dd's kindergarten "report card" - Page 2

[sklt]

Lauren, I was only speaking from experience a few years back, and I am hoping (and praying) that the signs are correct, and the pendulum is swinging back to include phonics and flashcards. My mom, and many other teachers that I know in various school districts across the nation, fought against school districts and administrators who wanted to completely abolish (and would have, but for the "subversive actions" of those fine teachers) any phonics instruction and the use of flashcards in reading (sight words) and math (addition/subtraction/multiplication/division facts). It frankly scared the living daylights out of me, and if I didn't think that those people had *mostly* accepted the value of learning these essential cornerstones and re-instituted their use, I would be planning to home-school the ladies without a second glance. Hooray for the "old school" teachers (and not just *old* schoolteachers, lol) who held tight to their flashcards and times tests, and didn't allow those short-sighted administrators and school boards to eliminate such essential tools of learning.

So there. lol. Just in case it hasn't become aBUNdantly clear to everyone, I get a little worked up about education. I also tend to be a little, um, shall we say FIRM (not to say stubborn, lol) about what I think is right. And I'm firmly in the old-school camp. I wish I could clone my K-5 teachers, and just send them out to work their magic in the world, .

[lauren]

Well, for what it's worth, my son has had sight words, flash cards and timed tests, and so far he's an amazing speller, can add and subtract faster than I can (after all these years of practice), and is a terrific reader. I guess his school is doing something right!

I'm trying to re-learn along with him!

[sklt]

HooRAY for your son's teachers!

[MSings]

I just read an editorial about a new 1-5 grading system in Sacramento and thought it might apply to your school. It is part of the trend toward extensive testing and rigid teaching goals that is all the rage now. Basically children are graded 1-5 on all categories that parallel state standards. With this system the best number, be it 1 or 5, means that the student is exceeding grade level expectations for that skill. So if 5 is the best then 4 could still mean excellent work at grade level. Since some standards take all year to master but are listed in report cards from the beginning of the year, a child could perform flawlessly but still get a low mark early in the year. The logic is that if it hasn't all been taught then the child cannot have mastered it. So if the teacher has only taught 3 months of the year then no child will get a score of proficient unless the teacher tests all the students to see if they know more than what is taught.

[daylily]

I don't like the sound of that system because it doesn't take into account things that the child learned independently. It's not fair to assume that a child hasn't mastered a skill because the teacher hasn't taught it yet. Since when do children learn only at school?

[bestjob]

That system was tried briefly at my daughter's school. It was really flawed, partly because of the communication to the parents and partly because the teachers were constantly stuck explaining where the children were in their studies to parents. Reading, for example, takes all year for many years. A particular math topic, measurement, for example, may only be taught in the first term in each grade. It made the marks even more arbitrary than the old system of determining whether or not the child had achieved what was expected during a particular term of each grade.

[Alegria]

see sig
and that's scary.

Grades for kindergarteners are ridiculous. Learning is fun! It shouldn't be forced down their throats. I can't spell to save my life; that doesn't mean I couldn't be a great writer or philosofer. There are always editors and spell checkers. You could get strait A's all through school and grow up with out loving yourself. Or you could "fail" miserably in grade school but make great contributions to society. Rote memorization doesn't further you on your spiritual path.