Monday, April 28, 2014

Cancel nap time

In a recent article posted on line, a kindergarten class had it's 'show' canceled by the administrators of the school. Now, we know all things posted on line are absolutely true, (uh huh), so I'm guessing this one is too.
Actually, this was passed on by a source I trust, and therefore believe it to be the case.

Now, why would anyone want to cancel a kindergarten show? Well, according to the administrators, the expectations of learning in the twenty-first century are forcing them to focus solely on developing these kindergarten students for college and careers.

Really? A single two day show for five-year-olds is interfering with their preparation for college which is still fourteen years away? If this two day show is interfering with their curriculum that much, they should make sure they do away with 'nap time'. Some of the reasons listed for this decision are: keeping them from becoming stronger readers, writers, co-workers and decision makers.

If those are your reasons, you have a severely limited view of how to educate children. Let me see...making them stronger readers; nope, learning lines read from a script wouldn't do that. Writers? Okay, I'll give them this one, unless one of them is writing the script for the play. Co-workers? Naw, working together to put on a play or show does nothing to help little children become better co-workers. Decision makers? Letting them think about how to do something or be in the right place at the right time has nothing to do with that. They obviously won't be making major decisions on the production, but that's not something they would be doing anyway.

I often complain about teachers and administrators, even though I am fully aware that there are many tremendous teachers out there. But, such knee-jerk reactions from administrators always leaves me scratching my head. Too often, many lack a prime measure of living and growing in the world...common sense.

1 comment:

  1. You are seriously behind the times! Most full-day kinder programs no longer offer naps due to the learning expectations that have been pushed down from first grade into kinder. When the older three went thru kinder, they had nap time. By the time the youngest got there, no more nap time. If they fell asleep the teacher would let them sleep, as they most likely needed it. Instead of bringing in a towel to nap on, they had "heads down" time where you could sleep if needed. Looking at all the changes in education it doesn't seem that it has gained us anything. Lots of stress on little kids!

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