Kindergarten kids must be made college and career ready??!
April 27, 2014
Kindergarten used to be where youngsters did finger-painting and made shapes out of clay. Children learned valuable lessons about being polite, sharing, and taking turns. They learned to be creative, musical, and artistic.
Today, the goal of education including preschool is to prepare children for the workforce–to make them college and career ready. A Washington Post article by Valerie Strauss reports that a New York school has cancelled a kindergarten show so that there is more time for college and career training. Read the article.
Such new developments always come with the explanation that the 21st Century brings a new era, and education must change to meet the future. Nonsense! Children are still children. At age five, they do not need college and career ready training. There is plenty of time for that later. They should not be robbed of their childhood.
Kindergarten used to be where youngsters did finger-painting and made shapes out of clay. Children learned valuable lessons about being polite, sharing, and taking turns. They learned to be creative, musical, and artistic.
Today, the goal of education including preschool is to prepare children for the workforce–to make them college and career ready. A Washington Post article by Valerie Strauss reports that a New York school has cancelled a kindergarten show so that there is more time for college and career training. Read the article.
Such new developments always come with the explanation that the 21st Century brings a new era, and education must change to meet the future. Nonsense! Children are still children. At age five, they do not need college and career ready training. There is plenty of time for that later. They should not be robbed of their childhood.