Rant: Public School System in Texas
Filed Under (General, Rants) by cranst on 12-09-2006
I’m fully aware of the ‘No kid left behind’ campaign by the Bush Administration, but I do not like that fact that this implies that ‘no kid will get ahead.’ I’ve heard from many sources, mostly from school teachers and administrators, that around the second grade, most kids learning levels/skills will level off. Perhaps what they mean is that the children who are behind should be caught up by then, by what this also means is that the children who are excelling will be unchallenged until the rest of the herd catches up. Is this all they have to offer our kids who excel? I know many parents, like myself, may suffer from pride in our children, but it wasn’t until I heard the goals to be reached by the end of Kindergarten that I got worried. They mentioned children should know certain basic site words, be able to count to 100, and other such tasks. My daughter can do these things already, so this tells me that for the next 9 months, she’ll be relearning her ABCs, coloring pictures, and learning to count. She is not the only one in her class who is showing these signs of boredom. My wife and I know of at least one other student who is already capable of completing the tasks set as the goal for the year. Since she is in Kindergarten, my daughter must wait until Spring to be tested for the gifted and talented program, whatever it is called now, but that is not necessarily what I’m looking for in educating her. I’d presonally like to not label her while challenging her.
My daughter’s birthday falls only four days after the enrollment cutoff date of September 2. Because of this, she had to wait a year to be enrolled in Kindergarten. We felt she was more than ready and the Principal of the school would not allow us to enroll her earlier than her birthdate would allow. Here we are a year later and she is showing signs of first grade readiness. While other kids are learning how to write their names, she is reading and writing stories. This puts me in a position I didn’t want to be in because I’m not in favor of having children skip grades unless it is absolutely necessary. I simply wanted her to start Kindergarten when she was ready one year ago. When I was young the cutoff date actually came closer to the start of school date, so it made a little moer sense, but I would also venture to guess that kids who showed signs of readiness were not told to wait their turn.
Challenge our kids!
I’d love hear feedback on this. If I’m wrong, please provide me the proof so I can learn to be right.
You need to analyze how your daughter will perform in a lower grade class vs. a higher grade class. If she is in a lower grade she may feel bored and unchallenged. My kids have ADD so if they are not being challenged they tend to act out more. If your daughter has these tendencies as well, then I say you do everything possible to get her up a grade level in school. It may be more difficult at first but she will easily be able to get up to that level. If she continues to learn at a faster rate than her peers, she can try for the gifted and talented program later. But she needs to start in a place that is at her level. You don’t want her to be labeled just because she is a year ahead of her classmates.
Trust me though, you are better off in Texas. For the short time that we lived in Washington State, I believe my kids actually got dumber. No offence Washingtonians. When we arrived here in Arizona it took 3 months for them to catch back up to their grade level. I don’t know exactly what is wrong with the school system in Washington, but it is far worse than Texas.