Originally Posted by MarinaVanessa:
And I think that now (in my area at least) they are beginning to realize that as well. They are now slowly pushing the deadline further and further back because we have so many really young Kindergartners that simply are not ready for Kindy.
Crystal made a comment about how many children don't get to go to preschool or daycare and so don't get to benefit from the social skills that other kids to get to work on and so I think that's what the transitional-kinder is supposed to address. The younger kids get to "practice" in a pre-school type environment to prepare for kindy but it's not as structured as kindy. I for one am glad that we are doing this, I think it's because so many of our kindergarten kids were struggling and not enjoying school because of the pressure 
.
I think this is where cookie cutter theories that every child needs pre-k or every child should learn to read, write and do math by the age of 6 is falling short.
My son started kindy - having never attended daycare or pre-k - three weeks after he turned 5 and he's done amazingly well. The only reason I went that route is because after much contemplation of his kindy eval and review of how he interacted with the world it seemed more than reasonable to do so. He tests off the charts compared to his class, district and nationwide standards and he's got plenty of friends. He hasn't been stressed about the work load and he absolutely ADORES school, homework included. If he'd have waited another year he'd have been bored out of his mind and I think that definitely could have hurt him in the long run.
It worked for him. And I'm not against 5 year olds or even 4 year olds making that leap if they are actually ready. Heck, if you're a 2 year old genius ready to graduate by 10 more power to ya.
My trouble is with what AmyLeigh pointed out. That if lots of kids are encouraged by the government pushing them to go earlier and earlier it's going to become a social norm, something that's expected, and THAT'S what's going to land so many kids in a pickle. I completely believe that's the catalyst when addressing what is wrong with the public education system to date.
Each kiddo is different. Each kiddo may need different things to excel. When you have a class of 40 to one teacher there's no way they can provide that and so many many kids end up falling through the cracks.
The government shouldn't be telling parents pre-k is necessary.
The government shouldn't be regulating what constitutes an adequate pre-k or dictating what every single child supposedly needs.
Fact is they tried via a program they designed and the proof is in the puddin'
it just didn't work. In the end there was no real benefit to the children Obama still claims today that it saved. That's not my opinion, those are the findings of the professionals who evaluated the whole shebang.
Kids don't necessarily need daycare or pre-k to be socialized or become intelligent human beings. It certainly shouldn't become mandatory and I sure hope it never becomes a social norm parents feel pressured to compete with.