Came across an editorial in this morning's Newark Advocate and it really made me think of how parents are preparing their toddlers for school. I realize as many, you just don't drop off your child the first day of school and say "Good Luck". There is a five year prep time for parents to make sure they are ready and being realistic, not enough parents make the effort.Kindergarten readiness should be priority
Kindergarten really isn't the beginning of a youngster's education. Children begin learning from birth, at home and through avenues other than formal education.
That means some are better prepared than others to begin school. Children who enter kindergarten and first grade without adequate preparation too often fall behind classmates and never catch up.
During the past decade or so, educators have come to understand their work needs to begin before kindergarten, sometimes as early as age 3 in preschool programs. Ohio has a reasonably widespread network of such facilities, certified by the state Department of Education.
But state officials, encouraged by the private sector, want to do better. As a result, the state applied for and is to receive a $70 million federal grant to improve programs that prepare children for kindergarten. ...
The idea behind Ohio's grant proposal is to improve the quality of preschool offerings and to develop better methods of evaluating whether children are ready for kindergarten. ...
Too many Ohio children are left behind before they ever enroll in kindergarten or first grade. Changing that, with or without federal grant help, should be a priority.
-- The (Warren) Tribune Chronicle-- The (Warren) Tribune Chronicle
"...educators have come to understand their work needs to begin before kindergarten..."
ReplyDeleteQuality education is important, yes, but anecdotally, my wife and I pulled our daughter out of the first month of first grade and began a very relaxed homeschool environment. She had a difficult time reading, and didn't really pick it up until she was 8 and was far behind her peers in her reading skills. Soon enough, she was outscoring those same peers and now has straight A's through her first 2 college quarters.
The formalizing of early education is a waste of resources. It's simply not necessary to enroll kids in a classroom coloring and crafts program. They'll get it, in their own time, through simply doing life. Formalizing early educational programs can have some benefits (particularly to working parents), but it's not a necessity by any stretch.