rant...

[mamashark]

A dear friend of mine who doesn't homeschool came to me to tell me that she found out that her 5 year old kindergartener is "behind" in reading according to her public school teacher... after just 6 weeks of school. How exactly does a 5 year old get behind after only 6 weeks of school??? (She picks the books with only one word per page to take home to read........) And the mom is blaming herself for not putting her in preschool! This is a kid who can sound out some words, knows most of her letter sounds well, and can copy a sentence very well. (and the frustration there is that she cannot write a sentence without a sample to copy... not trace, just copy)

 

In the meantime my 6 year old 1st grader is still on page 69 in phonics pathways, (because I can't afford Barton level 2) just finishing up the sh, th, and other similar blends with short vowels only. We are making painfully slow progress but PROGRESS none the less. But we are not yet to the point of even copying words... but letters in isolation are written beautifully.

 

THIS is why I homeschool. 

 

Because putting my 6 year old in public school would be throwing her to the wolves who have the nerve to tell parents that after 6 weeks a 5 year old can be behind in reading!!! It makes my heart hurt.  :(

[OneStepAtATime]

:grouphug:

 

FWIW, I had a similar conversation with a friend of mine roughly 4 years ago.  Her son was going into Kinder.  He had not been in 4k.  She was told within weeks (and the teacher also told HIM) that he was behind and had better work hard to catch up or he might never make it into college or even graduate High School.  Seriously.  This is what she was told.  She was devastated and came over to ask me to tutor him.  She was in a panic and her poor son was super demoralized.  Made me so mad.

 

Do you know why DD went to preK?  Because I was sold this line of bull, too.  I was told that if I didn't, she would be behind when she hit kinder.  Why did I believe the people telling me this?  Because another friend put her kid in Kinder and was told the child was too behind to make it in kinder.  The PS asked her to withdraw the child and put him in private 4k first (the school did not have a public school 4k).  She didn't know her rights, she didn't know to protest, so she pulled him out and put him in a private 4k program she couldn't afford.  I didn't want that to happen to my child so I put her in school way early.  It was a bad idea.  

 

Does that mean that preK programs are bad?  Heck no.  My son thrived in one.  He loved it.  He did beautifully.  

 

But to tell a child and their parent that they are behind when the child is only in kindergarten absolutely shows just how goofed up our educational system is now.  

[desertstrawberry5]

This is infuriating and cruel. I hate the early academics push. it's stupid. 

[mamashark]

This is infuriating and cruel. I hate the early academics push. it's stupid.

I agree...it is cruel to both the parent and the child.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[8filltheheart]

Not only how broken the system is but also that not only do that K teachers not know how to teach but also do not understand cognitive development.

 

Seriously.  That is the most absurd comment I have ever heard.  I have had kids who didn't even do K who were reading at an advanced level by the end of 1st.

[mamashark]

Not only how broken the system is but also that not only do that K teachers not know how to teach but also do not understand cognitive development.

 

Seriously. That is the most absurd comment I have ever heard. I have had kids who didn't even do K who were reading at an advanced level by the end of 1st.

But do teachers have the option of disagreeing? Or is this systemic mandates? I used to teach in the public school system years ago... I could never go back because I couldn't do what the system required me to.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[8filltheheart]

But do teachers have the option of disagreeing? Or is this systemic mandates? I used to teach in the public school system years ago... I could never go back because I couldn't do what the system required me to.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

My background is elementary ed.  I agree; I could never teach in a ps bc of the bureaucracy.  My niece continues to teach in ps, but she says she cannot deviate from her scripted lessons.  Perhaps it is systematic madness (not just mandates), but a good teacher should know how to teach multiple levels simultaneously and never blame a K student for not being on par with peers  That is egregious.

Edited October 5, 2017 by 8FillTheHeart

[OneStepAtATime]

Yep, we got this crap too.  Problem was, they weren't teaching my DD8.....they were teaching the curriculum.  And because the curriculum didn't teach HER, that meant SHE was behind (as opposed to the curriculum being the wrong choice.) 

 

Thing is, I waited way too long to pull her, all the way through first grade (spending the whole year frustrated and ready to pull her but too scared) and that meant that by second grade, she really was behind and I had to basically start her over again.  We are still catching up.

 

With DD7, I never put her in Kindy in school, and she is in a better place....because she's being taught how to read, and not being taught a specific curriculum that isn't working for her. 

 

FWIW, I didn't pull DD until she was going into 6th grade.  I still feel guilty about that .  But she has made amazing progress from where she was to where she is, even starting so late in the game.  Hang in there.

[OrganicJen]

There just seems to be this mentality that because our country has slipped so far behind academically from other countries, that the solution is to cram more down children's throats at a a younger and younger age.  None of the research supports this and most research seems to say pressuring kids to learn more younger is actually counterproductive in the long run, but yet the schools still do it.  It's really annoying that we can't just take a model from a country with a better academic reputation and try to do some things like they do in the public schools.  Sweden is just one country that comes to mind; I really like a lot of what I've read about their educational philosophies and how they implement them.  

[OrganicJen]

FWIW, I didn't pull DD until she was going into 6th grade.  I still feel guilty about that .  But she has made amazing progress from where she was to where she is, even starting so late in the game.  Hang in there.

 

I wasn't able to pull my son out of public school until 6th grade too, and even since then he's come so far.  I feel like the sooner I could have done it the better it would have been but I just remind myself that doing it then was better than never at all.  

[OrganicJen]

My background is elementary ed.  I agree; I could never teach in a ps bc of the bureaucracy.  My niece continues to teach in ps, but she says she cannot deviate from her scripted lessons.  Perhaps it is systematic madness (not just mandates), but a good teacher should know how to teach multiple levels simultaneously and never blame a K student for not being on par with peers  That is egregious.

 

That's a good point.  It makes me think about how good teachers get to be good teachers though.  I really don't know since I'm not one but if they are required to basically read scripts and can't deviate from that then how do any of them develop into what we think of as good teachers anymore?  It's just sad.  I'm my mind, thinking back on my own education, the good teachers or the best teachers in my memories were the ones who developed their own unique approach to teaching in a way that connected with the most students possible.  I wonder how they even have the chance to try to do that anymore.  

Edited October 5, 2017 by OrganicJen

[*****]

I taught in Title 1 last year and I really hated having to give the tests to the kids, especially at the beginning of the year. The state I was in requires testing early, because funding is based on how many pinks they get (lowest scores).  So they test before the kids have time to review from the previous year.  This stinks, because you know it makes the kids feel horrible because they know when they goof up.   

 

Your friend's daughter sounds just fine for a kindergartener (in my mind).   Yes, teachers teach the scripted lessons. They have to do it from an approved research based curriculum.  But in our school, because of funding, they didn't buy all the parts to the curriculum, so kids weren't getting the review they needed and their scores were not where they should have been. But the administrators wouldn't admit it was partly because they didn't provide the whole curriculum, which was supposed to be so great, and was based on research for having all the materials.  Duh!

 

The younger teachers don't know what to expect developmentally from youngsters anymore. They just go by what they are being told to do.  They expect more, but are doing much less of pre-academics such as listening skills, fine motor skills, rhyming, teaching left to right, music, fingerplays, memorizing poems...this is where our system is going wrong.  Kids are not getting what they need to be successful later.  So if your friend is doing these things, keep cheering her on, even if it isn't what is being tested.

 

I hope she can stay active and volunteer in the class so she can see what is going on there. Everything is based on data now, and admin is loving the charting of it and seeing 'growth'.  But these are children, and growth doesn't have to be tested weekly...

 

Kids in my school were being pulled daily for 'remediation'.  Parents were notified in a letter, but none were there to really see how often kids were being pulled in a day.  You know the kids were missing something else because of that, and those subjects were just as important.  Parents can opt out of the remediation, but none seem to know this.  If it were my child, I would be doing more fun learning things at home, rather than having them pulled, if it were a child that you describe.

 

I will get off my soapbox now.  I was offered a position in a regular education position this year because my job was cut do to funding being cut.  No thanks, I did not want that kind of stress of having to teach the way they are teaching now.  Schools are doing a disservice to our children.  Not all I am sure, but some schools. 

[MerryAtHope]

:grouphug:

 

FWIW, I had a similar conversation with a friend of mine roughly 4 years ago.  Her son was going into Kinder.  He had not been in 4k.  She was told within weeks (and the teacher also told HIM) that he was behind and had better work hard to catch up or he might never make it into college or even graduate High School.  Seriously.  This is what she was told.  She was devastated and came over to ask me to tutor him.  She was in a panic and her poor son was super demoralized.  Made me so mad.

 

Wow, this is all kinds of insane and cruel! How awful.

 

I feel this pressure to get DS4 to this place where he is ahead of where the public schools are so that when (if?) I decide to put him back in, he doesn't run into the same crap.  

 

I know it's hard--but I urge you to shake off that feeling every time it comes (You probably are already seeking to do that! I just want to encourage you to keep on shaking it off!). You're homeschooling to avoid this whole mindset, but the mindest is so pervasive that it seeps into how we teach. It doesn't help regular learners, and certainly doesn't help kids with learning challenges. Some kids just don't "catch up" until later--and they deserve the freedom to learn and grow at their pace. It takes real guts to shake it off, I know! It can be terrifying and full of uncertainties--but the payoff of working at your child's pace and teaching in a way that helps him learn is so worth it. 

[RootAnn]

Yep, this is one of the reasons I homeschool.

 

Most of my kids would have been labeled right off the bat, so my oldest would have thought she was dumb because she wasn't reading fluently at grade level until she was 7. (And she was my second earliest to achieve this milestone.) She's a great reader now - I have trouble getting her nose out of her books.

 

My nephews had to be sight reading a ton by Christmas of K year or be labeled and start pull out remediation. Grrr!

[OneStepAtATime]

Yep, this is one of the reasons I homeschool.

 

Most of my kids would have been labeled right off the bat, so my oldest would have thought she was dumb because she wasn't reading fluently at grade level until she was 7. (And she was my second earliest to achieve this milestone.) She's a great reader now - I have trouble getting her nose out of her books.

 

My nephews had to be sight reading a ton by Christmas of K year or be labeled and start pull out remediation. Grrr!

Which is insane. 

 

And conversely my daughter was still struggling to read even Clifford books with any fluency and her decoding skills were terrible when she was in 5th grade but everyone kept insisting she was just not a reader type and maybe she was a bit lazy and unfocused and perhaps not quite as bright as I thought she was but she didn't need any evaluations or specialized help.  She just needed to try harder.  She can't try any harder!  She's trying harder than anyone else in the class!  

[mamashark]

Which is insane.

 

And conversely my daughter was still struggling to read even Clifford books with any fluency and her decoding skills were terrible when she was in 5th grade but everyone kept insisting she was just not a reader type and maybe she was a bit lazy and unfocused and perhaps not quite as bright as I thought she was but she didn't need any evaluations or specialized help. She just needed to try harder. She can't try any harder! She's trying harder than anyone else in the class!

Yes, this is a good point... Sometimes we need to acknowledge the problem is there instead of turning a blind eye and assuming the issue is within the childs control, or that it is normal behavior. It's a difficult line to walk and inappropriate expectations in any direction are unhelpful.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mamashark]

Yep, this is one of the reasons I homeschool.

 

Most of my kids would have been labeled right off the bat, so my oldest would have thought she was dumb because she wasn't reading fluently at grade level until she was 7. (And she was my second earliest to achieve this milestone.) She's a great reader now - I have trouble getting her nose out of her books.

 

My nephews had to be sight reading a ton by Christmas of K year or be labeled and start pull out remediation. Grrr!

This is encouraging for me! I know I can't count on my Daughter being an avid reader after we get over this hump, but knowing others have is encouraging!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RootAnn]

This is encouraging for me! I know I can't count on my Daughter being an avid reader after we get over this hump, but knowing others have is encouraging!

 

Sometimes there are actual reasons behind the delay in fluent reading - things that need to be focused on and remediated. As in OneStep's example, it is important to not gloss over the why. WIth all my kids, as it sounds like with your daughter, we've focused on continuing to work on reading. I also had my first two kids evaluated by developmental optometrists. In our case, we are simply a family of late bloomers. (This was true for me as well. I didn't "take off" in reading or other academics until fourth grade.)

 

DD#2 was even later to read fluently than dd#1. She greatly enjoys audiobooks and had experienced a large canon of children's books through read alouds and audiobooks before she jumped into a 600-page book as her first official finished book read. Now, she's my writer. (See my sig for a link to her first self-published book. Amazon has a see-inside feature.)