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Thursday, October 17, 2019

Let's Stop Stealing Time from Children

I saw it happen right before my eyes. During the last year of my pre-mom life I spent one last year in an administrative role in a public school system dealing with the math curriculum for the entire district. Prior to that I was a high school math teacher for some years.

Our district, like every other one around it, ushered in full day kindergarten like a sweeping torrent of rain. And so I sat, plump with baby number one, surrounded by teachers and administrators in several meetings to determine how this extra school time for the five-year-olds would be spent. Mind you, there weren’t any children in the meeting.

Now the kindergarten teachers, they were unanimous and unwavering. Play time and rest. Play time and rest. They echoed each other and they never strayed from this message. With both physical and anecdotal reasoning, the teachers held fast to what they believed the extra time should be used for because that is what the children need. They need station time and recess… and they need a little rest. But if you had to hedge your bets as to what the extra time eventually was allotted to what would be your guess? It was not play time nor rest but academics.

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

So what is the point ?

Anonymous said...

I don’t get it either. Children learn through play and have you ever met one that did not need a nap?

Anonymous said...

Duhhh...Exactly the point! They are not getting playtime and rest in Kindergarten. There is no nap in Kindergarten and these little of children who should be learning how to share, take turns, socialize, etc are being forced to take part in state assessments, testing and pointless academics at such a young impressionable age.

Anonymous said...

So what is it that 7:11 believes? Do you think children should go to school just to sleep all day? And pointless academics? Do you have a set age you feel as though a child should begin to learn? Clearly you have not worked with the local youth. I have been employing local high school aged teens for many years. The complete lack of common sense is indescribable. They graduate hardly able to write a paragraph and cannot sign their own name in cursive. Many of these students take AP classes and attend college all thanks to computers and calculators. But you are correct lets go ahead and push back the fundamentals, maybe by the time they are 10 they can identify the color blue.

Anonymous said...

So cramming academics in Kindergarten is what sets the stage for common sense? Writing a paragraph should start in Kindergarten? You my friend clearly don’t have a clue about education or educating our youth..but your still employing them 😂

Anonymous said...

Your last statement made absolutely no sense, and was completely irrelevant. You also contradicted your own statement. It seems to me as though you are insinuating that you are a teacher. Personally from what I have seen graduate from Wicomico County, I would keep that to myself. And yes, academics does belong in Kindergarten. If you want your kids to sleep all day take future idiot to daycare. Thank God my parents sent me to private school.