Word: kindergarteners
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...Monday, and Mrs. Wampler is squeezing in one more math lesson before her morning kindergarten class leaves for the day: "If you have three bunnies and three apples, and there is an apple to go with each bunny, then they are...equal." It's hard to tell whether her 25 pint-size students are still with her. They have been busy all morning working on language skills, word recognition, counting, sets, days of the week and primary colors, in addition to trying to complete an art project and work on assorted social skills, such as raising one's hand before...
Wampler and her students illustrate the latest math concept in elementary education: kindergarten = first grade. Kindergarten--so fondly remembered by baby boomers for show-and-tell and building blocks--has changed. Standardized curriculum and testing in primary schools are causing what educators call "push-down" academics. The need to perform well on tests filters down, landing on the youngest learners. As a result, kindergartners spend less time on social skills while interacting with one another in the "dress-up corner" or building wood-block skyscrapers. They spend more time sitting still, listening to the teacher and drilling on the basics...
Today more parents (especially affluent ones) are delaying the start of school to give their children an extra year of pre-school. This trend--known as "redshirting," after the practice of holding back freshman college athletes--is widening the developmental and age gaps among the students. A "typical" kindergarten class contains kids ages 4 to 6 whose level of development varies widely. Some barely know their letters, while others are fairly fluent readers. Sue Bredekamp, editor of a widely used guide for teachers of young children, says, "What teachers tell us is that expectations for kindergartners have become more standardized...
...Kindergarten's new emphasis on reading and math conflicts with the "developmental" model: helping children with story comprehension before teaching them to read, and letting them discover math concepts in a tactile way, with sets of objects. But many parents like the speeded-up approach because reading and math skills offer tangible evidence of what their children are learning...
Bredekamp says she hears complaints from kindergarten teachers across the country that "our kids need more play, rather than less, and our curriculum is a mile wide and an inch deep. The pressure is on coverage and not teaching in depth." According to Harriet Egertson, head of the early-learning section of the Nebraska department of education, "When large portions of the day are spent with kids listening instead of doing, then kids who don't learn quite that way fail." More time spent sitting and listening to a teacher may not be appropriate for younger learners, who benefit from...