From no homework to starting kindergarten later, Megan O’Toole looks at how schools are changing in today’s National Post of Canada.
O’Toole also comments about New Yorkers. From the article:
In the United States particularly, the practice of “redshirting,” or holding a child back from kindergarten an extra year to give them a physical or scholastic edge, has been rising. Experts link the trend to the heavy emphasis on standardized testing, which has fostered a climate of higher academic expectations for students at the kindergarten level.
“Kindergarteners are the new first graders: doing seatwork, homework, copying from the board, reading and writing,” said Emily Glickman, president of the New York-based Abacus Guide Educational Consulting, which advises parents on kindergarten admissions. “What I find is that when parents can hold their children back, they often are holding their children back because there’s a perception that school is becoming increasingly difficult … and parents really want their children to succeed, and it’s easier to succeed if they’re older,” she said.
But starting a child in kindergarten at the age of six among a group of four-year-old peers may also have negative effects, particularly from a social perspective, with one friend interested in stuffed animals and the other in video games.