Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments What's happening in early education in my district

I'd love to know what the minds on this wonderful forum think of the new learning environment in my district.

The kindergarten classrooms have been stripped of any toys, naps have been forbidden and kindergarteners are now required to sit through 90 minute ELA instruction, half of which is a powerpoint presentation. This is all Journeys based and teachers are not permitted to stray from the script (yes, there is a script) and they are to teach the same way, the same level, to all children regardless of ability.

There is something very, very wrong with this in my opinion. We are losing teachers.

Can any of you see any positives in this kind of approach?

If I had a kindergartener my first instinct would be to take him or her out of that school and go for a private school or homeschool situation.

Wow! That sounds the total opposite of what I'd want to see in kindergarten - I'm curious what your district is saying are the positive points, and why did they implement it?

I'm not a teacher, but I can only imagine how my friends who are teachers would feel about this... and it's not "positive"!

polarbear

well, that approach should surely reduce class sizes - you know, with what with all the families pulling up and moving to the next district!

also, yikes.

No, there are no positives to this approach. This is what my local public schools do. They don't allow the kids to have recess either. Run like a madman away from this!

Polarbear, I'm not sure any info was given about this to the general public. It seems like this was sort of swept in quickly and thoroughly with the attitude that this is the way things will be. What I see as a layperson is there are a lot of banal, mind-numbing brain-washy type slogans such as "I can" statements, and that teachers of early grades have little control over their curriculum designs.

That is simply appalling.

Is this an all-day class? I suppose there might be something to be said for removing toys if they were replaced with useful manipulatives. The rest of it sounds absolutely stupid. Maybe they want to decrease enrollment? 45 minutes of staring at a screen seems to fly in the face of any good research.

What is ELA?

Language Arts. And yes, this is all day kindergarten.

I know from several sources that this is true. I think someone has already talked to a writer from the local paper. I don't know if anything will come of it because of politics.

If all the classes are to be the same, why not just have them all in a single large lecture hall?