Wednesday, 18 November 2009
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Graded papers in Kindergarten - Are you kidding me?
Tutu's Bliss recently wrote a post about Kindergarten - here and this got me thinking.
My son Cheeky goes to Kindergarten. He has been a happy go lucky kid who enjoys school. Last year he went to Pre-k and had so much fun. True to his name he is quite Cheeky too.. he had told his teacher that his hand hurts and very often would get out of any writing they required him to do! While suppressing my laughter I tried very hard to tell him he shouldn't do that! He hid under the table at clean up time and played truant! He is a fun kid and means no harm, just that he is Cheeky! The teachers have always loved him and he has never been in trouble at school.. not even a time out! He is a well behaved kid and likes to let the teachers have that good impression about him!
This year he started Private Kindergarten. He seems so stressed about school now! I think it is just the fact that there are so many rules to follow? So much pressure to perform? I am not sure! There is no pressure from us for him to perform. I must add that he is way ahead of the kids in his class. He can read well already, he can do math way advanced for his age.. and most of this out of interest, he sits with me and enjoys working with his worksheets at home! But he seems to feel the pressure when they ask him to do work sheets at school.
Is it because school has meant a fun place for him and now all of a sudden they are expecting him to do a lot more? I am not sure! He has lots of friends at school and seems to have a good time overall! He enjoys the fun activities and his teacher had glowing reports about him at the recent parent teacher conference. However there is one problem though. They give them graded papers every once in a while. And give the kids grades - A+ and so on. Cheeky has got an A+ on every one of those papers.
When he brought back the first paper home I just laughed and assumed that every kid would be given an A+. But no, the little imp tells me some friends make B- and even D. And somehow he seems to know that A+ is the best grade to be at! The other afternoon he was very upset! He claimed he had been asked to draw a zebra and he just couldn't draw the body! "I am not going to get A+, I am going to get a bad grade" he wailed. I looked at him in surprise. I went to school in a country that gives way too much importance to grades, and according to my parents I did not do that well in Kindergarten. But then I never once gave it much thought. When my mom would tell me to focus more or otherwise I will just have to repeat Kindergarten again I was thrilled! "Yay!! Then I would be the oldest in the class!" I am said to have declared!
And here my son was fretting over the grade for drawing a zebra? Are you kidding me? I assured him that I did not care what he got.. and that he should just put down whatever he knew and not worry about it either! I marched to school the next day to demand why they are grading his zebra.. apparently they had no intention of grading it either!
At the conference I discussed this with his teacher, and while she agrees with me that grading Kindergartners is a bit ridiculous; she says she has to follow the curriculum! Also she adds that other kids are like me.. bragging to parents about a D and my son is the only one who is stressing over getting everything right! She thinks that is just his nature and there is nothing we can do about it other than keep assuring him that is okay to be wrong too!! I have told him that, but my son enjoys being right and has taken to making me grade his worksheets at home! Sigh! I am told with the public school system next year this will change and they will only share the progress/ grades in the report cards and not on everyday papers. I am hoping that will ease the pressure a bit! For now, we are just going to take a vacation and have some fun!
So what do you think? Is grading at Kindergarten ridiculous or a developmental necessity?
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