Taking Charge of Kindergarten Roundup

Q. We're getting ready to send our fourth child to kindergarten and as a veteran parent, I'm not looking forward to biting my tongue over how "dumbed down" kindergarten has become. I realize schools have to take it real slow for the kids coming to kindergarten who aren't ready to read. But what about the kids who are?

�� Two words: private school. You know too much! You will be butting your head against the wall for the next 13 years. You're right about how schools have fumbled reading instruction in the early grades, but your chances of getting anything changed over the next few months, or even few years, are very slim.

Your peace of mind, and your child's academic future, will be better off with private education. It'll cost you money, but it'll be worth it in many ways.

�� For those who still want to make public school work, here are a few questions that will help shape the kindergarten roundup experience so that it is less one-sided � the educators telling you what their needs are � and more targeted toward the kids:

Since the children are at such extremes in terms of kindergarten readiness, why can't you group them by reading readiness levels? That way, those who are ready to be taught the literacy skills of speech, reading, writing and spelling don't have to wait for everyone else to catch up.
Since many kindergartens have now doubled the school day to a full-day experience, why isn't there time � 20 minutes a day � for a good systematic, intensive, explicit phonics curriculum like Spalding, which is totally research-based and highly effective?
Since we know that the position of the hand in gripping the pencil, the child's posture, the position of the paper on the desk, and many other precise factors, all are important in handwriting, how can the child-centered kindergarten classroom, with no desks, be a good place to learn how to write?

Homework: You'll never agree with the slowed-down philosophy of most public-school kindergartens after you read the book, The Writing Road to Reading by Romalda Spalding.