Kindergarten Standards for the Common Core

I read an article this morning, talking about the Kindergarten Common Core Standards. The authors have concerns that they may not developmentally appropriate for some children. This is particularly the case with learning to read. They have concerns that the high stake testing environment and requirements will be detrimental to those who aren't yet ready.

I understand the need and desire to have common standards educationally. I can understand how it would make things more consistent and reliable (and easy for those who transfer between states). However, it seems that it is practically impossible to implement such standards without a large amount of testing and oversight that is not beneficial to the learning process itself.

Also, while I can appreciate the philosophy that there are some things that everybody needs to know, I'm not sure I buy into it 100%. If we are all trained to think the same, where will our future innovation come from?

I was in High School when the No Child Left Behind program went into effect. Our high school was probably one that was not quite up-to-par with where the powers that be thought we should have been. As a student, I could feel the immense pressure from the teachers on our need as students to perform well on these tests, probably under the threat of our school being on probation or whatever. Immediately the rate of testing and practice testing increased substantially. It was an interesting effect to say the least. Personally, I didn't mind as I somewhat enjoy bubble testing, but I don't believe this was the case for most of my peers.

I can only imagine the structural changes that would have had to have taken effect with even more stringent Common Core requirements in place. I don't believe that type of testing and pressure should be taking place for 5 and 6 year old children.

In regards to the particular standard that Kindergarteners be required to read, I feel it's unnecessary. Of course they should be practicing and learning at whatever rate they are comfortable with. I'm not saying we hide all the alphabet letters away in the closet or anything. But reading is such an important part of learning, and I believe it should be pursued in an enjoyable way, not as a dreaded task. Kids who are willing to read voluntarily will do better later on than those who were forced to acquire the skill when they weren't ready because of a set of misguided standards that may not be developmentally appropriate.

I'm currently working my way through The Read Aloud Handbook, by Jim Trelease. I love his approach. If there was more reading aloud to Kindergarten children, they would experience more of the love and joy and FUN! that comes through reading, and desire to learn for themselves. More so than comes from doing worksheets anyway.

Anyway, it is a concern of mine. Of course I would be thrilled if my 5yoS met the reading standards by the end of Kindergarten. Of course we work on sounds and letters. We're even doing reading lessons, because he was interested in it. But I'm not going to bust both of our butts and smother his love of books in the process just because some bureaucrat sees children as commodities rather than individuals. 

Here's a video on the topic:

Anyway, I'm a firm believer that, for my kids at least, it's better to take a break and come back to a topic if they're just not ready to learn it. This is actually our third attempt at starting this set of reading lessons. If I had persisted when he wasn't ready for some of the tasks (specifically the ability to rhyme) I'm certain he would have hated the process immensely.

Unfortunately, when you're a teacher with 30 kids, you don't really have the option to do this with your classroom. Things need to be taught on a certain date, and that's really just the way it is.

As a side note, I remember this causing me some duress in 3rd grade when I wasn't quite ready to learn my multiplication tables but was required to anyway. I was under a lot of psychological stress at the time, as I had just moved into a new family. To this day, I still don't multiply well, and I'm sure it's probably because I only did what I had to to get by for the tests. Also you can imagine how this one experience made math more difficult for me for the rest of my education. I'm not sure if it would have made a difference to have taken a break from the multiplication tables and came back to it in a month or two, but perhaps it would have been beneficial to at least give it a try.