Kindergarten Readiness

My husband and I attended a kindergarten readiness seminar at our son's co-op preschool a couple of nights ago. They had a panel of five teachers: one was a public school kindergarten teacher, two were from a private school, and two were representing the magnet programs offered by the public schools in our area (which are multi-age but don't start until first grade). So I guess the seminar was as much about choosing which program to put your child in as it was about actually getting your child ready for kindergarten.

Even though they were all very vested in promoting their own programs and it was definately clear that they had some philosophical differences, as a panel they did seem to agreee on what is most important in getting your child ready for kindergarten

1) An eagerness and willingness to learn

2) Being emotionall ready to be on their own at school without mom

3) Having some social skills and an ability to get along with other kids

4) Being able to do some basic tasks for themselves, like put on their jacket and zip their backpack (one teacher said they do not need to be able to tie their shoes, because most 5-year-olds don't have the motor skills for that yet)

5) Know some basic safety rules, like who they should go home with. It is also helpful if they know thier parents first and last names and phone numbers.

Surprisingly, they said kids do not need to know all their letters and sounds or be able to count to 20 or anything academic like that. They all said that they meet the child where they are and help them to progess as a learner from that point. I am thinking this sounds pretty good.

Then towards the end of the meeting one of the panel members said that we are in the age of "best practices" in education. I nearly choked when she said that. I couldn't resist raising my hand and asking, "so how do 'best practices' fit in with the WASL?" The WASL is the standardized test given in the State of Washington. We are really in the age of the No Child Left Behind Act (aka No Child Left Untested Act). Standardized testing drives much of the curriculum now, and many districts even have strict pacing guides that teachers must follow no matter what the needs of their students are or where they are developmentally and academically. Now granted most of these teachers were either from private schools or magnet programs that don't look anything like a normal public school classroom in our district (and I can say that from personal experience because I used to be a substitute teacher), so maybe their classrooms do use "best practices." But I don't think that is the case in much of the rest of the country.

My fear is, which is shared by many, is that these tests are only creating schools where students are taught to take tests, instead of think creatively, problem solve and develop a love of learning. I also think it is really unrealistic to expect all students to meet the same level of achievement. This creates a "one size fits all" system of education, instead of one in which individual differences are celebrated and instruction is designed to help all the students--high achieving, low achieving and everywhere in between. For the record I do think many tenets of the act have real merit, such as mandating that all teachers be highly qualified and that instructional practices be researched based.

I am going to try and enroll my son in one of our district's alternative or magnet programs. He will still have to take the WASL (unless we were to opt out) if he is enrolled in one of these programs, but I don't think the instruction is nearly as focused on preparing for the test. I truly don't know what I will do if he doesn't get in--we don't have the money for private school and I just don't think I have what it takes to homeschool.