It's a New Year...another start to a new school semester. As I am talking to more and more friends, I am finding out that many people are not happy with the school system as a whole (it doesn't matter where you go to...I'm not talking about our school system...but the American one). Here's the things I have noticed:
We are telling parents that due to maturity issues, that learning issues are better if a child starts school at 6. Meanwhile, the schools are starting the children at Kindergarten with work that was once expected of second graders (back in my day). So as we push the kindergarten age to 6, we are also pushing the curriculum to what was expected of 7 year olds. In addition, the movement to make kindergarten a whole day event vs half day has occurred because a study shows that teachers can teach more and kids can learn more. However, we also have a push to start kids in daycare and nursery schools that "teach" children rather than just give them endless care. So, what are we really doing? We are expecting daycare to take the place of kindergarten and first grade (per parents pay for the first few years of education) and then start the child at 6 when attention spans improve on 2nd grade work. What will result? Burnt out children.
In general the Americans are scrambling because we are losing our place among the best in the world for education. Some of the problem, in my humble opinion, is due to not having national standards and national curriculum. The Core Series talks more about this in the introduction. So, if Joe starts school in PA when he moves to MA he doesn't miss a beat because the school is advanced in MA or vice versa (since I don't know which state is higher on the education spectrum). I never understood how it is fair or beneficial to have education vary by area code. But then again public education as a whole deludes me lately.
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