That’s what I thought yesterday after returning from a school tour for a potential Kindergarten/ elementary school for Michael.
Don’t get me wrong – the school was great, to my pleasant surprise. It had many of the things that I hope for in a school – involved teachers who have been there for a long period of time; music and art programs; a wonderful library; etc. I visited four different Kindergarten classes. One was an inclusion class where approximately 20% of the students have low-level special needs and are integrated with the “regular” students. Then, there was the Talented and Gifted class. Perhaps it’s my personal bias against testing kids at the pre-k level to test into T&G classes, but the kids in this class seemed to be the least lively/having the least amount of fun. When the teacher showed me one of the kid’s composition book and started talking about how they’re already starting to prepare them for their first standardized test that’s coming up in third grade, I wanted to run out of the room. The other two classes were regular kindergarten ones and they seemed perfectly fine.
It was when I was shown around the rest of the school that “too much school” kept going through my mind. First, they were encouraging me to transfer Michael from his ½ day pre-k program to their full day one. They were talking to the wrong person. I think that kids have too much school overall – I’m definitely not trying to have my kid go a full day before it is necessary. Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for education. I just think that kids (especially boys!) need plenty of time to get their energy out and the opportunity to learn in an individualized way in addition to group study.
Then, they talked about the older grades. Growing up in Virginia many, many moons ago, I only took two required standardized tests – the PSAT and the SAT – and I took both in high school. That was it. So, when the administrator started talking about how the first set of standardized tests is given to students in the third grade, I was not too happy. She continued on about how they had Saturday school and Holiday school to help the kids prepare for the tests starting in third grade on upwards. No thank you. When are the kids supposed to have a social life? When are they supposed to spend time with their families?! TOO MUCH SCHOOL!
Near the end of the tour, I talked to the tour-leader “mom to mom” since three of her kids had gone to the school. I asked what she thought about so much school and testing at such young ages. She responded that as a mom, she didn’t like it. She thinks that it’s harder on the parents than the kids. However, she sees the necessity. It is about giving her children choices in regards to the type of high school they attend. It turns out that many NYC schools look as far back as 3rd grade test scores to determine whether or not kids will get into their high school. I’m sorry but that doesn’t make logical sense to me. High school starts in the ninth grade (for the most part). You mean to tell me that schools are going to go back six years to see if a child should be able to attend?!
I really don’t know about this school thing. I really contemplated moving out of NYC because of the schooling issue -that’s how much I can’t wrap my mind around it. We’ll see what the practices are in our new district when we move… (I’m getting the urge to homeschool more and more each day. My husband isn’t crazy about that option though, so it’s only “on the table” as a last resort.)