In prekindergarten and kindergarten, children are still all over the map in learning social skills and self-regulation [“Repairing the Common Core,” Feb. 4]. Many are still egocentric. In my opinion, the Common Core puts too much emphasis on “facilitating” (not teaching, of course) learning skills and academic/cognitive development. Learning to play, socialize, share, take turns, have empathy, etc., are the skills that need to be stressed to children of this age. Please, take 1st grade out of kindergarten and out of pre-K. Let these kids be kids again.

Teri Schlesinger, UPK teacher
(via Facebook)

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Most of my Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) lately are describing 2nd- and 3rd-graders as having a lack of appropriate social skills and being unable to relate to their peers, thus leading to a higher rate of low self-esteem. As these students grow, some are seeking validation through their relationships with peers, which they don’t know how to relate to at all.

Sounds like although academically they appear to excel in the early grades in some areas, this all comes full circle when their social and emotional development are not where they should be and then their academics are later affected from the myriad issues. A sense of balance is needed. It should be OK for more play to be allowed in the early grades to better foster their social development as they integrate more complicated academics.

The new standards should take into account the whole child, not necessarily just academic areas. What is a global citizen without the overall knowledge that includes the development of emotional intelligence, not just IQ?

Cristaly Vascones, PS 89, Queens
(via Facebook)
 

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Permanently de-couple all standardized tests (state and local) from teacher evaluations and allow teachers to design assessments from a pre-approved menu of options that reflect the Common Core skills that can truly be measured as determined by their classroom needs.

Milena Sherry, PS/IS 48, Staten Island
(via Facebook)
 

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I went to kindergarten for half days in the 1980s. The article’s point about the range of development in early childhood is spot on. Pressuring children to “master” skills they are not ready for is not a way to teach or create a love of learning. There is longitudinal research that shows negative early school experiences tend to follow children through their school career and have an impact on later success.

Paula Herman, PS 138 at PS 30, Manhattan
(via Facebook)
 

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Allow kindergartners to develop a love of reading by exposing them to a variety of genres without asking them to analyze and dissect. I really feel we are turning these babies off to reading because we are forcing them to do things their minds are not ready to do developmentally. It’s such a shame. They need to learn through play and socialization.

Marianna Bogdan Sini, PS 186, Brooklyn
(via Facebook)

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The governor does not understand education, nor do most politicians. The ones who do get bullied by the governor and others who want their way. Students are all different, from different environments, with different genetics, with different cognitive processing.

Why do these people think that making things harder at a younger age means all students get it at the same time? I mean, think of it like this: At my strongest, without any performance enhancing drugs, I was able to naturally bench press 330 pounds at a weight of 152 pounds. Now, if you put 400 pounds on the bar and tell me I have to lift it, I won’t be able to. Then you could put 450 pounds on the bar and I still won’t be able to lift it. Next, you could put 500 on the bar and I still won’t be able to lift it.

Just making something harder doesn’t make it happen.

Brad Cohn, Cincinnati public school teacher
(via Facebook)