Full-Day Kindergarten Is

Long Overdue

To the Editor:

I feel compelled to write a letter to The Bee in favor of full-day kindergarten since reading Cathy Reiss’s letter to The Newtown Bee dated April 4, 2012 [Letter Hive, “Full-Day Kindergarten: At The Crossroads”]. As a reading/language arts consultant, past president and research chair of the Connecticut Association for Reading Research, and more recently past legislative chair of the Connecticut Reading Association, I feel I must speak up.

I retired from these duties to take care of my great grandchild who is now in kindergarten at Hawley School. As a volunteer in her class, I see what goes on in today’s kindergarten, which is vastly different from the kindergarten of former years, where I once assisted kindergarten teachers with children who needed extra help with reading readiness. Today’s kindergarten focuses not only on a child’s social development and work habits, but with much emphasis on academic instruction in reading, written communication, handwriting, speaking and listening, social studies, mathematics, science and health. Reading skills with comprehension are key to all studies from kindergarten up.

Children in Newtown who have had preschool experience do not enter kindergarten with these skills, but rather with a readiness to learn them at a level more advanced than in years past. Much of what used to be taught in first grade is now part of the kindergarten curriculum.

We are in a global market where many countries are exceeding the competencies of our students in education. Higher expectations for our students are needed more than ever before in our history. Newtown has a good school system but we could be better. We need to do everything we can to make it better for the sake of our children who must compete in a different world from the world we grew up in.

My own research included visiting Connecticut schools with full-day kindergartens to assess the pros and cons, and I came away convinced by the pros. There was time to serve individual needs, especially for those children who needed help, but importantly all children did not feel rushed through their work. They had time to enjoy learning. Language development, the key to reading success, was paramount.

Half-day kindergarten cannot meet present-day educational needs. Much of the learning is done with homework extensions of the day’s activities. How much of that is done varies with households. As far as the budget is concerned, some money will be saved through elimination of the midday bus runs. And I am fully aware that will not cover the entire cost of full-day kindergarten.

Our kindergarten teachers are doing an amazing job with the time they have available, but let us give our children a better chance at learning, and learning with enjoyment as they enter our public schools. Full-day kindergarten is long overdue. The children are our future. Let us make sure they get the best education we can give them — not a mediocre one. Please vote Yes for full-day kindergarten.

Jean Klein

3 Budd Drive, Newtown                                                   April 16, 2012