The Full Day Kindergarten
On the front page of the May 25 Boston Globe was an article on the full Day kindergarten. Putting the article on the front page of the Sunday paper attests to the importance of this issue for parents. Over the past few years I have had e-mails from concerned parents all across the country whose school systems were moving to full day kindergarten. As I read the article and reflected on the many e-mails I have received, it seemed to me that three different issues were being confounded and needed to be separated if any resolutions was to be had.
There are, first of all, the parenting issues. On the one hand are those families in which at least one parent is home full time. Most of these parents are the ones who are opposed to full day kindergarten. Some argue that a full day is too much for a five-year-old, while others argue that the program is too academic and inappropriate for young children. Another group of parents are very much in favor of the full day kindergarten. Most of these parents are from two parent working families. They have had trouble finding quality, affordable and accessible child care. For them full day kindergarten, and hopefully an extended day, gives them the security of knowing their child is in safe place where professionals are in charge. Both groups of parents have legitimate arguments.
Secondly, there is the child development issue. What sort of program is most appropriate for five-year-old children? I think the majority of pediatricians, child psychologists and early childhood educators, would agree that testing and workbooks have no place in a kindergarten classroom. The same professionals would also agree that's a program which is given over to play oriented learning in the morning and quiet activities(taking naps, listening to stories or quiet music) in the is best suited to this age group. From this perspective it is not the full day kindergarten that is potentially harmful, but only one that includes, testing, workbooks and full day of academic activities.
The third issue is the educational one which is confounded with financial considerations. Full day kindergartens cost money including teacher's salaries and the space needed for these classrooms. Most school budgets are pretty tight. I believe that the pressure for full day kindergarten comes mainly from two parent working families. Legislators, however, are reluctant to fund what they would regard as child care. To sell the programs and to get the funding, educational administrators are forced to employ an educational rationale-namely that full day kindergarten better prepares children for first grade than does a half day kindergarten. The evidence for this is tenuous at best and just wrong at worst.
Perhaps the best solution, and one taken in some communities, is to offer both full and half day programs and to insure that the full day programs are of the kind that are most in keeping with five-year-old's levels of ability and of energy.
