“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” (Shaull, 2003, p.34)

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Admission Test for Kindergarten

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Ranking children before they even set a foot in the classroom?

This article from the New York Times discusses an admissions test that is currently in use in many areas for acceptance into kindergarten.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/nyregion/21testprep.html?ref=us

I disagree completely with this practice. Too often kindergarten is seen as the beginning step for a life-time of standards-based, quantitative, one-best-way approaches to learning. Children develop at such unique stages and come from such differing backgrounds. How can we possibly measure their "preparedness" for kindergarten with a tool? Why would we even want to? Isn't the individuality (strengths AND needs) of children what makes for rich and diverse experiences in the classroom?

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