The Value of a Kindergarten Teacher

As my son prepares to enter Kindergarten next year, the topic of conversation with many of my friends is often Kindergarten.  I discovered the elementary school down the street from our home is not performing well on test scores.  We had planned to move in a few years, now we wonder if we should move sooner than we anticipated or enroll him in a private school, even though, I have many many people tell me, "It's just Kindergarten."

I would beg to differ with them.  The skills you are learning in Kindergarten are the foundation of future success in life.  Without a solid foundation, you can’t build a wealth of knowledge.  Research did not necessarily support my belief, as students who performed well in early years, often had their edge fade out, according to standardized test scores, by the time students were in junior high.  However, what students are learning in Kindergarten is reflected in more than just their test scores through high school.  Students who learn more in Kindergarten are more likely to go to college, they are more likely to be saving for retirement and most importantly earn more money (Leonhardt, 2010).  In the 1980’s, a study of Kindergarteners, in Tennessee, known as Project Star.  Students were randomly assigned to a kindergarten class, as a result the classes had fairly similar socioeconomic mixes of students and could be expected to perform similarly on an end of the year test.  They did not, some classes did much better than others; the teachers made a huge difference! For the most recent study they revisited the students who had taken part in Project Star to see where they are in life now.

The article suggests that the way to encourage teachers to do a better job would be to pay teachers who do a better job more and fire the worst teachers.  I agree that all teachers should be pushed to do an incredible job for each child they instruct.  In addition legislation about what Kindergarten is and should be needs to be enacted.  In Pennsylvania, where Kindergarten is not legally required, many school districts continue to only offer half day Kindergarten, one school district considered three hours a half day.  I think that the Common Core Standards will help to push a common view of Kindergarten as well provide teachers with a foundation of what needs to be covered during, their year, their 180 days, to impact these adorable little people for the rest of their lives.

 

References

Leonhardt, D. (2010, July 27). The case for $320,000 kindergarten teacher. The new york times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/business/economy/28leonhardt.html?_r=1&

 

The Writing is on the Wall

The amount of time teaching handwriting has been significantly reduced, in the 1940s and ‘50s teachers spent about 2 hours a week teaching handwriting, in the 2000’s teachers are spending 10 to 15 minutes a day.  In the 1940’s and 50’s having exceptional handwriting was essential, as the only way to communicate with relatives living a continent away was by writing.  My grandfather decided he was going to marry my grandmother, based off of three sentences she wrote at the bottom of a letter to his aunt.  In our current times, I can call whom ever I would like, from my cell phone anywhere.

Academic studies have found that good handwriting skills at a young age help children express their thoughts.  However, what if the students struggle with handwriting because of their neurological wiring, learning issues or poor fine motor skills, then using a keyboard levels the playing field.  Perhaps a student has an issue with their fine motor skills, teaching them to type properly, may allow them to express their thoughts more clearly; prior to them becoming so frustrated that they can not get their thoughts out quick enough. 

Many of the arguments made for keeping handwriting an essential portion of instruction for children seem quite archaic to me in current times.   The articles stated that if the same content is written sloppily it is scored lower than a neat version.  I have been in graduate school for three years now, I can not remember one thing I turned in written.  I remember when I was in middle school I turned some papers in typed and that was so long ago.  The main discussion point for one of the articles was that students’ SAT scores in the writing section were lower when they wrote in block print as opposed to cursive.  Supposedly, by 2017 all standardized tests in classrooms will be done on computers, while the date may get pushed back, by the time our third graders are taking their SATs they will be doing it on a computer. 

Bottom line: Yes, students need to learn to print and write cursive, however it should not be a main focus of our curriculum (taking up 2 hours a week) in a day in age when our students will likely be working on computers when they enter the job market.

 

 

Resources:

Pressler, M. (2006, October 11). The handwriting is on the wall. The washington post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001475.html

Russel, J. (2009, September/October). Learning by hand: A case for handwriting enhancing reading. Education Update Online. Retrieved from http://www.educationupdate.com/archives/2009/SEP/html/spec-learning.html