Reader comments
Extended-day kindergarten classes hot commodity
56 comments | Read story
Oklahoma has all full day Kindergarten here, AS WELL as being the first State to have Pre-K provided in Public Schools (1/2 day)!
IT IS WONDERFUL.
I too am a stay at home Mom, so daycare cost is not an issue with me.
My son has developed faster socially and academically. These programs are great b/c kids this age are such sponges! They learn eagerly.
And parents do have the option of having their child only attend 1/2 day in Kindergarten. They simply come pick them up from school, when the rest of the class is going to lunch. These children miss Music, PE, and Art. But not any of the 'core' curriculum such as Math, Language, Science.
These programs have been incredibly successful here, and our Governor, who instituted them, has been heralded nationally for his efforts in early childhood education.
I would love to see Utah have similar programs, as we plan to move back someday.
This is nothing more than extended day care!
Half day kindergarten worked for years and years. Why does it need to change now? Kids have to grow up fast enough without being forced into all day school in kindergarten.
At the very least I think the parents should have the right to choose between half day and all day kindergarten.
If they implement this program, the class sizes would be larger because they wouldn't fit in the school without combining classes. That is less one on one attention that your child gets.
They are already on a year round schedule to accomodate all the students. How would this be handled?
I see no possitive's with this. I think it is a very poor idea.
I think as parents, we have the responsibility to look at our own education, our beliefs, our teaching abilities, our time pressures, and our familial educational standards along with our financial situations. Weigh these abilities with the needs of our children and then make a decision as to whether or not to send our kids to all-day kindergarten. It is also important to know that the best help a parent can do for their child's education is to be constantly interested in your own education. If you feel all-day kindergarten is right for your child then be my guest. It is a program designed to help those who are "behind" through no fault of their own or possibly their families.
You can keep your child home for first grade too ... and second grade and third grade, and so on through high school. It is called homeschooling. You can even have half-day high school with dual-enrollment.
By the way, every family should homeschool, no matter how much time their child spends in public school.
Boy was I wrong.
He loved it. It really came down to his teacher; she was fantastic and you could tell that she loved teaching a room full of five-year-olds. He thrived in that environment, and I found that I had been selling him short based my thinking that my own experience (half-days 25 years ago) was the best there was.
We were transferred to Colorado Springs in the middle of that year, and went to traditional half-day kindergarten, and all the progress he'd made in Florida was lost; he stagnated and regressed.
I attribute this principally to his teachers. The first was enthusiastic and excited about her job (and she'd been doing it for 30 years); the second was only lukewarm.
Secondarily however, the first teacher had plenty of time to stimulate his brain, wheras the second wished she had that kind of time to work with her kids.
Bottom line, don't knock it till ya try it.
Let's allow children to be children for at least another year, before they goto school for the next 20 years, followed by another 40yrs of employment.
Some parents do just want the free day care, but they're getting it next year; I wouldn't discount the program just for that.
Sanevoice, you're right on the money. Let 'em fly!
As for the article, my mom is an all-day kindergarten teacher in an underprivileged school where a significant number of kids don't even speak English upon arrival to her class. From what I gather in talking with her, the program is definitely doing what it was intended to do (and what the article stated)--that is, full-day kindergarten helps to bridge a gap for children who don't have access to the same sorts of in-home opportunities as others. But.... it is exhausting for her to try to wrangle 30 five- and six-year-olds all day long.
We have over a 70% poverty level indicated by the Free and Reduced program. We have over a 20% hispanic population.
Our Mission Statement is "High Expectations - Higher Achievement"
It takes parent and community effort to make this program work but it has shown consistently to work.
I for one support all day Kindergarten - IT WORKS!
It just makes more sense to me.
I don't have a cat/dog because I don't want the commitment right now, but I hope that no one judges me to be a bad person because of it.
To each his own. We all do what we believe to be best for our families.
Add your comment
Comments are monitored. Any comments found to be abusive, offensive, off-topic, misrepresentative, more than 200 words or containing URLs will not be posted.
E-mail address: For internal use only. We may want to contact you to publish your comment (not your e-mail address) in the newspaper or for a separate story idea.
- Soccer MVPs know how to win 1:56 a.m.
- Alta's Ohai is Ms. Soccer 2009 1:56 a.m.
- High school soccer: Past MVPs 1:37 a.m.
- Senators want food tax restored 1:27 a.m.
- Utah women lag in higher education 1:16 a.m.
- Hatch empathizes with Muslims 1:14 a.m.
- Matheson gets no thanks from GOP 1:13 a.m.
- Mitchell seeks to block witnesses 1:12 a.m.
- Party insiders may take on Bennett 1:11 a.m.
- Input sought on nondiscrimination 1:11 a.m.
- TCU showdown has big implications
- Seniors helped BYU regroup
- Bystanders framed for child porn
- Lambert surprisingly tops news
- Hope for single moms
- Soccer MVPs know how to win
- Matheson gets no thanks from GOP
- Korver and Miles to be evaluated
- Utah Jazz Extra: Whose hot/not
- Newhouse Hotel, an explosive end
- House passes health care bill
228 - TCU showdown has big implications
183 - Lobo suspended
182 - Cougars crush hapless Cowboys
154 - Utah Jazz fall apart against Kings
131 - TCU 4th in AP poll; U. 16th, Y. 22nd
118 - Thousands protest health bill
114 - RSL rallies to advance
103 - No 'backlash' for pioneers, gays analogy
97 - Utes pound winless Lobos
89
Meghan McCain, the daughter of former presidential candidate John...
Why do so many people live so close to refineries in Utah and elsewhere?
Sounds like a good option if you can't or won't switch to AT&T for the...
I worked with and around Bill Sederburg for 5 years while he was at...
hand. He needs to work on his moves to the basket and rebounding. Lateral...
play Fez or Koufos tonight. He went with a smaller line up and Boozer, Okur...
I've met Bennett before and he is a nice man. He also knows the Constitution...
That's never been a secret. Everyone will pay for it except those that don't...
I agree with NonMormon. I am active LDS, and I enjoy Ash's articles, and I...
I kept saying don't resign Milsap, especially after Portland offered that...
BYU is the slowest team that has ever been in the top 25. Utah will put up a...
i think u have the cowboys ranked too low! at least an A- LOL nice work!

