ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

All children learn certain task differently, and they should be taught according to how they learn. However, learning starts at home not in the classroom.

As someone who has been in the field of ECE for thirty years, I have seen this controversy many times. I also am a mother will two sons who had fall birthdays. One went to school as a four year old, and one was kept in preschool another year. Both decisions turned out to be the right ones for them. I think often the argument is that all children should go to kindergarten when they are old enough and the school should provide the appropriate curriculum for each child. There is a certain truth to that but it doesn't always work for each child. Even in school systems that provide a developmentally appropriate curriculum, which is becoming less and less common, the child who needs the gift of time to mature emotionally and socially can benefit tremendously from this. It is a very individual decision, one that should be based solely on an individual child's needs.

I so totally agree with the sentiments expressed in the article. I've taught pre-kindergarten for 27 years. I have met many children who struggle because they are too young socially or emotionally for larger group interaction. Those children tend to struggle throughout school as well. If a child is allowed the extra year, especially at home with Mom or in a small, loving, developmentally appropriate preschool they do SO much better in school. My experience has been that smaller hands-on learning groups are best for young children and all the research supports that as well.

Wow, this discussion could not have come at a more opportune time. Our 5-year old daughter is a bright, creative little girl who was born in the last week of December. Since she entered the school system (she was only 3 years old for almost half of JK) I have had concerns regarding her readiness at each level. In the spring we discussed keeping her in SK for another year but were talked out of it as "repeating" is not an action supported by most schools in our province. We worked with her over the summer to develop her numeracy and literacy and saw improvements in her skill level, so we sent her off the grade one.

Yesterday we had a meeting with our daughter's school to discuss returning her to the kindergarten classroom. Although the school counseled against it, advising instead a modified timetable in the grade one class, they respected our wishes and she will be having another year in SK. I truly feel this will be the best thing for our daughter. I do not see it as holding her back, but as giving her the gift of time to have another year to develop and mature so that when she enters grade on NEXT year she will have the focus, emotional maturity and skills to be successful and feel good about herself.

I am very pleased and grateful to all those who shared similar views and experiences in this forum

The writer made a comment that many kindergarten teachers don't have a background in early childhood development. It’s so easy to blame the teacher but what I find is that teachers are no longer given a choice of how or what they teach. In Michigan teachers are handed the curriculum and told they must teach the information exactly how it’s written. There is no more artistry in teaching. Teachers have to push the children through the academics so they are prepared for the standardized tests. It was reported to me a couple of years ago that a kindergarten teacher said to an administrator that what they were being asked to do was not developmentally appropriate. The administrators responds was, “I don’t want to hear about dap anymore!”

I know the administrator would like to be able to take the whole child into consideration but because of governmental expectations and competition for funding they have no choice but to push the curriculum down, in the hopes that it will improve the school districts test scores in the future.

Until the policy makers begin to look at and take seriously the wealth of research being done on children and how self-regulation and strong social skills relate to school success, I believe, it will be a long time before we again see play back in our kindergartens.