In 1982, when I was 31 years old, the following letter to the editor was published in the Raleigh Times. The headline that they gave my letter was: Happy child outranks homework. I thought some of you might like to know what I thought when Brad was in kindergarten.
As a Wake County teacher and mother of three children, I support the efforts of the superintendent and the school board to emphasize homework--but not without reservation.
Students need to spend time outside the classroom reinforcing what they have learned, but educators must exercise wisdom in establishing and implementing the policy.
In the Sept. 30 Times was an article about children growing up too fast. Our society is pushing our children even harder to achieve and to succeed at younger and younger ages. What will they lose meanwhile?
A friend recently chastised me for not spending enough time teaching my kindergartner his alphabet. At first I tried to determine how I could do this while preparing his meals; washing his clothes, his body, his teeth, and his hair; taking him to church, to the doctor, to the dentist, and to birthday parties; and getting him to bed at a reasonable hour.
Then I decided that what I really want to do with all the "extra" time is take him on a walk, throw a baseball with him, show him the art museum, take him to the park to swing, and myriad other activities, including snuggling with him in a rocking chair.
If forced to make a choice, I will sacrifice achievement for happiness for my children any day. Let them bring home the Cs (or even less if it's their best effort without sacrificing their fleeting youth) if it means that they will someday put their arms around me, look me in the eye, and say, "Thanks, Mom, for letting me be a happy child."
Just so you know, young ones, my thoughts on this haven't changed much since.
I ran across a copy of this letter yesterday while looking for other stuff. I also found some poetry that I wrote in the past. Maybe I'll publish some of it to the blog soon. I don't think I'm a very good poet at all, but you might enjoy seeing some of my lame efforts.
Hope you all are having a great weekend!
3 comments:
Jane,
I'm sorry that it took me a while to respond back to you. I did read your letter this past Sat. I have to say that I couldn't agree with you more! I find it sad that society pushes children to grow up so fast now days. They are only little for a brief moment in time....let kids be kids! Love you bunches.
Tonya
Thank you, Tonya. I thought you might agree.
Love you too!
My friend, Janet and I were discussing this subject recently. She is a preschool teacher and had parent-teacher conferences a few weeks back.
It was the same ole same ole at the conferences. Parents want their children reading and writing before kindergarten. They wanted to know when Janet was going to teach reading and writing. Isn't that what kindergarten is for?
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