Should school systems move to full-day kindergarten programs?

YES
Full day kindergarten programs benefit not only children, but the parents who are often in need of wholesome day care. Why waste this precious learning time. Most children entering the first grade with one or two years of structured learning and discipline behind them, do better and have no problems keeping up in the first grade.

A caution here is sending them to kindergarten too early. If they are not fully ready, say five before September, then another year of development would benefit them greatly. To hold a child back a year after starting in one class often is embarrassing to the child, but worse, may cause feelings of inferiority. Yes, beginning at the age of five, full day kindergarten is best. For four year olds, however, only four years.

Updating the above two paragraphs I sought online help in deciding the pros and cons of full day kindergarten from Bracken Reed in "An Option worth considering". She cites others who agree that information is lacking on the precise details but she did find enough evidence to support a normal school day for kindergartners.

I came away for reading with more knowledge on the subject but still with my original idea that for some children a full day of kindergarten will be okay but for younger children they may need to go home and take a nap. Emotional security being the key word here along with actual age. Some children actually go to school too soon and this can or break their whole school experience for them. Yet in this area, we are again talking about the normal school age and are not taking into consideration the students who may need to learn a new language as well as learning what children normally learn in school.

For those language underprivileged and those poverty underprivileged - two separate categories - a full day of kindergarten may be the best approach. As with everything when you are getting input from others, there are varying answers and the one conclusion we all can agree where education is no one size fits all.

Yet children must be educated and that education to be meaningful must be tailored to each child individually, and as great and as wholesome as that seems, it is not fair to expect the school system to get an A here. An A for effort will do. Some teachers fear, she says, that the programs for the normal first grade will be trimmed down to fit the kindergartner, and that will leave the first grade inadequate for those who have had kindergarten.

Interac tion between teachers and parents and a more exploratory atmosphere seem to be the answer. Yet, as I stated above, this works well in theory but will the school system be able to afford the extra help this will entail? These are questions to ponder and in the meantime, parents and teachers will continue to see what works best for each.

The school experience at least prepares the student for this one thing in life: it prepares him to expect the unexpected and what may at first be seen as a draw back to a good education, may prove to be the catalyst that meant the difference between a mediocre education and one filled with promise and a lifetime of living fully within the confines of one's capabilities.

No
hould school systems move to full-day kindergarten programs? No, but many are. Eventually, all will. A reason given for full-day kindergarten is to get children used to full-days before they start first grade. It seems to me that at the age of five, half-days of school should be enough. The adjustment to full days the following year should be easy.

Five and six-year-old children get very tired and cranky. Tired and cranky five-year-old children are not attaining maximum levels of learning. They should be able to go home and unwind, be with their parents, take a nap in their own bed instead of on a floor mat with other children pestering them.

The argument I have heard from some parents is that their children are used to being in daycare all day so full-day kindergarten should be fine. They say they need them in school full-time because it is too inconvenient for them to make arrangements for transportation and daycare.

Isn't it too bad that parents have to be concerned about the inconveniences of transportation and daycare when it comes to the comfort and care of their children? For many families, there is no option but for both parents to be working outside of the home in order to make ends meet. The children don't have the luxury of being at home with their parents. Long gone are the days of Wally and Beaver Cleaver whose mother was at home when they arrived home from school or when school was not in session.

My piano students who arrive at my home studio right after school are exhausted and frustrated. They often use me as a sounding board before they can relax and settle into their lesson. They say they wish their moms had time to talk to them after school. These are older children. What must it be like for the little five-year-old kindergarten children who are still not much more than toddlers, themselves?

How much of the day of a kindergartner is actually spent in "learning" activities? I've been in kindergarten. I've also been a teacher's aid in kindergarten and preschool. Very short periods of time are spent on learning activities. Most of the rest of the day is spent waiting in line for bathroom breaks, hand washing, going from room-to-room, activity-to-activity . Play-time, snack-time, quiet-time and waiting around for unruly children to be dealt with take up a lot of the rest of the time.

How much time do children really need to spend in school in order to be socialized? As a homeschooling parent, the "socialization question" is always brought up to me. Why does my child have to spend seven hours a day in a situation where she is exposed to the dangers of bullying, and later drugs, sex, and alcohol. Why waste her time waiting in line or waiting her turn to read out loud? Why must she sit on a spot on the floor for story time when she can be at home cuddled in her mother or daddy's or grandparents' arms and be reading a story together. This leaves open plenty of time for personal discussions that come about from the story.

One-size-fits all full-day kindergarten does not allow for the wide variance in children's skill levels, abilities, and general exposure to life. Few kindergartens offer accelerated or gifted programs. No child left behind? What about the gifted? When the window is open for learning, why bang it shut and cause that opportunity to pass by? A longer day of boredom is not going to help the gifted or advanced children.

Once the child sets foot inside the public school, the child's education is totally out of the hands of the parent. Your child's education is in the hands of the government and the school system and teachers . . . both effective and ineffective. The choice of putting your little five-year-old in full day kindergarten will be made by the government. If your child is not emotionally ready, hopefully you will be allowed to hold him/her back an extra year in order to allow time for maturation. Otherwise, your child will be off to a dismal and frustrating start . . . all day long, every day.

Schools base some of their decisions on numbers. The higher the number of students in full day programs, the higher the number of dollars in support they receive from the government. Should government dollars determine whether or not your child is ready for full-day kindergarten? I think not.