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Rich white people fight full-day kindergarten; say that's just for poor people
By adamg on Sun, 05/25/2008 - 11:42am
Sarah Schweitzer reports on the latest issue confronting the weary, beaten-down monied classes: full-day kindergarten:
One parent penned a letter to the [Concord] School Committee, saying studies had shown that students who benefited from the program generally come from "at-risk communities."
Dear Concord parent,
Thanks for reminding me why I couldn't stand Concord when I was a reporter.
Sincerely,
Parent of a non-at-risk kid who went to full-day kindergarten, albeit not in your precious snowflake of a town.
Shocking disclosure: I actually sort of agree with a point our Robb Reporter in training raises: Although I think our daughter did well with full-day kindergarten, I did find it a little sad to see just how much academic work these kids were expected to do. But then Ms. Schweitzer comes through in the clutch with all sorts of down-their-noses sneering at the lesser classes and ties it all together in a trend story based on complaints from, oh, three people, and my faith in her ability to make me rant at the vapidity of people with too much money and the newspaper that serves them is restored.
Free tagging:
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Comments
A simple pattern
It's odd that every parent quoted is a former professional who is now a stay-at-home Mom. Could it be that they don't want to face going back to work?
Half Day PITA
If anything, half-day kindergarten delayed workforce reentry for women I knew when I was still living in Arlington. They couldn't even ask for a particular slot - it was just assumed that "a parent" (ahem) would be at home all day to deliver and fetch the kid whenever they were asked to. This made it a nightmare for many working parents to organize daycare slots because the schedule flipped at mid-year.
I suspect it was all a ploy to force single parents and dual-earner families to not use the town system and pay for private kindergarten out of pocket.
Even in Medford, which has full-day kindergarten, there is this disconnect between the school system and the real world when it comes to dealing with families where all parents work outside the home. The district's very poorly run and disorganized "Parent Information Center" is only open from 8:30 to 2:30 ... need I say anymore about the assumptions that many district decisions are predicated upon?
i failed to see anywhere in
i failed to see anywhere in the story where one's race was mentioned. is this some sort of race baiting technique?
Race baiting?
Sarah Schweitzer writes about places like Concord and Hingham, not noted for their minority populations. And when she deigns to write about Boston, she writes about things such as white women not moving out of the South End when they have babies. I don't recall her ever writing about the concerns of, say, middle-class blacks in Fort Hill. Do you?
you keep attaching race as a
you keep attaching race as a component to her stories, when race is not mentioned nor is it a relative theme to the story. i certainly see your point in that she is somewhat vapid, but you are making up some sort of racial correlation. certainly it could be argued that it may be a "class" (or perceived class) issue, but not race. you did not need to use the the word "white" to legitimize your larger point (with which i think i agree).
Oh, I forgot, racism doesn't actually happen...
Are you really wanting to deny that race plays a part in which kids are at-risk of not doing as well in school and in life?
It may play a part, but that
It may play a part, but that is not the point of the article. How do we know that the people talked about are white? Where is race mentioned in the piece? Would we assume someone is a minority if the article were about poor people? I thought you were against stereotypes, Eeka.
Cuts both ways
Race can be a smoke screen for class, as well.
A lot of kids are in all-day day care....
...well before they turn 5, so what's the beef? Certainly, half day kindergarten is designed with stay-at-home parent(s) in mind. It's so great to have an option, since like Adam, I have kids in BPS who have done or will do full day kindergarten so I don't have to pick them up at midday. And there's a demand in the 'burbs, as many towns are switching over to full-day if they can afford it.
more angry parents over at Boston Magazine
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/the_making_...
How dare Boston Magazine provide more than one side of an issue
You mean not every parent in Concord marches in lockstep on the issue? Why didn't somebody tell the Globe?
Half-day kindergarten?
I guess I'm pretty out of it. I didn't even know there was such a thing as half-day kindergarten. I'd never heard of it before. I went to full-day kindergarten several decades ago. I assumed all kids who went to public school did. Maybe it's a Canadian thing.
I anticipate our problem with kindergarten is going to be the other way around. Our tyke is in day care until 6, because we're a two-career family. When kindergarten rolls around, we'll have a shortage. 8:30 to 2:30? Is that what they call full-day? We're going to have to get a nanny again.
It'd be great to be home with the kid instead of working. I'd rather do that every day. I sympathize with those who would rather their kids be at home in the afternoon than at school. Do parents who can afford to hang out with their kids all day really have to send them to Kindergarten at all? Why don't they home-school?
I think the school should accommodate these parents by putting all the fun classes in the afternoon and having all the bubble-filling in the morning.
Half-time Kindergarten!
Where I went to Kindergarten (Edmonds School District in Washington, 1985), the district could only afford half-day Kindergarten, but because there were a lot of at-risk kids in the community, the school board decided that kids needed to get used to being in school for a full day so that they'd be ready for a 6-hour day by the time first grade started.
The solution was that we went Monday, Wednesday, and half day Friday (or Tuesday, Thursday, half day Friday). This also meant that except for on Fridays, they didn't need an extra bus route to accommodate the Kindergarten schedule.
Sure, it solves the educational issue and the bus issue, but it REALLY screws over families in terms of child care. It's possible for most parents of half-day kids to find a way to work evenings or early shift or whatnot so they can be home with the Kindergartener, or at least only have to send him/her to a babysitter's house for a couple hours a day. It's a lot harder to find a job that will let you work a different shift each day of the week to accommodate the M/W/halfofFriday crap. My mom worked minimal hours when I was in Kindergarten and could take me with her, so she was able to be home with my wacky schedule. On my days off (and especially my half day off...), we often were babysitting my classmates whose parents couldn't do this. Some families had to pay for a full week of child care, even though their kid was in school half of the week, because they couldn't find a provider who could afford to be flexible.