Leslie wrote to the school board today. I think her note covers a topic that has been under-represented thus far on this blog--that of parental choice and responsibility--so I am adding it here:
Dear School Board members,
I know you have had some parent feedback to the announcement about possibly transitioning to full-day Kindergarten for the 2011-12 school year. I am the mother of a 3rd grader and a 1st grader at Glencliff Elementary. I also have a 4-year-old who will attend Kindergarten at Glencliff in 2011-12 and a 1-year old who will attend Kindergarten in 2014-15. I wanted to add my voice to those who are opposing the change.
I think you have all been informed of the blog created to discuss this issue (halfdayniskayuna.blogspot.com). There are some good arguments written there for keeping the half-day program. I understand that there are also some good reasons for providing full-day Kindergarten in our district, and I agree that it may be better for some of the children, but I believe that, overall, the cons outweigh the pros.
In addition to concerns voiced on the blog I mentioned, I have another problem with the full-day program. I believe the best place for a young child to be at that age is at home with a loving parent. I do realize that many of the children in the district are not home with a loving parent at this age, but some are, and I believe it is not right to take that from them. I worry that this switch to a full-day Kindergarten is part of a trend toward removing parental responsibility for education and nurture of children at an earlier age. A five-year-old is very young and has much to learn in addition to academics. The responsibility for nurture and education of a child belongs first to his/her parents. It is the parents' responsibility to provide care for their children. Different parents choose different ways to provide it--some provide it themselves, some pay others to provide it for them, but it is their responsibility and privilege to provide care for their children in the way they choose. Implementing a full-day Kindergarten program in the district, while beneficial for many families, limits the choices of those families wherein parents are the after-school caregivers for their own children (i.e. stay-at-home moms and/or dads).
I feel I have much to teach my children before they get to the point where they are away from home (being influenced by non-family members) more than at home (being influenced by me and other family members). Please do not take that time from us!
I love Kindergarten at Glencliff. It was wonderful for both of my older children, and I want the others to get to have that great first-time school experience too. Please do not change it!!
Thanks for listening,
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for taking comments on the potential transition to full-day Kindergarten and for your consideration of these comments as you deliberate.
We have hesitated to step forward and boldly state our position on full-day Kindergarten because we were a little concerned about the reaction from some members of the Board at the last meeting when parents stood up and spoke out against full-day Kindergarten. It is not that these parents were not treated respectfully, but some of the facial expressions seemed to indicate that there were some Board members who seemed less than pleased that some parents were not in favor of this proposal. They appeared to be, perhaps, personally offended or misunderstood because there was opposition or questions about the benefits to this type of program.
We want to be clear that this was, and is, not at all a personal afront to any Board Members, but rather a statement of concerns for consideration as you proceed forward on discussion regarding full-day Kindergarten. We recognize that you all work very hard and that your intention is to provide the best education possible for our children in this District and we thank you.
We happen to be a parents of a toddler who will be attending Kindergarten in 2011-2012. I am also a parent who opted to stay home with my children rather than to continue on my career path because we felt that it was very important to our children's development to learn how to be thoughtful, creative, intelligent, inquisitive and happy children. It has also been very important to have our children experience a variety of outside social activities to prepare them for public school and the world of education under our personal guidance.
While we understand that it has been felt that our children have not been prepared for first grade demands due to increased academic standards, and that full-day Kindergarten has seemed to meet that need for a number of other school districts in the area, we are not fully convinced that an extension of the Kindergarten day would be more beneficial than the kinds of activities that we offer to our children.
cont'd
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen: cont'd posting
ReplyDeleteHaving been involved in the school district, I have seen that the Kindergarten half-day is a very full one, and can be very demanding on the teachers. But, I am also aware of the attention spans of Kindergarten children, and I am not fully convinced that these children are prepared for more time spent on math, reading and writing, because a good number of them lose interest and attention after 20 minutes spent on these kinds of subjects. This is not to say that our children would not ultimately adapt if pushed, but we are not sure that we think this is the best thing.
We also believe that the full-day program would not offer our children a full day of the subjects of math, reading, and writing because a good part of the day would then be devoted to specials such as music, art, lunch, assemblies, etc.
We are concerned that if we expect our toddlers to be fully prepared for a full-day Kindergarten curriculum, then we will be expecting more from our pre-school programs and this may lead to having to develop standards for these programs because they are so different, and because many do not fully prepare children for this major transition. If parents are worried that Kindergarten to first grade is too much of a transition, we cannot imagine the transition that pre-school children will be facing once a full-day Kindergarten program is put in place at an even younger age.