Is Preschool No Longer Optional?

Dave Long, a county commisioner in northern Colorado, opines that Preschool Is No Longer An Option. Mr. Long states that in order to be ready for kindergarten, children must already qualify under a long litany of criteria. According to his article, every child entering kindergarten must already:

• Be able to get along in a large group of children.
• Be able to sit still and pay attention.
• Be interested in learning.
• Be potty trained.
• Know numbers one through 15 and the letters of the alphabet.
• Recognize and be able to identify the letters in their first name.
• Recognize shapes including circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, ovals, hearts, cones and stars.
• Be able to identify body parts, including eyes, nose, mouth, ears, ankles, etc.
• Recognize the eight basic colors.
• Be able to hold a pencil and scissors the correct way for hand preference.
• Know basic manners and social skills.
• Be able to tie their own shoes.
• Be able to follow two- or three-step directions, showing the ability to remember and follow though.

Entrance exams for Kindergarten? When I was a child, this was what kindergarten was for. It was for getting ready for school by learning how to hold a pair of scissors, how to read my own name, and how to tie my own shoes. I should mention that I failed that last part of shoe tying until the middle or end of first grade. Thank God for velcro!

So today's students are going to preschool to learn what I used to learn in Kindergarten. This leads me to a very important question How is it that today's students spend more years in school and yet graduate from it knowing less than the children of my generation? More importantly, how are students who are homeschooled until they are 18 know so much more and test so much higher than their public school peers*, despite the extra year advantage given the school students?

The question now is obvious: Is preschool really no longer optional? Or is it just an attempt by a broken system to try to fix itself without adding more grades, like 13, 14, and 15? Should we really be pushing children out of their homes at the ripe old age of 4? Are they ready for such stress, or is this just the system's Rumplestiltskin solution, saying "you didn't teach the child anything! Now, give me your baby!"

Parents in Colorado need to know that they have a better choice. They have a low-cost alternative and one not nearly so heart rending as giving your child to a preschool. Keep them home and let them learn the entrance exam for Kindergarten in their own way and on their own schedule. Homeschoolers retain the home field advantage and produce top students in record time.

* - according to studies done by NHERI.org