The first-grade grind

This week my son got a break from homework. Just as a reminder, he's 6. Years old.

Here's the school's reasoning behind this one-week homework vacation, which they call "The Week of the Family":

During the week of January 23, Encinal and Laurel schools will celebrate the Week of the Family to honor the vital role that families play in supporting the growth and education of children. Traditional homework will not be assigned during this week, although students should continue to engage in nightly reading and fact practice. 

Strong family connections along with adequate sleep and abundant opportunities to engage in free play are some of the most critical building blocks for a child's success. This week provides an opportunity for families to enjoy a slower pace in the evenings, reserve some time for simple fun, enjoy a warm meal together or ask our children how they would like to spend this time together. 


The obivous implication here is that it's ok to NOT have time to enjoy your family, have a quiet meal, kick the ball outside or, you know, just play, because when you're 6, all the kid stuff is done and you better buckle down because next year you'll be in second grade.

I've made it known to the higher-ups how absurd I believe this to be and was met, on one occassion, with the following statment: "Well, everyone wants their kid to get into Harvard." Um, no, everyone does not. When our kids are in elementary school, we want them to color and play and yell be kids! 

"Which of these preschools will get my kid into Stanford?"

Saturday I attended the local parents' club's preschool fair. It's a tradeshow for preschools where they all come and set out brochures and pics of the kids doing cute, fun stuff and even drawings and projects by the kids. Both our kids are in lovely preschools now, but we need to figure out what to do with the older one if he doesn't go to kindergarten in the fall (that's a whole other story). Unfortunately, the one that appealed to me the most is the German school, but it seems counterproductive to put Arthur in an immersion program for one year in a language that almost no one around him speaks fluently.

The other schools fall into one or more of the following categories: not academic enough, poor location, inconvenient schedule, and priced for the Steve Jobs set. We're talking $15-20k for preschool. As I was looking at one booth, I overheard the administrator at the next one say, "We don't look at applications in the order they come in, we evaluate the child and interview the parent and base enrollment decisions on those two factors." Can you imagine your kid's school options being based on how someone else judges you? No thanks. Then there's the fancy-pants "alternative" (read: hippy) school that charges "only" $12k or so, but is already done taking applications for fall 2010. I guess I missed the memo that in this fancy region of the Peninsula you need to register your kid for preschool before they start walking.

Screw our schools

That appears to be the official stance of the vast majority of Redwood City residents. Today's election on Measure E put one issue on the ballot: yes or no. Yes = give our school district money it needs to function, No = our children who don't go to private school can make do without, say, science teachers and pencils. More than 60 percent of people who bothered to vote in this election voted yes, but we live in this effed up state where everything needs a 2/3 super-majority to pass, and we all know that you can't get more than half of any one group to agree on anything, unless it's, say, a group of newspaper reporters choosing whether to get liquored up or not get liquored up after a long day in the newsroom.

More than 75 percent of registered voters couldn't be bothered to drag their sorry hides to their local polling place (likely as not to be all of 100 yards from their front door), putting them solidly in the "screw our schools" camp with those who voted "no."

Too many tests

We've just finished test time again in the schools of California. The mad frenzy of testing infects everyone from second grade through high school. Because of the rigors and threats of No Child Left Behind, schools are desperate to increase their scores. As the requirements become more stringent, we have completely lost sight of the children taking these tests.

For 30 years as a teacher of primary kids, I have operated on the Any Fool Can See principle. And any fool can see that the spread between what is developmentally appropriate for 7- and 8-year-old children and what is demanded of them on these tests is widening. A lot of what used to be in the first-grade curriculum is now taught in kindergarten. Is your 5-year-old stressed out? Perhaps this is why.