Full-Day Kindergarten Takes Away from Child Development in favor of Economic Development

I've had the privilege of observing our granddaughter process this world she was born into since she was 1-yr-old. Sometimes watching her for a full day - other times filling in at the end of a day. Without the obligations of parenting, I've been more able to observe and enjoy. Here's what I've noticed.

Everything to a child is new - their brains are constantly in intake mode (much more so than ours, hence they notice things we don't and take in more than we might wish).

All that intake requires digestion. This is most naturally done through self-directed play. Play that may not seem purposeful to us, is necessary to the young brain trying to process an enormity of new experience.

We impede this process when we attempt to make "sense" of their play - rather than observe, facilitate and respond.

It's uncomfortable ground for most adults -- rather like being injected into someone else's dream. The temptation is to structure the child's activities so they make sense to us and produce a visible result validating our inputs.

Sending 4-yr-olds to an all-day kindergarten gives them more time for input resulting in less time to emotionally/intellectually process that input through self-directed play.

In a classroom there are inputs of multiple personalities as well as whatever is the curriculum. Time to processs all this is foisted onto time available for home life which has its own agendas - supper, music practice, sports, story-time, perhaps even conversation... Meaningful interaction with the child's own family in their safe place (home) pays the price of additional time in school.

Who benefits? Not the child but the economy - as mostly it provides childcare so parents can work.

An elementary principal and district curriculum coordinator once told me, a school board member, in a public meeting that the main difference in Society if public education did not exist would be that "children would be running lose in the streets." -- self-admission that the primary function of public school is to control kids while parents work.

When we add a "benefit" we truly need to assess its cost. All-day kindergarten for 4- and 5-year olds bears a heavy cost, not of finances, but of human development.