Rock and a Hard Place
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Rock and a Hard Place
| Thu, 11-20-2003 - 10:45am |
There's something on this board that has been bothering me, and I hope I can articulate it.
| Thu, 11-20-2003 - 10:45am |
There's something on this board that has been bothering me, and I hope I can articulate it.
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It's a big deal right now and the local papers are full of articles chronicling the bitter fighting going on. Everyone says "yes, children need Kindergarten" but no one wants to pay for it.
What happens is that children arrive in first grade. Some can read, do simple math, etc because they were in private school kindergarten. Others can't even sit at a table on focus on a worksheet. So it takes a first grade teacher until late November to get all the children in the class on the same page.
It has absolutely nothing to do with how "smart" a child is or whether or not parents work. It has everything to do with how dedicated parents are to their children's education (and that has nothing to do with financial status, either). I was at our last back to school night. Half the parents didn't show up. Why? Who knows.
But you can be a SAHM and have your child ready for first grade doing it yourself or you can be dirt poor and have to place your child with an unlicensed sitter who sits around all day watching soap operas and smoking while you work shoveling fries into "Biggie" fry containers for $5.50 an hour.
Like I said, it has nothing to do with a parent's work status. And I'm suprised that you of all people need justification for a choice you have clearly stated over and over is the "best" one for you and your DDs.
outside_the_box_mom
No, I don't need to turn and look at another child in order to understand my child.
PumpkinAngel
Exactly how did she know who was a daycare kid and who had a sahm?
PumpkinAngel
Well about manners I will have to agree with you.
I don't know how many times I have explained to my boys that no they can't do what x child is doing..we don't do that...and when asked why they were allowed to do whatever...well I'm not their mommy I'm your mommy and we don't act like that.
My kids at their age (7&5) have done more things and been more places than I ever did by the age of 21.
PumpkinAngel
Maybe if you spent less time having your child evaluated by psychiatrists and charted by her teachers and let her be a 5 year old kid she might just surprise you.
Really evaluated by a psychiatrist by age 5?....unless something traumatic happened, and my sympathy if it did...otherwise why?
PumpkinAngel
Since I have to write to an 8th grade reading ability -- or else no one will understand it -- I am not sure what it means to have a high-school or college level reading ability. If one has it, it can't mean much anymore.
(And this is not to downplay your DD's achievement. I just get my knickers in a twist over standardized testing, educational standards, etc and then having people throw them around as if they actually mean something. I always want to say, "Compared to what?" The reason I like our school is because the children are encouraged to learn at their own pace and they learn whole skills and concepts. So my DS, for example, is working out of the "second grade" speller because he's grasped certain reading/word concepts but he's still in "first grade" math.)
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