EARLY ED The following
EARLY ED The following appeared on HEM-Networking listserv. It is posted here in its entirety (with permission):
Early Childhood Education is getting all kinds of discussion in the public schools. There is a move to begin requiring kids to attend public pre-schools. Many public schools now offer pre-school — sometimes free –sometimes for a fee. Many others push “learning readiness” activities on new parents, and kids are required to pass a “Kindergarten Readiness” test in order to start school. This all concerns me because most of it involves pushing kids to learn skills very early that most kids acquire later on their own if left alone. Many schools now require kids to know how to count, read and write the alphabet, know their colors and shapes — and be able to tie shoes and button and zip before they begin kindergarten. My oldest struggled with shoe tying so we bought him velcro shoes and waited until he was older — he was happy with this plan but his kindergarten teacher sent home a note telling us that he was required to wear tie shoes and required to learn to tie them in order to pass kindergarten. It seemed both silly and developmentally inappropriate to me. It seems to me that the public schools want more and more control over the lives of kids — and they seem less aware of developmental stages. Early stimulation is great for kids as long as it doesn’t involve pushing and as long as you are aware that some skill just need to wait a while.
This trend is worrisome but, in a perverse way, may be “a good thing” because, one day, the educrats are going to push too far. On that day, parents will finally say “Enough!” and toss the whole rotten system. As long as homeschoolers are exempt, I’m not sure if we should oppose these moves toward earlier compulsory attendance or if we should just step back and let the whole system collapse. Because I’d hate to see a whole generation of babies abused by the system, I think the former but the latter is all too tempting.