As the owner of a Preschool and long-time early childhood educator, I do not believe California's Transitional Kindergarten is a good idea.
One reason behind the entry date change for Kindergarten was so the children would be more developmentally ready to handle what is expected. So why then would you set up a program to include those children that were just excluded?! In many schools there is no space to set up a Transitional Kindergarten classroom, so they are put in with the other Kindergarteners. What was the goal again? The powers that be said these children should not be in Kindergarten and then put them there anyway!
The state of California continues to increase the standards in Kindergarten classrooms, but the previous standards have yet to be met. School administrators don't seem to be in tune to the needs of the children. There is a disconnect between what they want children to learn in Kindergarten and what is developmentally appropriate. According to a local area Elementary School Principal, at the end of the school year they expected a Kindergartener to read and solve a math word problem. What a ridiculous goal for a 5-6 year old child! Children are put into such pressure situations at such a young age that they are stressed out and learning to dislike school.
According to State Attorney General, Kamala Harris, our state is currently in an "attendance crisis". Currently, 1 in 4 elementary students are truant! How can we be failing to nurture so many promising entrepreneurs and leaders?
It is our goal at Stepping Stones Learning Center to create a love of learning, but we need our public schools to foster this as well!
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