Posted on 07/01/2014 3:42:28 PM PDT by PoloSec
Should kindergarten be mandatory?
Lawmakers in Buffalo, New York, think so. The city recently changed its policy and made kindergarten mandatory for all 5-year-olds. Parents in the city must now send their little ones to the schoolhouse or face enforcement through child protective service agencies.
Currently, the quasi-grade it is not mandatory in most states. While all states provide kindergarten, parents are under no legal obligation in most states to send their kids off to the school until their sixth birthday.
Policymakers in Buffalo say they need the law to improve kindergarten absenteeism rates. Before attendance was mandatory, parents who voluntarily chose to enroll their kids didn't "take attendance for kindergarten classes seriously."
It is hard to take a grade that most people associate with finger painting seriously. And that might be part of the issue. Kindergarten isn't just child's play anymore. Researchers say kindergarten has become the new first grade where little tots are taught to read and write.
So, when kids miss that year, they might miss out on being on par with their peers in first grade.
We can thank the Germans for our traditional view of the class. Friedrich Wilhelm Froebel established the first kindergarten program in Germany in 1837. Froebel emphasized learning through playing and believed in the importance of stories, music, nature studies and symbolic ideas like children sitting together in "the kindergarten circle."
The word kindergarten originated from the way Froebel described children: as plants who were nurtured by their gardener/teachers.
Another component of the bill is prekindergarten. Interim Buffalo School Superintendent Will Keresztes said the bill will "heighten interest by parents in sending their children to prekindergarten programs. He added that the district would push for more money from the state for an expansion of prekindergarten classes.
So, it may be only a matter of time before prekindergarten becomes the new kindergarten and so forth. Which raises the real question: How early can the state force parents to give up their kids to the school system?
State-owned kids
I refused to attend kindergarten, enjoyed freedom too much. I started first grade at age 5, fighting all the way.
The tax-payers baby sitting their children so that they can pay income taxes. hmm
i agree Home School and keep them in Home Schooling as long as possible. There are great home schooling groups and internet based learning systems as well as local, state, and national conventions promoting ans supporting this noble endeavor.
Government schools are there for the government. Period.
Let the brainwashing begin a year early. The new-new normal will be more perverse than ever.
WHAT?! Our kids went to Private School and they had to know their ABC's, how to print their ABC's and how to read before the school would take them for kindergarten!
How dumbed down have these schools become?! BTW, Illinois doesn't "require" Kindergarten in the Public Schools and many school districts have cut it entirely because of cost.
I remember kindergarten as only 4 hours long and they did a double shift.
For everybody or just for 5-year-olds?
Where else can a guy lay down an nap next to the pretty girl who ya haven’t had a chance to meet yet?
New York...need I say more?
We've been home-schooling for eight years. Although tough going these days with only one paycheck - wouldn't have it any other way.
The people we have met along the way have been just awesome, a real blessing.
I don’t know NY’s dept of ed standards, but I bet there is some sort of financial payoff to the schools by the state for not only enrollment but attendance
“All your kids are belong to government.”
More government jobs.
One of my four-year old twin girls is already reading at a third-grade level. The other one is reading at a first-grade level.
We homeschool.
Kindergarten has been mandatory in NY since the '50's. If not, then why did we all go?
In other words, the parents don't want it, but the overlords do.
I thought the government worked for the PEOPLE, not vice versa.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.