Originally Posted by Crystal:
I think the biggest reason/advantage to children attending preschool or a group program prior to starting kindergarten is that there is alot more expected of children in kindy than there was just one-two generations ago. Kindergarten used to BE preschool. Now it's more like first grade. They are expected to be able to sit still, focus for longer time periods, etc.Teachers want them to know so much more when they enter kindey than was previously expected as well. When they are just learning to be part of a group and "get along" in kindy, it creates issues for them, as well as for the teacher and takes away from the academics.
Personally, I think kindy should STILL be like preschool. I think 5 is too young to be shoving academics down their throats.
Yup
I think though that we aren't having better outcomes. This is wrought from the whole American Way of bigger, better, faster, earlier, and the current trend of "I want my kid to be gifted and advanced".
There isn't anything out there I know of with longitudinal studies that show that early exposure to socialization and education actually nets a better kid with identifiable and concrete results. The only thing we really KNOW is that children who are in poor environments (particualarily African American boys) do better in the long run if they are in early childhood programs.
Now the kids do better the first two years of school. You can see a difference in kids in Kindy and First grade. But by the time they enter second grade there's no difference.
We have to think long and hard about what is LOST to gain such a small window of SLIGHTLY higher performance. We know that we need to help get poor kids in underprivledge environments IN environments that are healthy and stable but we don't have to do this for the masses.
Remember that book: Everything I need to know I learned in Kindergarten? It was a blockbuster hit. I'll betcha if that came out now at the same time as Your Baby Can Read that Your baby can read would outsell it in leaps and bounds.