The New First Grade: Too Much Too Soon

It's very disheartening to hear how hard school's are pushing young children. Early years of education should foster a lifelong love of learning, not take it away. Other things like social skills, movement and music are critical parts of a child's development, I hate to think how this will affect these children as they grow up, not to mention a nation.

When looking for a school for our 4 & 6 year olds we faced similar issues and did not want testing and heavy homework pushed on them too early. We decided on a Waldorf school which focuses on teaching the whole child and does so in an extremely positive and caring way. Our children get to explore nature, play games to learn and look forward to going to school. As CEO of American Express put it (he's a Waldorf grad): "Waldorf education taught me how to think for myself, to be responsible for my decisions. Second it made me a good listener, sensitive to the needs of others. And third, it helped establish meaningful beliefs." - Kenneth Chenault

Those are the things I want for my children, and if they choose to be CEO's too, then all the better!

I agree with sunday I think that kids are being pushed too fast at the first grade level. It seems that preschool is still appropriate at head start. However I am getting frustrated as you are. My daughter is learning math and english mainly and they are sending home so much work just like what you said that she hardly ever gets to go out and play. She goes to school at 7:30 am gets back at 2:15, then we work on homework for hours until she is done and she knows how to do it correctly. She has reading 20 minutes of that, then extra reading for the words test that is timed. Then she has 2 math sheets every night. She is being pushed too hard because all she wants to do is play and they wont let her have any time. I am very good at reading to her and having her practice extra if she is falling behind. We do her homework everyday she is becoming disheartened as I am, this is ridiculous. We are trying to teach someone who is not ready to learn with this much pressure or this fast. Good luck to all of us. Sad that this is what we were put thru as kids too, no wonder I remember hating homework just like her.

I definately think that the children are being pushed TOO FAR -TOO FAST!!! My little girl is in the first grade and I cannot believe the pressure that she is under. She has projects, tests every week, then she has to be tested to make sure she can read so many words per minute. They rarely get to have playtime at school. They need time to run and play and get some of their energy out so they can concentrate better. I was trying to help my little girl study for a test last night and she was so keyed up that she could not focus on what she needed to learn. Instead of playtime yesterday they had to learn about drugs! She is only six years old!!! I am all for a good education -but their has to be a balance!!!!!

Interesting... This article mentions nothing about parent involvement in kids education. The reality is, if the parents are not involved helping their kid learn, they are not going to do well. It doesn't really matter what policies the government wants to implement, parent involvement is king. Lafayette, the elementry school mentioned in the article, is a more culturaly diverse school, which is the home school for both low income and the upper-middle class kids of Indian Peaks. Their test scores are a little above average, but I think until the upper-middle class parents, who are more prone to teach their kids, stop electing to send their kids to other schools in the Boulder Valley School District and let their kids fill Lafayette, the lower-income kids are going to keep dragging the scores down. This article is a bunch of political fluff trying to bash the republicans, when the reality is...it's all the parents fault and we are trying to over burden the teachers to compensate for poor parenting. WAKE UP PARENTS! READ TO YOUR KIDS! TEACH THEM! STOP WATCHING SO MUCH TV! GET OFF YOUR LAZY A@@!