Why All the Concern Over Kindergarten Readiness and Other Questions
So, why do so many people get up in arms about a child being ready for Kindergarten?
(excuse typos…will correct soon)
To answer this question I am reading this book 
What does a child gain by being ready?
What I am finding is that there is a belief that children are unprepared to enter the school “system” not about children being able to learn. There is also concerns about children being able to compete in the global market place which means that schools need to ready our children for the workforce. Personally, I have many concerns about this attitude and idea, since the basic premice ignores children’s social/emotional development in favor of teaching subjects. I saw the following mission statement ” We will strive to promote the person over corporate assets.” We say that we value “life learners” but in reality we don’t. We say that we value children but when an entire system of care and education is centered around the all mighty dollar, our actions speak louder than our words.
What if the child isn’t ready?
Is there Pre-K readiness?
Apparently there is Pre-K readiness, in fact, there is birth readiness. The idea of P16 revolves around building infrustructures that work in conjunction from pre-k to college, but you could easily see how you could create a birth through college plan. (anyone familiar with alignment, standards, curriculum and assessment) Well the idea of allignment is to create sytems that work together. In many ways this makes sense but how far could you take it? Let your mind wander for a few minutes…
So, are you stressed yet? In the age of marketing to children can you see the implications of instituting such a system? Companies already market to parents and children but I would only guess that it will get worse as parents become concerned that there unborn child may already be behind his peers.
I am sure I am over simplyfying the idea of P16 but maybe I’m not. (more to come as I continue reading)
Is school readiness for the child, teacher, parent or school system?
I hope to address these questions in the coming weeks. Currently I am working on Assessing the Pre-K child, so these questions will have to wait.
Posted on January 31st, 2008 by karen
Filed under: Uncategorized