masking, class quarantines due to exposures, and social distancing requirements. Especially critical in a play-based program. They didn't really get a true Reggio experience.

NP. Second paragraph-good point.

Not OP, but I assume OP is saying (s)he now sees what is expected of students in 1st grade, and she knows what kind of preparation kids who go to Reggio schools get….

I understand. I still think the 2nd paragraph is a good point.

Nonsense. I’m a Girl Scout leader and have a first grader. Last year in K was tough, but graders now are caught up from COVID. Unless the parents are very extreme and not letting their kids interact and socialize normally.

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here, with over 25 years of experience. I have worked in Montessori and Reggio schools and I'm now teaching 1st grade at a public school in NW DC. please listen when I tell you Reggio schools do not prepare your children for the next step. Children who go to Reggio Inspired schools struggle more than others. Please do your kids a favor and keep them away from these schools.Don't be fooled by the fancy titles they give their teachers and the deeper learning they talk about. It's all hogwash.

Anonymous wrote:Why even call it pre SCHOOL then?

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Anonymous wrote:If you aren't going to explain exactly *why* you think Reggio schools fail to prepare kids, this is useless. There is a very broad variety in these schools.

Also, has it occurred to you that the kids you are currently getting in 1st grade in NW DC may have missed most of PK3 and PK4 in person due to Covid? Or even if they were in person, that these programs were very different during these years due to Covid restrictions like masking, class quarantines due to exposures, and social distancing requirements. Especially critical in a play-based program. They didn't really get a true Reggio experience.

NP. Second paragraph-good point.

Not OP, but I assume OP is saying (s)he now sees what is expected of students in 1st grade, and she knows what kind of preparation kids who go to Reggio schools get….

I understand. I still think the 2nd paragraph is a good point.

Nonsense. I’m a Girl Scout leader and have a first grader. Last year in K was tough, but graders now are caught up from COVID. Unless the parents are very extreme and not letting their kids interact and socialize normally.

Oh, well. Ok, then. It’s nonsense if you say so.

Most kids don’t have formal pre-K programs. This year’s first graders had a full year of kindergarten before this year and a year plus of regular socializing. If your kid is behind, they have something else going on or it’s parenting. Typical kids are just not struggling this year like they were last year. You can’t blame COVID forever.

So you're not in DC then? In DC, a significant portion of DCPS students attend preschool through DCPS, so it's a formal program. And DCPS schools were closed from March 2020 until spring of 2021, and many didn't re-open until fall 2021. And then during the 2021-2022 school year, DCPS required masks and social distancing and had frequent quarantines for exposures and positive cases. Even for kids who did private preschool, if you were in DC these programs were very different than normal from 2020-2022 -- frequent quarantines, masking, often shortened hours, and social distancing that changed how teachers led classes. In DC, it's also more rare for kid's to get NO formal preschool -- between universal PK and the fact that it's less common for people here to have a SAHM, the vast majority of kids are in formal preschool programs, which ran very irregularly from 2020-2022.

So in DC, the place where OP teaches, a significant percent of the 1st grade population is still pretty heavily impacted by Covid. This is basically the first "normal" school year for these kids, and I've heard from K-2nd grade teachers all year that it has been a much tougher year for behavioral issues, having kids well below grade level especially in reading, more challenges with socialization, shorter attention spans, etc.

These kids have had a really weird few years.

Thank you, PP. I didn’t have the energy.

We all lived through the pandemic. Your types will be making your kids mask then blaming their behavior on COVID in middle school. There’s no reasoning.

Anonymous wrote:Not a teacher but I have to agree. My son went to an academic play based type for prek3. I don't know what it's technically called but they had a letter of the week and they had fun activities around it. That school closed for covid so for prek4 I had to switch him to a reggio inspired one and I really thought it was a waste of time.

Anonymous wrote:I love Reggio Schools! I had to think really hard what kind of schools we have back at home. We don't call them anything but daycares, but they really sound like a Reggio school would.
Kids there start school at 7. They are not required to know how to read and write because their job is to play.
By age 15, however, they have the highest ELA, math, and science score in Europe. They would not be ready for US K or 1st grade. OP, you'd be so upset with these kids not being ready for your classroom.
All this play in Reggio is for long term success though. We start out very slowly. We don't run out of steam by middle school.Graduating from high school is an achievement.
I don't know anyone who didn't love their Reggio daycare. The love of play continued once we got home. I was not ready to read at age 5/6. I did really well by age 8 and by 15, we were and still are unstoppable.