Is Kindergarten Too Easy?

Parents Forum
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<p>@Himom, the problem is you are right. Development is very variable in young children. What is “pushing” to one child is boring another. So, do you allow the kids who just want to play to do so, and allow kids who want to do so to practice reading and math? Then you aren’t “pushing” anyone–but you are widening the “gap” and eventually you will have parents screaming bloody murder about why johnny got left behind. </p>

<p>Or, do you actively prevent the kid who brings a book to school and wants to read it from doing so? Because it’s time to learn the alphabet song, and then to practice reading 3-letter words with the rest of the class… Do you tell the kid who thinks math is fun that they have to wait patiently for 2 years before they will learn anything in school (because they “aren’t old enough”), and make them sit through endless math circles where the kids learn how to count? That’s the current system, and it does serve to minimize the variability by holding back kids who are ready to move on and teaching them to keep their heads down because being different isn’t particularly appreciated and they are meant to be doing what the other kids are doing. </p>

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<p>Even my two sons were very different! The oldest read “Harry Potter” in first grade - my parents brought back a copy of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” from England, before “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” was published in the US. My middle son couldn’t even read “Go, Dog, Go” halfway through first grade. It finally clicked for him in the spring, but I was shocked at the difference between the two siblings.</p>

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<p>Like MaineLonghorn I had polar opposite sons. One was super precocious teaching himself to read at two, the other always seemed to be about six month behind the program and went from barely reading at all in second grade to being able to read Harry Potter overnight. They went to a preschool that was run like an old-fashioned kindergarten, lots of blocks and singing and dress up. The kindergarten was half day and not excessively academic. I alerted the K teacher that my older son could read and she had him work with a TA when other kids were doing letter sounds. But they did lots of math and reading readiness activities that he loved. I remember every day they’d predict the weather and the teacher would write on a big flip chart and then my son would read the predictions when she was done. They graphed which kinds of apples kids liked, made patterns with different kinds of beans, read lots of myths, counted off the days of kindergarten. My older son went back and gave his K teacher a birthday cupcake every year he was in that school. Younger son also had a reasonably good year academically. (Though unfortunately his teacher had the world’s worst pregnancy and he ended up with a lot of substitute teachers.) He wasn’t ready to read and he didn’t. </p>

<p>Kids are all over the map at this age. And no they aren’t all at the same level at the end of the year. My older son was still miles ahead of every other kid in the school at the end of the year. He ended up being placed in a third grade math class in first grade and working on a lot of separate reading projects on his own.</p>

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<p>Mathyone,</p>

<p>Those aren’t the only options. There are plenty of activities that you can do in K that are playful and provide opportunities for kids to access content on different levels. There are plenty of structures like a reading or writing workshop that allow kids to work to the best of their ability, even if they’re completing the same task as the kid at the next table. And there are plenty of ways to work small groups or differentiated centers into a day. I work in a very diverse Title 1 school, where kids come to us with wildly different experiences in K along every dimension from socio-economic status, to prior schooling, to home language and English proficiency, and our K program doesn’t resemble either of the 2 options you present as either/or.</p>

<p>What this article is saying is that overemphasis on drill and kill on the basics, such as letter names or counting doesn’t benefit any child, including the children we “blame” these tactics on. Children learn best when rote bits of knowledge are taught in the context of something interesting to them, and when they’re using those rote bits of knowledge from the very beginning, holding them in working memory, manipulating them, applying them in context, etc . . . </p>

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<p>Nobody should be “bored” in a well run kindergarten. Everyone has a lot to learn. Susie may be reading chapter books, but may not have a clue how to wait her turn politely, how to work cooperatively in a group, how to bounce a ball, or how to play well with people of all abilities during an unstructured recess. As bored as Suzie might be waiting while Nellie sounds out D-O-G, Nellie may be equally taxed waiting for Suzie to get her jacket on so the class can get outside. It is all learning. </p>

<p>I am always highly suspicious of parents who claim their snowflakes were bored in kindergarten. After many years of teaching and more years of volunteering in elementary schools, I have never, ever, seen a kid who was so advanced in every single area (academically, socially, emotionally, large motor skills, small motor skills, etc.) that there was nothing they needed to learn kindergarten. I do know a number of parents who <em>thought</em> their kids were bored and overly advanced, but those parents had a laser focus on only one or two aspects of their child’s development, and saw no need for their kid to learn how to “play well with others” or work in a group or learn how to both make and clean up a mess.</p>

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<p>Unless there are developmental delays, what’s the big rush at this age?</p>

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<p>PBVS,</p>

<p>I don’t think that it’s a rush, I think it’s that kindergarten is where kids learn how to learn, they learn what school is all about, and if we teach them that it’s about sitting back and absorbing rote bits of knowledge from an adult then they’re going to carry that approach to learning on with them.</p>

<p>On the other hand, if they’re completing cooking projects, or playing strategy games, or writing their own stories with invented spelling, or conducting science observations, and using letters and counting along with higher level skills in the process, they’re learning that school is about asking questions, and making meaning, and learning to use skills and tools to do these things. </p>

<p>The latter type of activities, are “advanced content” type activities but they don’t feel rushed or pushy to kids, because they’re interesting and draw kids in. </p>

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<p>@eastcoast, some of the kids who moved into my kids private school had started in those public kindergartens. Their parents pulled them out when after some time, the kids had to be dragged kicking and screaming to school. Yes, kids get bored.</p>

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<p>Yes, that is a great outline, Jane. I worry about the performance pressure on kids at this age; knowing how certain parents are, my sister-in-law included.</p>

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<p>PB, I agree that there are parents and schools that are pushing kids in ways that are harmful. I just don’t see this article as part of that. I feel as though in some ways we’re expecting more of our Kindergarteners these days, but in other ways many people are expecting less. They want kids to sit still, and be passive recipients of knowledge, rather than active joyful participants in discovering. That’s a problem for kids of every level, not just those who are “advanced”. </p>

<p>This article seems, to me, to be saying that even kids who still need basic skills also need opportunities to explore, and apply those skills on a higher level. </p>

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<p>I’m with eastcoastcrazy - there are very very very few children who are fully formed in kindergarten. Children who are advanced in some academic areas (e.g., reading at the third grade level) may need additional time with other areas, be it social, emotional or physical. Kindergarten is a place for that as well. </p>

<p>That’s what I found and liked in my Montessori school (sorry to hear that others had poor experiences with them - any school can call itself Montessori or Montessori-like). It allowed a range of skills and levels without penalizing any child for being too advanced or later to develop. There was a focus on the child herself rather than the teacher or administration (although at times, I wished the administration did focus on itself). Now, there is some point where Montessori just can’t help but I suspect that would also be the case in public school as well. Montessori doesn’t work with children who have severe learning disabilities which require a more specialized educational system or structure (e.g., there are schools that handle dyslexic children very well) and Montessori probably has a limit with very highly gifted children (eg., those who are doing college-level math by the time they are 12).</p>

<p>I really dislike the rush to make kids “grow up” and become tiny versions of high school students. They are not meant to learn individual subjects in isolation, nor sit still for long periods of time or even focus on one thing on command. They may focus on one thing for a long time, but It’s not something they can, at this age, switch on and off. Studies have shown that homework in elementary school does not necessarily reinforce lessons given in class, so why assign it for K-3? If parents want to give supplemental lessons or work, then they should. If the child asks parents for more work, then of course, give more work. When my son asks for more math problems, I give him more math problems. When I think he needs to work on his grammar, I give him grammar material similar to what he has at school.</p>

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<p>@mathyone, I don’t doubt that there are kids who claim to be “bored” academically in kindergarten. I do doubt those children are performing in the 99th percentile in every area of their lives, however. Through the roof in math? Sure, but probably behind in other developmental areas. “Bored” is a terrific term that very bright kids learn to use at a very young age to avoid things they find difficult or they don’t enjoy. </p>

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<p>Our S was one who taught himself to read from age 3. He was unhappy in K because his teacher always saddled him with her special needs kids and tried to make him teach peers to read. Neither seemed appropriate to me or him and he strongly disliked it. He was happy that he could browse thru school and select books he wanted to read anywhere he found them. He was learning social skills in K; we gave him as much enrichment as we could manage outside the classroom and it worked very well for all of us. :)</p>

<p>Even tho we didn’t compare our two kids, his younger sister felt dumb because she couldn’t read until middle of 1st grade. She was much more socially skilled than he but he was advanced “academically.” Allowing the student to set the academic pace is wonderful when it works and is done by skillful staff. Sadly that is more the exception than the rule.</p>

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<p>Son and another kid made fun creations with the “tower” and “staircase” blocks in Montessori (our area’s best daycare option at that time) instead of placing them orderly by sizes- their teacher allowed creativity over learning the skills the objects were designed for.</p>

<p>Kids have different ways of dealing with tasks meant to teach things they already know. Of the 3 identified ahead/gifted kids in son’s preschool (I worked with them once each week on the computers while the rest of the kids did other things as a class) son and another boy had different strategies. The other boy raced through putting numbers of objects from one to ten on paper (eg one button, two…) and was the first to complete the project. My bored (immature?, ahead for age not for grade- the nature of giftedness means asynchrony) dawdled at the task, being one of the last to finish. He later joined the first graders instead of finishing kindergarten- I hadn’t realized how bored/not quite happy he was until the smile broke out on his face when I told him he was to do so. There was never a perfect fit but he flourished with the first grade all day activities (his preschool teacher had pulled him out of mandatory nap time-state law for 4 year olds- as he was disruptive when supposed to be at least quiet then). btw- as an adult his social skills mimic those of his parents, I don’t see how waiting would have changed that while letting him forge ahead likely prevented misbehavior problems (remember how many prisoners are actually gifted but frustrations with the system led to bad outcomes).</p>

<p>With so much developmental variability in young children it is a challenge for teachers. Trying to force an academically gifted but still not fully mature yet child to hold back with the rest of the class is comparable to telling a child to run slower in a race so as to not be ahead of the others. The joy of learning/running can be frustrated.</p>

<p>So much also depends on what an individual and society values. Conformity, getting along, individuality… All have their place in shaping/advancing society. No child left behind/gets ahead… We can go on forever with our anecdotes. So much easier to not care that much and let the system keep kids marching in step, or to have that huge middle of the Bell curve kid who fits in nicely with the masses.</p>

<p>Addenda. This thread has become enjoyable as many stories of kids doing out of the norm things have come out. When your kid is one in a hundred you don’t get to associate with other parents with similar kids. There all sorts of support groups for the low end of the curve, very little for the gifted and whose population is just as varied- one more pet peeve. I was way ahead academically but so far behind the girl ahead of me. We were always put together so I noticed how far advanced she was. I also wonder how social skills can develop when kids are on such different pages. I remember how son’s kindergarten had toys and a playhouse that different kids used more or less as they transitioned. What does a kid do when there is no one else wanting the same activities? </p>

<p>Kindergarten is a transition to the grades. Kids come with differing levels of development and skills learned previously. They all need to get the skills to handle first grade. K teachers are a different breed- taking a group of diverse immature humans and guiding them to being teachable in the format society has chosen. But also to make learning enjoyable- not frustrating by being too much too fast or too little too slow.</p>

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<p>@eastcoascrazy, you can make up difficulties my kids didn’t have if that makes you feel better. First one was very disorganized but it wasn’t an issue at the kindergarten level. All 3 schools my second child has attended have tried to convince me to push her ahead, so I don’t think the teachers were noticing any deficiencies, but evidently you know better. And you also mistakenly insist that just because kids are learning to add with carrying or working on their multiplication tables, means that they cannot also be working on social skills. It was quite nice to be in a school for a while where other parents don’t sneer “special snowflake” because your child’s abilities are so far beyond their imagination. And they are not shirkers who cry “bored” to get out of things either. I know their work ethic, and I see what they are being asked to do. They really are bored.</p>

<p>@wis75 " I also wonder how social skills can develop when kids are on such different pages." That is also a huge issue. When your child loves to do puzzles, what happens when they try to play with a kids who can barely manage a 20-piece puzzle–but your child is doing the 250 piece ones? When your child loves to play with playmobil or legos, what happens when the other kids run out of patience after 15 minutes and start to destroy everything, when your child was just getting started on a 3 hour construction project? When a child loves to read, and likes to sit and read together, what happens when there is no one else in the class who <em>can</em> read? After one or two disastrous play dates, I learned to coach my kids in advance–don’t bring out that game, don’t do puzzles, no, the other kid won’t want to play with your calculator, don’t do this or that…</p>

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<p>I am surprised that no one has inquired about research opportunities for kindergarteners. You can’t start prepping for the Ivies too soon. </p>

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<p>Reading some of these posts, and having been a teacher myself, I see the large expectation gap in ones kindergarten experience. When my eldest began kindergarten I was still involved in education but surprised to learn the students were given reading tests the first week of school. They were also expected to be able to fill out a month calendar page with the numbers 1-30 correctly placed. That skill took me by surprise. I can’t recall how my child did, but I thought I had instilled a fair amount of readiness. </p>

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<p>I had three kids who were reading fluently in kindergarten. One taught himself to read when he was three. That same kid, when his older brother talked about “skip counting” (2,4,6,8…20), said, “Oh, I can do that too! 1,3,5,7,9… 23” He was 2 at the time, and we weren’t aware that he could even count that high.</p>

<p>(I say that only to assert my qualifications as a parent who understands the “plight” of the gifted kindergartener. I also was a building facilitator for our district’s gifted program. So I do understand a thing or two about young, gifted children, as both a parent and as a teacher.)</p>

<p>Aside from their academic needs, all children need to learn to get along with people of varying intelligences, capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Academics are only a small part of what a five year old needs to learn in kindergarten.</p>

<p>None of my three were bored for a minute in their public school kindergarten. They learned quite a bit, actually. All three of them loved kindergarten. They learned to play and work with their classmates of varying developmental levels, including some who, in other eras, would have been placed in special classes or special schools.</p>

<p>But I can understand, if a child is unable to relate to people who are not as academically advanced, how being asked to associate with classmates who are not up to his puzzle standards might be difficult. Perhaps for such a child, learning to see the value and the humanity of those “puzzle challenged” children is what he most needs to learn in kindergarten. </p>

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<p>Oh, now it’s the gifted kid’s fault for being more advanced? The gifted kindergartner should play what seem like toddler games to them and they are a bad person if they’re not happy about it? You could as well fault the average child who is “unable to relate” to the kid who wants to spend 3 hours building. Perhaps the many average kids who mercilessly taunt the “smart” kids and have invented all kinds of hurtful insulting names in order to ensure their social ostracism–“geek”, “nerd”, need a lesson in the value of humanity of those who are different, and not part of their conformist majority. Wow, I wouldn’t have expected such finger-pointing from a parent of children who have had such struggles themselves.</p>

<p>Probably you also think my kids are monstrous human beings because once they learned how to swim, they found it was more fun to go to the pool with other kids who could swim. They wanted to go off the diving board and play games in the deep water. But I guess that was wrong of them. Of course, if they happened to be with a non-swimming friend, they would respect that and stay with them, but it wasn’t as much fun for them, and I cannot believe you would think it was wrong for them to feel that way.</p>

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<p>Bingo, eastcoastcrazy! Long time K teacher here, and your first paragraph is so spot on. I always told my parents at back to school night, that somedays the kids would carry their learning home in their hands ( papers, art projects, writing sheets) and some days in their hearts (and minds…learning doesn’t have to be pencil-paper to be valid and necessary). </p>