Originally published August 28 2005
Kindergarten academics getting more advanced
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Five-year-old kindergarten kids will have year-round school that will include full days of academic lessons, nightly homework, computer work and keeping a journal; skills normally taught in first grade.
Welcome to today's kindergarten, where rising academic demands have gradually squeezed out playtime and naps in favor of more reading, writing and math lessons.
Kindergarteners in Jefferson County Public Schools learn to read, write short stories and do double-digit addition and subtraction -- skills once taught primarily in first grade.
It was more learning to cooperate, play together and share," said Rosemarie Young, a principal at Watson Lane Elementary and former head of the Virginia-based National Association of Elementary School Principals.
Many educators applaud the change: Young children are ready to learn more, they say, and more difficult lessons give them a leg up -- as long as instruction is mixed with play.
Rising pressure to meet state and federal academic standards.
Although statewide testing does not begin until third grade in Kentucky, the push to prepare students has trickled down to kindergarten.
The district in the 1990s offered parents a choice of half-day kindergarten, but few took the district up on it for fear their children would fall behind those who attended full-day, said Freda Merriweather, a former district elementary official.
The rising focus on academics in early childhood has sparked a debate in many communities over how far to push kindergarteners, Young said.
In San Diego, for example, a group of city teachers undertook a two-year fight when kindergarten standards were sharply increased in 2002.
That's fine, educators say, as long as academics are taught through play and not lectures -- and as long as teachers continue to include social skills such as cooperation.
"You can't just put a young child in a desk with a workbook all day," said Theresa Jensen, Jefferson County's assistant superintendent for elementary schools.
Mia German, a teacher at Louisville's Roosevelt-Perry Elementary, knows that.
All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml