Kindergarten: It's the new first grade

With homework, testing and full-day classes, today's kindergarten bears a striking resemblance to first grade. Some experts call that progress, but others worry that 5-year-olds are being pushed too hard, too soon.
By Nara Schoenberg, Tribune reporter
September 4, 2010


Gracie Murphy is not shy.

Talking to an adult she just met, the 6-year-old Skokie girl improvises a conversation between two tubes of sunscreen — "Hello! My name is Husband! Hello! My name is Wife!"

She proclaims her love of recess, introduces a blue teddy bear named Peace Sign, and ducks under the kitchen table only to emerge, seconds later, with an impish smile: "Mama's ticklish part is her feet!"

But the real drama comes when Gracie's mom, Susan Derex, quietly pulls out a letter her daughter composed as a kindergartner last year. Written in pink marker in a steady, even hand, it begins:

Dear Mama, I love you up high. I love you down low. You are the best Mama that I ever new. I love you so much becus you take me to the park and I go on the swing and the slide and the monky bars and evrey thing in the park….

Derex, a former middle school teacher, smiles and shakes her head: "At the end of kindergarten, I certainly couldn't have written that."

Wait a minute: Gracie wrote that herself?

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The education system in this country is being run by morons.

pushing its curriculum and creating stress in the child.

I worked for a combined preschool and kindergarten Montessori school. The ages went from 2-1/2 to 6. There was "work" that was recommended in stages that the teacher would introduce to the student and then let him/her try it. There was introduction to letters, combination of letters, and then words. And printing was part of learning process. Some kids could pick it up easily at 4, some at 5, some at 6. Whatever they were ready for. As far as math went, some students at 6 were doing more than counting; they were doing multiplication. Not because they were pushed but they had advanced with their knowledge of numbers and their organization.

I have also taught in public schools and they aren't inclined to wait for students to "get" a concept before moving to the next one, or even have a logical sequence of teaching a multiple of concepts.

The thing that always amazes me is, where are all those folks who say "school was better when I was growing up, we learned more?" Somehow we got through the education system with little or no homework until high school, at least I have no memory of doing homework until 9th grade. Neither do any of the folks I work with. This lack somehow didn't prevent me from gaining a doctorate in Oceanography.


I see my children having to deal with hours of homework in second grade and wonder , what is the point? Just to make the education "experts" feel like they are accomplishing progress?

I think the retesting and retention practice is good, but it doesn't have to be in the form of too much HW and all those crazy worksheets.


Why not just have them explore, play around and think about the concepts - or go around the house or neighborhood answering a few questions... This is what happened in the younger grades in my son's old progressive school - more experiential stuff and experimenting with learning. It should be fun!

That's the tough part. If I teach a concept, we have an activity or lab, and the majority of students are confused or not getting it, I don't move on to the next concept or topic. We go back and I try it a different way. However, if most do get it and 4 or 5 are still lost, I do go on and the few students who don't get it or aren't confident are "invited" to come in at lunch or before/after school so I can work with them one on one or in a smaller group. Sometimes they'll show up for lunch in my room with a student who does understand and that student will do the explaining. Last year one of the brighter students came in often with another one (not always the same) to "teach" on the whiteboard. I sat back and watched unless they had a question.

If stuggling students don't come in, I call their parents and explain why they need to come in for help. Usually that works but not always. If it doesn't, then it becomes a "mandatory detention to be served with teacher" so that it's a discipline issue. Once the kid sees the detention form, they show up and I tear up the form. It's strong arm tactics, sort of. Some kids just don't care and celebrate a D-. Some with low grades have trouble grasping concepts and can be reached one-on-one in a quieter environment.

But to the point of the OP - Kindergarten? I do think that's pushing it for many kids. Kids mature at different rates and need more time to be kids, not over-programmed little adults.

he wouldn't get certain things at first (particularly new math concepts) but with lots of practice and explanation from us and the teacher, something would "click" later on, and he would have it. I really think the processing is different for different kids.

concepts through their play - not being pushed too hard too soon.

I was amazed at the amount of homework they got but also amazed at the progress made. We have had to stop spelling words we didn't want them to hear because they can figure out a whole lot of what we are saying.

I do wonder though where they would be had they not gone to preschool. It sounds like things have dropped a year with preschool being the new kindergarten.

It brought home the realization that kids have to know quite a lot before they hit school. For those that don't have the foundation, it moves too fast.

Where they are constantly being tested and the work that used to be done in Kinder or 1st Grade is now being done in PreSchool. This program is all day too. They get a total of one hour of free play; outside, and indoors. They get a half hour nap time which is supposed to be totally eliminated by the second half of the year. Some of these little ones even start falling asleep at the lunch table, or circle time on the carpet.

the kids were expected to know the following before entering kindergarden, all of their letters, numbers 1 - 25, all of their colors, and even some basic reading. Upon leaving they had to be able to read, write sentences, and even begin to add and subtract among other things. I think we have gone a bit off the deep end.

or have to!

Although there are certainly ways to teach those concepts to kids that age that are fun and developmentally appropriate- and I do think many of em have the capacity to learn them - the push to do so or the idea that there is something "wrong" with a kindergartener who isn't quite there yet, is troubling.


When I was in kindergarten we did count in English and in German (even though this was small town USA) and learn a lot of those things, though. But it was through fun songs and play.

They started turning kindergarten into watered down 1st grade about 20 or 25 years ago. It's absolutely ridiculous.