TKW Consulting

This article poses an interesting question:  "What has happened to kindergarten?"  Not that long ago, kindergarten used to be a half day of getting familiar with new surroundings and new people... a fun time of playing with blocks, learning about books, recess, snack breaks, and even naptime. 

Today, kindergarten is what we used to consider first grade.  Often a full day program where there is already there is pressure to succeed and repercussions against failure.  The No Child Left Behind program and standardized testing has increased accountability of schools at even kindergarten level.

This ever increasing academic level of kindergarten has prompted a lot of discussion about universal preschool, school readiness, and other catchphrases about exposing our children to academic development at increasingly earlier ages.

I am not knowledgeable enough to determine if this is progress (or actually the opposite)... but, I do know that we need to be increasingly concerned about preparing the children in our care for school and giving them the advantages to succeed that this preparation can give them.  Not only are the government and parents beginning to demand this attention to school readiness, we owe it to the children...

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 4:26 PM