Rock and a Hard Place

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-12-2003
Rock and a Hard Place
1524
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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iVillage Member
Registered: 06-27-1998
Sun, 11-30-2003 - 4:18pm

Well you know me well enough, you are right I would have found it irrelevant.

PumpkinAngel

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-27-1998
Sun, 11-30-2003 - 4:22pm

Why is it any of YOUR business if other kids don't know their letters?

PumpkinAngel

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-27-1998
Sun, 11-30-2003 - 4:32pm

Kindergarten is not required by the state either.

PumpkinAngel

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-27-1998
Sun, 11-30-2003 - 4:42pm

Why on earth

PumpkinAngel

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-02-2003
Sun, 11-30-2003 - 4:59pm
Oh I so agree! This is not so much about a dumb a$$ teacher making disparaging remarks about any group of people as it is about parents competing with their children. This kind of competition certainly does exist and IMO schools should be doing more to EDUCATE parents on the damage it does (as opposed to encouraging it). Children should be encouraged to be individuals and free thinkers. I simpy cannot imagine a K teacher even bothering to collect the data - except of course for an argument for an aide. Even wrt gifted (or acclerated learners)children, if teachers and parents didn't set the children apart, the world would be a better place. IMO, K is a great place to start teaching children that no two people are the same.

Testing for the sake of program planning is wonderful. A psychiatrist testing a 5 y/o? Ridiculous. For what? What possible purpose would it serve? Children with a thirst for learning will devour whatever they get their hands on. Why anyone would subject their 5 y/o to that kind of rigourous testing is beyond me. Let the kid be a kid for God's sake! Why on earth you would feel the need to monitor so closely at this age is even further beyond me. If the child is happy and content and is learning - what testing do you require?

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 11-30-2003 - 6:20pm
ita!! my brother was reading at age three also. he learned by reading the sports page of the newspaper, however, lauren and i learned in first grade as usual. my ds1 was dying to learn to read in kindergarten, so after they learned the sounds of all the letters, i proceeded to teach him to read, and he was on his way in about two weeks. dd was not interested that early, so we didnt push her, she was reading in first grade on time. ds2 wasnt interested until first grade also, however, we put him in an extra year of nursery school, so he was 7yo in first grade. couldnt have made a better choice for him. the year made all the difference in the world. he is now in tenth grade and doing very well, academically(which i really was never concerned with), socially and athleticlly.

sounds like your little guy has the talent for language. my dd as you have read in the past is very talented in language. i am talented in the english language, and thats it. foreign language is not my thing. good luck with him. are you going to expose him to other languages as well? does he understand what he is reading, when reading hebrew? none-the-less, im impressed!!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 11-30-2003 - 7:25pm
WHERE the blazes do you live????DC/preschool is VERY HELPFUL for ***LOW SES**** kids.Middle and upper income kids,in general, have parents who take a BIG interest in reading,etc. to their kids.So,yes,since you live in a ******LOW SES******area,it makes sense.The gov't has to mandate nutrition and naps and reading before anyone will do it for their kids *where you live*.Geez,most of the low ses people I have worked with aren't as bad as your high ses people!

Now,you are going to go on and on about how you have a high ses since you work,and I am again telling you that high ses don't usually drink the mornings away and not read to the kids,and they tend to send over 90% of teh kids on to college,but oh,well,you have your version of reality,and you will not be moved from cyndiworld,where sahms drink and are illterate and fear you because you are an engineer(????),and all the teachers are out to make sure your dd can't get into college.WHATEVER.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 11-30-2003 - 7:50pm
Yep,I read that womens magazines are written on the level of the average 12 year old.I am the Queen of Typos, but some *repeated* misspellings and bad grammar by professional people boggles my mind.On another board,people were actually defending the fact that they couldn't do simple math(I am bad at higher math,but geez,everyone should be able to do *simple* math.I had my boss once ask me to convert a fraction for her!)as" not necessary".My dh and I laugh still about our 13 year old babysitter,who when dh said he would pick her up at a quarter to seven,said,"Ummm,is that ,like, 6:45?"Gotten change back lately?Was it right,or even in the ballpark?

Amazingly,my whole family grew up in rural OK and they ALL went to college and beyond w/out ever having gone to dc.They were all "average" students growing up.Their parents cared about *education*,not class ranking or whose mom sah and what math method was used.My d'hs dad grew up in *East* St.Louis and still reached the Phd level,and his mom's dad was a butcher who sent all of his sons to college.

So,I am not very impressed w/ our pressured educational system overall,and I do not see the dc-smart people some others see.I think people are less educated now than ever.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 11-30-2003 - 7:50pm
I was able to read at 3 and was not "taught" to read at all - in fact my mother did not know I was able to do so until her mother demanded to know why she hadn't told her I could read, LOL! (Before you think my mother was one of those who would have benefitted from CLW's DD's teacher's charts, consider that my mother thought I had memorized the books like my brother had until my grandmother showed her I could easily read other things as well.) I was certainly fluent enough a reader to have read just about anything by 4 or 5. I'd say maybe less than 1% of kids do this but certainly not so few that newspaper articles would be written about kids who can, LOL! I absolutely agree that it is ridiculously inappropriate to assume that kids *should* read at that level - or AT ALL - at age 5, or even 6. My equally literate brother learned right along with everyone else in K, as is my son. Early reading doesn't mean anything in particular to one's future academic abilities, just as it doesn't predict athletic skills if a child walks early. (It did make me a very easy kid to entertain, LOL!) I do believe, however, that having a rich vocabulary at the time one learns to read makes it much easier to read harder things earlier.
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-23-2003
Sun, 11-30-2003 - 9:41pm
By who picks the kids up for starters. As a kindy teacher, she waits at the door to make sure the kids are picked up by an adult. If that adult is not mom or dad, a permission slip has to be filled out. She knows exactly who is picking up which child.

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