Flunking - Real life HORROR

It's that time of year again when I begin to get calls:
"My son's teacher says she will hold him back this year."
"My child's school recommends that he take Kindergarten again."
And even worse....
"My third grader is going to be retained to do third grade again next year!"

The term "flunking" is rarely used anymore but parents aren't stupid. It's still that most dreaded worry in every parents mind when it comes to education. And well it should be.

Holding a child back from moving on with the rest of his or her class is a true tragedy. Most children (could I even say ALL children? Yes, I think I can.) carry that weight on their shoulders for years and years.

Michael (a fifth grader) said to me, "I used to think my Kindergarten teacher was so nice. But then she made me do Kindergarten over again. It's a mean thing to do to a kid."

I doubt this nice teacher that Michael liked wanted to be mean to Michael, but Michael is right. It was downright mean.

Come On! As though there is no better way to help a struggling child? Is our education system still crawling out of a cave? Do we still have so little understanding of how children learn and how to teach them? Don't we know in the 21st century how important a child's self esteem is to that child's success?

I despair of this educational system that is SO slow to change itself; That is SO resistant to doing what is right for the child instead of the school; That is SO controlled by old, old, old fashioned ideas.

What Michael didn't seem to know is that his parents could have prevented this flunking. In the end, redoing a year of school is really in the hands of the parents. If you are considering holding your child back this year, pause a day or two. Tell the school, "I am thinking it over." Read online about what flunking really does to a child. Try to get some of the real research. And wait for my next blog where I will lay out the specifics.

BE ON YOUR CHILD'S SIDE. Do not agree to holding your child back. Oh, and one more thing. Tell everybody you know about this modern, revolutionary, wacky idea.

Wave of the Future

I predict teaching very young children to read is the coming new wave. And why not? Many children are in day care programs. Most children go to preschool before they go on to school. Schools across the nation are implementing PreK classes, free to 4 year olds. Kindergarten teachers and 1st grade teachers struggle to find academic material for the number of children who are coming to their classes already knowing the alphabet and the phonetic sounds. Some of the children can read. Some of them can count to 30 and higher, and better yet, understand that twenty is one more than nineteen.

And the real clincher: to children learning and play is the same thing. Well, that is, if parents and teachers allow learning to be play. Why not let much of the playing in daycares and preschools be the play of reading?

We are teaching 4 year old children to read in our reading preschool. They spend about 15 minutes out of three hours playing with reading. The result is they are reading and loving it and are oh, so proud of themselves.

Our legislators are very anxious to raise test scores. I'll bet they will love the results when more and more preschool children begin reading.

Yes, I can tell you that a reading revolution is about to happen. Everyone shout with me......YEA! GO, all you brilliant children! GO!

Jodi Heaton Hurst