Is anyone thrilled with their child's school?

[Charles]

Originally Posted by jaynetarzana

I agree wholeheartedly. When my daughter was born, I read the book "Magical Child" by Joseph Chilton Pearce and his research concluded that children should not be introduced to linear learning until the age of 7.

I've trained my three year old to count to one. She can't count to one forwards and backwards.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by jaynetarzana

No one in his office understands why he would spend so much time commuting to Evanston when we could live near his work.

I can understand why they don't understand.

[jaynetarzana]

Different strokes, Charles. I know that you and I don't see eye to eye politically, but yet we are similar in many of our ideals.

Btw, we went to our daughter's parent/teacher conference last night and they gave us a run down of all of the things that the children need to know by 1st grade, including reading at a level 6. In fact, they said that children who cannot do this are candidates for being held back. I am shocked at how hard we are pushing our little ones. I am all for education, but it also needs to be age appropriate. What happened to learning through play in kindergarten? Did you have a similar experience in kindergarten with your kids?

[Charles]

Originally Posted by jaynetarzana

I know that you and I don't see eye to eye politically

We might. I don't have much of a political opinion. I don't even vote. Not only am I atheist I am apolitical. I'm just a City-Data poster with a keyboard equivalent of a big mouth.

[Infidel64]

Ok, I'll bite ..... what exactly are the OP's political ideals that are so unique and/or esoteric that preclude her from living around persons who do not share those same beliefs?

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but the OP's posts reek of a "big me, little you" intellectual superiority. Does anyone else see this? Some clarification from the OP would be helpful.

[jaynetarzana]

My political views are not unique, but I do prefer to be near others who care about the same environmental and social issues. I think most people like to be around like minded people. But here with go again with the attacks. I wish we could just discuss thread topics instead of everything getting so personal on here. We are considering a move back to California and I sincerely want to know if it would be a mistake when it comes to our children's futures. That is all.

[psr13]

Originally Posted by jaynetarzana

Different strokes, Charles. I know that you and I don't see eye to eye politically, but yet we are similar in many of our ideals.

Btw, we went to our daughter's parent/teacher conference last night and they gave us a run down of all of the things that the children need to know by 1st grade, including reading at a level 6. In fact, they said that children who cannot do this are candidates for being held back. I am shocked at how hard we are pushing our little ones. I am all for education, but it also needs to be age appropriate. What happened to learning through play in kindergarten? Did you have a similar experience in kindergarten with your kids?

People keep talking about kindergarten becoming more academic, but I'm not seeing it in many areas. I went to a poor school in the early 90's for kindergarten. My niece was in kindergarten in a pretty good magnet school last year. She did nothing that we didn't do in kindergarten. We learned how to read just as well as they learned to read. We did just as much math as they did. Yes, we played, but her class played, too. Maybe my kindergarten was just weird for its time? I have no idea.

[psr13]

Originally Posted by Heyygirl

Did you know that in the "90s" kindergarten consisted of learning colors, numbers, letter sounds? NOW they are learning nouns, verbs, and even auditory word problems! Education has never "held hands" with child development and these kids are required to use more abstract thinking than they are capable of as the "stage of concrete operations" isn't left until age 7-9.

Not at my poor kindergarten. We definitely did not learn colors, numbers, and letter sounds. We learned reading, writing, and math.

[Heyygirl]

Just saw a brief on the federally mandated standards going into effect next year nationwide. Very interesting. While the wording is much better than the standards written by California folks, the content is just about exactly what Cali's is. This should prove to be VERY interesting. In my district we discovered that we are already hitting what the new federal guidelines require so are quite comfortable with them. Waiting to hear the screams coming from across the country after testing time next summer/fall.