kinder readiness

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Home : 2002 : February : 7

kinder readiness
By Joan

I am glad to see that there is a teacher out there who still believes in developmental preschool. I happen to be a proponent of developmental kindergarten too. It breaks my heart to see what is expected of many of the kindergartners
who are simply not developmentally ready. Preschool, we know is not a requirement. And, kindergarten too is an option (not required by law). Yet, if children walk into their first day of kindergarten not able to recite the alphabet, count to 20, and write their names, they are labelled BEHIND. What an awful way to begin their educational career! We, as educators, know

that it is detrimental to try to teach a child something he is not developmentally ready for, but we are required to do it all the time. Many of our kids are being set up for failure! There are plenty of kindergartners who are ready to learn to read, but that does not mean it should be expected of all of them. Several districts are recognizing this problem and are re-introducing developmental kindergarten as an option for kids who are just not quite ready for the academic requirements of today's kindergarten. They spend a year there, then a year in academic kindergarten. It should be interesting to see what happens with that.