[MOSAIC] retention versus early entry

[Julianne Brosnan]

While it's true someone has to be the youngest, I'm in favor of letting 
parents decide if their young child has the readiness skills to perform 
at a level that will set the tone for a positive educational experience. 

In my own case, I have twin boys with an August birthday.  Both had 
speech delays and one had other developmental delays.  Our district has 
not only full day kindergarten but all are k/1 classes.  The academic 
standards are rigorous and many of the students just go with the flow 
but are not fully engaged because they really don't understand, they 
aren't making connections. (I was the k/1 aide one year) Both of my boys 
would have been able to perform well academically, but it would have 
been a stressful year for them otherwise.  I don't necessarily agree 
with the curriculum standards of today's kindergarten and am more in 
favor of allowing kids to PLAY at the age of 5.  My husband and I 
decided to keep our boys home an extra year and we're impressed with the 
difference that year made.  I am confident they can contribute in much 
more positive ways to a k/1 class this year while benefiting from 
exposure to the first grade curriculum.  If they maintain a high 
academic edge over their grade peers we would consider putting them 
ahead where they should've been in the first place, but my guess is that 
by second or third grade most of their grade level peers will have 
caught up.  Doesn't this happen alot of the time, anyway?  For us it was 
always an issue of social/emotional readiness not future academic 
performance and I believe it does make a difference.

Now, if my district had the option of a straight kindergarten or half 
day kindergarten, we might not have kept our boys home an extra year. 

I have to say, however, that I would not suggest to another parent what 
decision they ought to make for their own child unless I was asked for 
input.  For years we were told, give the young ones an extra year and 
now it seems teachers don't like what that process has led to.  I'm not 
the expert and only want to have to make that decision for my own 
children.  OK, that's a cop out! 

Julianne Brosnan/2/ME

Creecher12 at aol.com wrote:
>  
> In a message dated 8/5/2007 9:01:59 AM Eastern Daylight Time,  
> ljackson at gwtc.net writes:
>
> Every  child is ready to learn, they just may not be so keen on what
> we want to  teach them.
>
>
>  
> And doesn't someone have to be the youngest?
> Here is a good article by Lilian Katz. One of my early childhood  educational 
> research heroes. 
> _http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/eecearchive/digests/2000/katzred00.html_ 
> (http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/eecearchive/digests/2000/katzred00.html) 
>  
> Nancy Creech
>
>