It's the School's Job... Right?

Thirty years ago, students regularly entered kindergarten knowing their letters, numbers, colors and shapes, writing their names, and often reading. Kindergarten was a time when children learned to be students and did developmentally appropriate activities like cutting, coloring, and, dare I say it ... playing. Fast forward thirty years and students enter kindergarten knowing less, much less. Many kindergartners enter knowing not a single letter or number. Some don't know a shape or a color. And as a result students are forced to spend all of their time in academics trying to cover several years worth of learning in a single school year.

Why is this happening? As society gets less social, and more devoted to technology, people talk less, especially to their kids. When moms would take their kids to the grocery store they would talk about the colors of items as they past them, identify the letters on the boxes in the aisles, and count items as they put them in the cart. Today, kids spend their time playing a Nintendo DS or watching a video. Between the DVD player in the car and an iPhone or a DS, an entire shopping trip can be accomplished without parents talking to their kids. The result... kindergartners enroll without knowing much of anything and schools are asked to do the impossible.

If you want to raise a smart kid, put away the technology and talk to your child. Who knows, you might even enjoy it.