Re: Schooling (long)

Susan Hartman · 2010-07-08T16:21:57+00:00

IN the US, preschool is generally privately paid by parents, and can be any or all of the years ages 2-5. (This is different than daycare, which is childcare while parents work.) Preschool is most commonly half day, though sometimes all day (especially as children approach "real school" age), anywhere from 2-5 mornings or afternoons per week. It can be a community-based coop, a church outreach, or quite expensive private school. It's the whole gamut. It's basically socialization, learning colors/numbers/prereading skills.Because it's privately paid and seen as a worthwhile pre-educational experience, the gov't. authored "Head Start" programs starting in the 1960s to fill the gap between children of parents who could and parents who couldn't afford preschool. It was felt that students who had pre-school were more "ready" for learning in first grade.When I started school in 1960 (I'm showing my age!), kindergarten was typically the first school experience. Few children went to preschool in the little working-class town where I grew up. DH, who grew up in a city and was the child of academics, did go to preschool - a parent-driven coop preschool, IIRC.In my experience, schooling in the US was grades 1-12 (ages 6 through 17/18). A lot of school systems offered kindergarten as a pre-school socialization - learning letters, how to line up, ordering the day (pledge of allegiance, weather/calendar, etc.). Kindergarten attendance was not legally REQUIRED until as recently as the 1970s/80s, depending on where you lived. (Education requirements were state-mandated, not federally so.)In the 1990s, there began a push for optional pre-kindergarten and mandatory all-day kindergarten, and these were, I believe, part of the "No Child Left Behind" education reform of the GW Bush years. All-day kindergarten and half-day pre-kindergarten is now the norm in the public schools, to my knowledge. I don't think pre-K is mandatory; it's an option for parents who use the public schools rather...

Jul 08, 2010 22 Replies

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Ruby 16 years ago

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Cheryl Isaak 16 years ago

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Gillian Murray 16 years ago

Just a little giggle, Ruby! A lot has happened to both of us since that great evening at Sheena's! Gill

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