Here's Your Opportunity To Comment On "Universal Preschool" Proposed By Pres. Obama

[Meeko]

Why not 3?

Or 2....

Or 1.....

Or why not make it compulsory for pregnant woman to sit for 30 minutes a day with a pair of headphones stuck over their bellies so baby can get a "head start".......

[Blackcat31]

Why not 3?

..and then why not 2?

In my area we have a program called "Early Head Start" for kids not yet old enough for Head Start.

I also just found out yesterday that our Head Starts are going to be offering summer classes.....



It also amazes me how some people expect these young children to know their academic stuff in and out before Kindy entrance but most of those same kids who can recite the alphabet/numbers and quantum physics due to early education have only a few months behind them in underwear and drinking out of an unlidded cup.

The expectations for mastering life skills have been raised to older and older ages....but the academic expectations start at earlier and earlier age....makes zero sense to me. :confused:

[Willow]

Or 2....

Or 1.....

Or why not make it compulsory for pregnant woman to sit for 30 minutes a day with a pair of headphones stuck over their bellies so baby can get a "head start".......

I am discussing this thread with hubby.

When I read him this comment he took a second and then cracked the heck up.
Said - if swimmer enrichment becomes the status quo we are DONE trying for more kids

The look on his face as his brain went there before the words came out was almost too much

[Candy]

I'd move if that ever came to pass when my children were young. Seriously, how ridiculous.

My children never spent a single day in pre-K and they were far better prepared for K than their classmates who went for several years.


Pre-k frequently has nothing to do with any sort of meaningful prep for organized education nor is it any sort of guarantee the child can or will learn anything educational that they'll actually be able to retain.

I have two families now who each send a kiddo to a pre-k program at the local elementary school. The one goes mornings two days a week (3 nearly 4 years old), the other goes afternoons four days a week (5 years old). They pay a lot of money to send them and have openly admitted their kids aren't getting anything out of it. That they've learned far more here and I follow a loosely pieced together curriculum at best. We do 95% of our learning through play. To boot many children in their classes are either undersocialized or shamefully misbehaved so all they're doing is picking up the nasty behaviors of children who are not physically or emotionally ready for a classroom setting. Often takes them a good while to settle the heck down and return to decent behavior when they return here from pre-K.

I disagree i went to pre-k. Actually i was in the first pre-k class that my school offered. I don't know what the regular kids learned beacuse they were at a different table from them. But our table was advanced there were only 5 of us. But we did 1st grade work i remember reading a book that was for 4th graders in pre-k. Nobody in my class had trouble sitting still. Im not sure what pre-k classes you have sat in on but they sound bad, unlike any i have ever looked in. Pre-k helps some kids and some it doesn't. I think it depends on the teacher

[canadiancare]

Your ideas of JK must be so different from what I have lived.

bell rings, kids come in and do circle, go off and have free play, have snack, go to the gym, have a craft, eat lunch, go outside and play, have a rest time, have snack, free play and home time.


Yes the circle has a theme to it and maybe during free play groups will get called to sit with the teacher and work on a sheet with pattern recognition or colour learning etc. but it isn't as if they are being given essays to write.

I went to JK here 40 years ago. My 3 children went, as well. Most kids here do. We are all functioning members of society. My boys are in university and my daughter is in high school. Everyone has a job, friends, significant others etc.

My point is that early childhood education isn't the enemy. I would much rather live in a country that wants to invest its money on the population. Health care, education, senior living, food and housing for all etc.

[Willow]

But we did 1st grade work i remember reading a book that was for 4th graders in pre-k.

But why do you think that's necessary?

Why do you think taxpayers should fork over millions of dollars they don't have to accomplish such a thing?

What's wrong with doing 1st grade work in 1st grade? And reading 4th grade level books in 4th grade?

Where does the opinion come from that younger children being able to perform as an older student is somehow better??


If parents want to instill that level of education at a toddler level then fine, but I don't think the government should be sending the bill for it to taxpayers.

[Sunchimes]

We have free, full day pre-K in my town through the school district. I will lose my day care girl 2 weeks after her 4th birthday. Why? Not because her family wants her in a more academic environment but because it is free. Her family will save the money they pay me. Problem is that she is 2 now. She knows the ABC song and is well on her way to recognizing letters, counts to 15 reliably and to 20 when she focuses and recognizes some numbers. She can sing almost every nursery rhyme she's ever heard, follows multi-step directions, can spell her name, etc. I don't push, don't do worksheets, she's just really smart. She craves learning like I crave chocolate, so I provide it. But, how do you think it's going to be when she hits pre-K? She is going to be bored out of her mind. IMO, she would do much better staying with me until first grade or at least kindy. But, she won't get to do that because of the $100 a week they will save.

My granddaughter was the same way. She started kindy and after a week, they tested her in 1st grade for her social skills, and she did fine. She graduated from high school right after her 17th birthday. She could have graduated right after her 16th birthday but her family talked her into staying since she was so young. Maybe my dcg will be the same way socially, I'm certainly working on it.

I digress. It's often not about what's best for the kids, but what's best for the parents.

[MarinaVanessa]

I for one am glad that in my area at least we don't have pre-k class only pre-school and that is optional. This year the cut-off for kindergarteners has been pushed back. Last year and the years previously the deadline for kids starting Kindy was in early December. If you were 5 by December (the 8th I think) then you got to go to Kindy, if your bday landed after that then you had to wait another year.

This year they moved the deadline to October. You have to be 5 years old by October 8th in order to be able to register for Kindy this Fall. For kids that were born after that deadline they will having a sort of pre-k class (they are calling it transitional-Kindergarten) and even this is optional. They also only offer transitional-kindergarten at 3 schools in our city and it's first-come-first-serve. Our own city and school district believes that kids are starting school too early. Next year our deadline will be moved to September. Kids that are 5 by September get to go into Kinder and the other wait another year.

My nephew has a birthday on October 10th and he got in to transitional-kindergarten this year. He is in preschool right now at a Jump Start program (much like Head Start) and they are great half day programs 5 days a week for families that earn under a certain income level. These program focus on open-ended activities, process art and social skills. They do learn about shapes, colors, numbers etc but they don't use worksheets often (maybe once every week or two), they incorporate their learning during play. These programs I agree with and I love the fact that they are optional, not mandatory in our district.

My DH suggested a 3-day-a-week pre-school program for our 2yo DS ... TWO YEAR OLD!!!!! . I gave him the blank stare followed by an uncomfortable silence and that was the end of that "discussion". Later he asked me why I was against it and I answered with a question "Why are you for it?" he said that DS could get social skills ... another blank stare followed by another uncomfortable silence and he broke eye contact and looked around at the daycare kids playing with him while they worked together to build a Duplo castle and then he said "Okay I get your point".

[NeedaVaca]

Why are people against children starting school at 4. Thats how old every child is when they enter pre-k and now in my state i think you have to send your child pre-k you can't just send them to k. As for headstart the ones in my area do a really good job and they do do school work but like someone said different states vary.

I see what Finland does and think we are completely missing the mark. They don't even start formal education until a child reaches the age of 7. Kids need to be kids, they need family, they need to learn by exploring, nature, play based learning, life skills...

I think it's sad that parents want to ship the kids off to preschool so young, I will treasure every single second with my children, I actually held my youngest DS back a year!

[Willow]

My point is that early childhood education isn't the enemy. I would much rather live in a country that wants to invest its money on the population. Health care, education, senior living, food and housing for all etc.

I don't think anyone is saying that early childhood education is the enemy. The debate here lies mainly with the definition of early childhood education and who should have to pay for it.

I'm all about *investing* money into the general population -*IF*- those investment programs work and actual benefit is the result.

Headstart is a $150 billion dollar FAIL.

Why should we fork over that amount of money, again, money we currently don't have to spend, to recreate something that has already been given ample time and funding to flourish - yet completely crashed and burned?

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/02/head_start_can_a_failed_program_ever_be_killed.html

Just because it defies all logic to re-fund an identical broken system doesn't mean one hates the people of their country and doesn't want to support them in other ways that actually make sense.

[Willow]

I see what Finland does and think we are completely missing the mark. They don't even start formal education until a child reaches the age of 7. Kids need to be kids, they need family, they need to learn by exploring, nature, play based learning, life skills...

Now compare their crime rates to ours......I'd put money on both set of differences absolutely being related.

[LK5kids]

Although I agree with this I am concerned about the fact that we may be forced to partner with a program like Head Start in order to stay in business. I think that maybe there should be something that requires programs that are lower quality to partner with them but those of us that go above and beyond to provide a quality, DAP program should not be required to abandon our programs in order to work with another agency. I worked long and hard to become a successful 5 star preschool program and have scored high on all of my FCCERS evaluations. I think that the politics involved will be messy. If I have to follow their program are they going to pay for my materials, my training, my salary, etc? Are my parents going to end up paying them? Are they going to give me paid time to do all my paperwork and evaluations? Are they going to provide substitutes when I need a day off or am ill? Will I in escense be working for them? I agree that lower quality programs need to be weeded out but I'm not sure this is the way to do it. And I think there needs to be a lot more information on the "how" before I can form an honest opinion.

When I was involved with a pilot Head Start Family Child Care program I mentioned above I was NOT a HS employee. They paid me for four kids (I had some private pay kids too), they privided training, supplies, equipment, etc. it was a great experience. I was sub- contracted with HS I think. I had to follow all HS guidelines, two field trips per month, family style meals, teeth brushing, complete lesson plans, attend HS trainings.....it was a mini HS program.
I enjoyed it but wanted to be an employee so I could get insurance and other perks. This was probably 18 yrs. ago. They were looking into this then.

[AmyLeigh]

Why are people against children starting school at 4. Thats how old every child is when they enter pre-k and now in my state i think you have to send your child pre-k you can't just send them to k. As for headstart the ones in my area do a really good job and they do do school work but like someone said different states vary.

Actually, Louisiana's compulsory education age is 7. So you could keep your child at home until he/she is 7, then start school.
This is the problem I see. People assume that their kids have to go to school at 5 because that is what everyone else is doing. And, do you see/hear schools telling people what their local law is? Nope. More kids, more funding. Once a universal preschool is in effect, then many will assume that their kids have to go to school at age 4, rather than finding out the laws for themselves. Then, we will see "it's a success! Look at how many are signing up! Oooohhh, aaahhhhh. Don't want your kid left behind, now do you?"

[LK5kids]

I for one am glad that in my area at least we don't have pre-k class only pre-school and that is optional. This year the cut-off for kindergarteners has been pushed back. Last year and the years previously the deadline for kids starting Kindy was in early December. If you were 5 by December (the 8th I think) then you got to go to Kindy, if your bday landed after that then you had to wait another year.

This year they moved the deadline to October. You have to be 5 years old by October 8th in order to be able to register for Kindy this Fall. For kids that were born after that deadline they will having a sort of pre-k class (they are calling it transitional-Kindergarten) and even this is optional. They also only offer transitional-kindergarten at 3 schools in our city and it's first-come-first-serve. Our own city and school district believes that kids are starting school too early. Next year our deadline will be moved to September. Kids that are 5 by September get to go into Kinder and the other wait another year.

My nephew has a birthday on October 10th and he got in to transitional-kindergarten this year. He is in preschool right now at a Jump Start program (much like Head Start) and they are great half day programs 5 days a week for families that earn under a certain income level. These program focus on open-ended activities, process art and social skills. They do learn about shapes, colors, numbers etc but they don't use worksheets often (maybe once every week or two), they incorporate their learning during play. These programs I agree with and I love the fact that they are optional, not mandatory in our district.

My DH suggested a 3-day-a-week pre-school program for our 2yo DS ... TWO YEAR OLD!!!!! . I gave him the blank stare followed by an uncomfortable silence and that was the end of that "discussion". Later he asked me why I was against it and I answered with a question "Why are you for it?" he said that DS could get social skills ... another blank stare followed by another uncomfortable silence and he broke eye contact and looked around at the daycare kids playing with him while they worked together to build a Duplo castle and then he said "Okay I get your point".

Oh my goodness.....Wisconsin and Iowa have had 5 by Sept. 1st and 5 by Septmber 15th for more than 30 yrs to enter kindergarten. For many, many years parents with kids with summer birthdays often times hold their late birthday child back for kindergarten until they are 6. You have had some really young kindergarteners in CA.!

[MarinaVanessa]

Actually, Louisiana's compulsory education age is 7. So you could keep your child at home until he/she is 7, then start school.
This is the problem I see. People assume that their kids have to go to school at 5 because that is what everyone else is doing. And, do you see/hear schools telling people what their local law is? Nope. More kids, more funding. Once a universal preschool is in effect, then many will assume that their kids have to go to school at age 4, rather than finding out the laws for themselves. Then, we will see "it's a success! Look at how many are signing up! Oooohhh, aaahhhhh. Don't want your kid left behind, now do you?"