SmartBean recently posted a commentary titled Summer school to get kids ready for kindergarten?! a few weeks ago on a Bay area story about summer school for kids entering kindergarten in the fall. Sadly for us, kids and the state of education, in general, this appears to be a national trend, as the attached article avers. Growing numbers of parents seem to be signing their kids up for summer classes or one-on-one tutoring to improve their reading, math, writing and overall “kindergarten readiness.” This, despite the fact the many of these kids have been through 2 to 3 years of preschool, as is the norm these days.

In much the same vein as our earlier post on the subject, the MSNBC article laments – “Long gone are the days when parents signed their kids up for kindergarten based on whether their birthdays met the school’s cut-off, and youngsters simply showed up on the first day, where they played, snacked and napped. Perhaps they had attended preschool, but if they did, they almost certainly didn’t have any summer tutoring to make sure they really were ready for kindergarten.”

This nation wide trend raises alarming questions – Is all this kindergarten preparation really necessary? Is it just one more example of over-the-top helicopter parenting? Or has kindergarten become so rigorous that kids need every possible advantage to succeed?

Unfortunately there seem to be more questions than answers. Parents who would like to take the commonsensical approach to the issue must accept the reality that most of their child’s peers in the classroom may be farther along in the 3Rs, and that is not always the easiest pill to swallow. The problem is sadly becoming systemic which means that parents’ decisions may not always be driven by their own best judgment.

Our advice to parents would be make the pre-K years at home as rich as possible in every way – with enrichment coming in the form of lots of wholesome parent-child interaction that nurtures reading, curiosity for the world through questioning and exploration, a healthy interest in numbers and the ideas of math in everyday life, and last but certainly not the least, lots of play – not just with adults but other children as well. These, coupled with the usual regimen in most “regular” preschools, should, in our view, obviate the need for any extra “tutoring” or kindergarten “readiness” regardless of the state of this current growing – and deeply disturbing – nationwide trend.

Work in your own small way to reclaim kindergarten as the garden of delight it used to be and keep it from becoming a place of stress and distress for your kindergartner.