INSANITY REIGNS

INSANITY REIGNS.

There was an article published in the New York Times yesterday (May 15, 2001) by Kate Zernike, entitled, "Fast-Tracking to Kindergarten?".  If you get a chance, read it.

Evidently parents are so pressured to have their children top in their class by kindergarten they are signing them up for preschool enrichment programs that are so developmentally inappropriate (my words) that it is crazy insane.

Children as young as two are doing worksheets and 20 minutes of homework per course every night.

This stuff makes me cringe. Talk about robbing our children of their childhood. Worst of all, the people they trust the most -- their parents -- are doing it -- AND -- get this -- paying $200 to $300 a month for the opportunity. OMG!!!

I wrote an 800 word op/ed for the New York Times, but after reading their submission guidelines, I didn't think it would fly. So, I cut out 650 words and submitted a letter to the editor. Now, that was definitely a lesson it tightening up my manuscript. Here's what it said:

As a nation, we have taken a step backwards and forgotten all the tenets of a good early childhood program. The focus on academics has led us to forget our duty as parents and educators to address the needs of the "whole child." Children need to develop cognitively, but also socially, physically, and emotionally. To miss any piece of this is developmentally inappropriate and harmful.

We are depriving our young children of a well-rounded education when we cement them in the abstract world of worksheets before they exit their concrete world of learning through their senses.

It is akin to taking a small rose bud and prying apart the petals to bring forth a beautiful rose. It doesn't work. Children, like flowers, need to be given the freedom to grow at their own pace and blossom when they are ready.

I doubt it will get published, but it made me feel good to send it. I've been advocating for young children for ten years now...and just when I think it can't get any worse, it does!!!