Let Kids be Kids
Uploaded by heidisk on Oct 13, 2001
“You better enjoy ‘em while you can,” a man says as he passes my son and I playing at the park. “I know, “ I reply glancing at my son, “it seems like yesterday he was a tiny baby. I wish he wouldn’t grow up so fast.” I have had this conversation with many passing strangers. I have always treasured the time that my son and I share. And I have to admit, he is growing fast. Now that teething, toilet training and temper tantrums are old memories scribed in the baby book, it is now time to start the next volume of my son’s life…education. I’m not talking college just yet; I’m talking about the foundation on which the building blocks of education is built…kindergarten. But now I have to make a decision as to whether to send my son to kindergarten all day or the traditional half-day. Despite the trend of full-day kindergarten programs, my son will attend kinder-garten for only half of a day. Although formal education will be part of my son’s early development, it will not be a replacement for day care and it will be used in conjunction with the education he receives at home. Most of all, my son will not attend full-day kin-dergarten because I want to let him be a kid. He is already growing up way too fast and he has plenty of time in the years ahead to get an education.
According to Dianne Rothenberg’s research, “the majority of five-year-olds in the United States today are more accustomed to being away from home much of the day” (“Full-Day or Half-Day Kindergarten”). But that’s the majority. My son is part of the minority; he is at home for much of the day. Since my husband and I work opposite shifts only four hours of in-home day care are needed. Economically, all-day kindergar-ten would be more feasible because I could eliminate most of my day care expense. Con-sequently, this would become tax payers’ day care expense. Full-day kindergarten re-quires more teaching staff and classroom space; more teaching staff and classroom space requires more funding. “This year, Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) declined to fund a $60 million proposal for statewide all-day kindergarten, saying it was too expen-sive and too controversial” (“All-Day Kindergarten Boosts Reading”). All-day kinder-garten is viewed to be more of a public day care rather than an educational program.
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