Schools seem to be teaching kids a lot more a lot faster

[no gnu taxes]

We took our 5 year old to kindergarten registration yesterday and I am surprised at how much kids are expected to learn there these days. Don't know if it is the same way everywhere.

Back when I was in school, kindergarten was strictly private and kids only learned things like social "niceties" and basically just played and colored for activities.

Kids now are expected to know their alphabet, know how to write their name, be able to count to 20, and know all of the basic colors and shapes BEFORE they start kindergarten. I didn't know those things when I started 1st grade. By the end of kindergarten, they are doing basic math and composing short essays.

[mamelukesabre]

My kindergarten was only half a day and we had to write our name, count(to ten I think), and know our address and phone number to get to first grade. Some kids knew more than the minimum. I remember being angry that I didn’t know the days of the week when a girl in my class did.

[Krodg]

http://www.wcpo.com/dpp/about_us/as_seen_on/how-productive-is-your-child%27s-school%3F

My granddaughters school.

[wmileo]

That was my recollection about kindergarten. Then again, I am 63 years old and went to public school in NYC before the teachers were unionized.

[PENANCE]

Kids now are expected to know their alphabet,

Cyrillic or Chinese?

know how to write their name,

How else can they sign away their rights?

be able to count to 20,

How else will they know how many full meals in a month?

and know all of the basic colors

Mostly red.

and shapes

You know, hammers, ... sickles, ... that kind of thing.

[Blood of Tyrants]

They want them to know it so that the teachers won’t have to do their jobs.

[rlmorel]

Un-frickking-believable.

Thanks for that link...

This was just two fiscal quarters in Massachusetts, stimulus money going to pay for teacher’s unions healthcare:

FY 2010 Q2
MINUTEMAN NASHOBA HEALTH Health Insurance premiums for district employees $1,184,601
MINUTEMAN NASHOBA HEALTH School employees health insurance payments (Apr-Jun) $382,238
MINUTEMAN NASHOBA HEALTH GROUP 4th quarter FY09 health insurance premiums $265,251

FY2010 Q3
MINUTEMAN NASHOBA HEALTH School employees health insurance payments (Apr-Jun) $382,238
MINUTEMAN NASHOBA HEALTH Health Insurance premiums for district employees $1,184,601
MINUTEMAN NASHOBA HEALTH GROUP FY10 health insurance premiums $183,765
MINUTEMAN NASHOBA HEALTH GROUP 4th quarter FY09 health insurance premiums $26,5251
MINUTEMAN-NASHOBA HEALTH GROUP Health Insurance Trust $241,820
MINUTEMAN/NASHOBA HEALTH Emp por health insurance premiums for school employees $18,8029

[rlmorel]

Link didn’t work for me...

[rlmorel]

Good for you. God bless you and good luck!

[tcrlaf]

Gotta keep the sheeple and the useful idiots stupid until after 2012, then they can let the shoe drop.

[leapfrog0202]

I agree. Our 2nd grade grandson in AK has already learned fractions ~ in 2nd grade! And he has weekly book reports due plus an hour of homework nightly.

I was shocked.

[rlmorel]

I was being too polite to ask that question. I don’t think I posted a vanity thread until I had been on FR for about a year.

[rlmorel]

[WVNan]

Thank God for our “backward” ways here in WV. As you say, the teachers are pretty conservative. We even managed to get a Tea Party guy on the Board of Ed. They are pretty much the same way along the Ohio River on the Ohio side. Probably because so many WV folks move over there. My DIL is a kindergarten teacher and the school where she teaches is gung ho patriotic and conservative. The kids even put on a great appreciation show for the fathers who are vets last fall. There were many “cloudy” eyes that day.

[rlmorel]

Sigh. America. It is still out there somewhere. Sometimes, just not here.

[freedomfiter2]

Congradulations.

[Persevero]

Have fun! I remember starting with my first four year old.

A tough and rewarding journey.

[WVNan]

We all have a cross to bear. For all her conservative ways, WV is still democrap because of the unions. It’s an uphill climb to try and change that machine.

[madamemayhem]

when i started kindergarten in the early seventies, i had to know my abc’s, count to 20, know my full name, phone number, and how to tie my shoes.
a few months ago i called that same public school and asked what sort of stuff my 5 yr old needed to know when she starts k this year and i was told “oh you know, basically just the stuff she is already learning in pre-school.” i informed this individual that my child does not go to pre-school, or daycare, and i needed to know what i should work with her on. the dingbat on the other end of the phone said “well, i don’t know really, it’s just the stuff she should have learned in pre-school.”
hubbymayhem and i took the girl in for registration and a teacher talked to us and to our daughter. she pulled the girl aside and spent about 20 minutes giving her a “quiz”. my never went to pre-school kid scored 87 out of 100 on a quiz that is specifically designed so that no one gets 100%. the teacher was a bit surprised that no pre-school was involved. alphabet,check; count to 10, check; shapes, check; matching,check; write her name, check; name the picture, check; eventually blow the bell curve all to hell, damn right!

[Will88]

By the end of kindergarten, they are doing basic math and composing short essays.

Well, a heck of a lot of kids must be skipping kindergarten then because we continually have reports that HS grads and many college freshmen can't do basic math and compose short essays.