Art and other stuff

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

It all starts in Kindgergarten?

In the corner of the computer screen a pop add reads "It all Starts in Kindergarten".  The next screen reads "social skills", then "reading", then "writing".  REALLY?????

Social skills begin in Kindergarten?  Even assuming that a child begins their school career at the young age of 3 years and 9 months, the youngest age at which a child in Ontario can begin kindergarten, can anyone possibly believe that before that time no social skills have been acquired?   Social skills begin...well at the beginning.  Babies learn social cues from the moment they leave the womb.  A baby carried by a parent is often at face level with the rest of the world learning about facial expressions and language. 

What a huge presumption to think that reading and writing also begin in Kindergarten, or that school is even needed to learn either of the two, or better yet that teaching is required for reading and writing to take place....but that is a different rant altogether.  The skills necessary to begin reading and writing begin far before a child enters the school system.  Scribbling with crayons, listening to stories, singing songs, playing are all the building blocks for reading and writing and they begin at home.

I am sure many things can start in Kindergarten but certainly not social skills, reading and writing.

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