Kindergarten–Full Day or Day Care?

I did something out of character last night; One valuable thing I learned from the experience is that I am not a public speaker; I was incredibly nervous and could not wait for it to be over. That may surprise some of you because I can be quite outspoken, but put me in front of a large crowd and you will see another side of me.

However once I was done, a man stood up and spoke and what he said left me with an urge to jump out of my seat and speak again, but I had my one chance so it leaves me with one option….!

The hot topic at the budget debate last night was implementing . Currently our students have 2.5 hours of school a day and 30 minutes of that is designated for specials such as gym, art, music, etc. So they really get two hours of instructional time. That’s less than a preschooler gets.

For those two hours they get to sit in a seat and work, work, work. And they will still be behind their peers in other towns that have full-day kindergarten. Our town is now a minority, most other towns jumped on board with full-day kindergarten a long time ago.

When I taught kindergarten back in the early '90s, it was full-day and that was in cash-strapped Scotland. Having the “luxury” of a whole day to teach my students, there was less pressure on the students. We had more time to spend on the core subjects and making time a child understood a concept before moving on.  

Those 5- and 6-year-olds had time to take a break during the day and go outside to run around. They come back into classroom refreshed and ready to learn. Recess gave them the opportunity to learn how to interact with their peers, something that is hard to do if you are sitting at a desk all day.

I also had time to teach a character education curriculum; those students learned about empathy and compassion. I would like to think it helped mold them into good citizens one day. I also feel it helped them to learn to enjoy being at school, they wanted to learn; it was fun.

Another suggestion made was to increase class sizes, the speaker mentioned that there were 37 people in his class when he was a kid. That may be true, but it does not mean it’s the right thing to do; people used to think smoking was good for you, and look how that turned out.

I know some of the older generation cannot understand why we are so demanding about education–well it’s the way the world is. Back in the day, kids graduated high school and went to work in the family business or if they went to college, there were plenty of jobs. In 2012 there are less family businesses and our kids have to find a career that can’t be outsourced. The bottom line is, we are preparing our kids for the 21st century, not the 1950s.