Where is the logic in that?
An interesting article in The Province this morning:
http://www.theprovince.com/news/Full+kindergarten+full+know+what/3180723/story.html
Having spent a weekend at "BC Student Voice" a few months ago, we were given the opportunity to speak with The Honourable Margaret MacDiarmid, Minister of Education. My absolute favourite comment given was from a grade 11 boy from the Queen Charlotte Islands- or as of a few days ago, now known as Haida Guaii. We were on the topic of full day kindergarten, and he stated how your early childhood is the time when you grow bonds with your family. The way him and his mother bonded was by going out on their fishing boat or to the beach every morning before kindergarten. He said how that was his most vivid memory from his childhood. He couldn't remember a thing about kindergarten; he doesn't have fond memories of playing with friends at school, but only of the time he spent with his mother at the beach or on the ocean. He said how if you're in kindergarten all day and then come home after school, you're whole family is then home. That leaves you no one-on-one time with you and your parents to build strong relationships which are the basis to learning how to socialize, which is by far the number one most important life skill. And as you get older, the most important people in your life is your parents, and it is so important that you have strong bonds with them, which must start at a young age.
On another note, I spent many hours of one Tuesday night sitting in the North Vancouver School District board office listening to the District Superintendent and the School Board Trusties at the board meeting where they were finalizing the budget plan. As I sat there watching the future of mine and classmates' education going down the drain, I was doing everything in my power to not get up and point out the fact that they're cutting $1.5 million from teacher salaries and $300, 000 from classroom supplies and utilities, and we're so desperate that they have to add an extra week onto spring break just to save a little money. I thought of the fact that we are needing to close down entire schools because of the budget, yet somehow they believe that somewhere in that budget shortfall there is still money to be spent on implementing full-day kindergarten. I don't quite see the logic in this situation.
As my friend of the Queen Charlotte Islands pointed out, at an age that young most of your learning is done outside of the classroom; not from listening to a teacher lecture but the real world things. Now if this is true then why is the school district spending the very little money we have on full-day kindergarten that is so unnecessary?
The answer; we might never know.
http://www.theprovince.com/news/Full+kindergarten+full+know+what/3180723/story.html
Having spent a weekend at "BC Student Voice" a few months ago, we were given the opportunity to speak with The Honourable Margaret MacDiarmid, Minister of Education. My absolute favourite comment given was from a grade 11 boy from the Queen Charlotte Islands- or as of a few days ago, now known as Haida Guaii. We were on the topic of full day kindergarten, and he stated how your early childhood is the time when you grow bonds with your family. The way him and his mother bonded was by going out on their fishing boat or to the beach every morning before kindergarten. He said how that was his most vivid memory from his childhood. He couldn't remember a thing about kindergarten; he doesn't have fond memories of playing with friends at school, but only of the time he spent with his mother at the beach or on the ocean. He said how if you're in kindergarten all day and then come home after school, you're whole family is then home. That leaves you no one-on-one time with you and your parents to build strong relationships which are the basis to learning how to socialize, which is by far the number one most important life skill. And as you get older, the most important people in your life is your parents, and it is so important that you have strong bonds with them, which must start at a young age.
On another note, I spent many hours of one Tuesday night sitting in the North Vancouver School District board office listening to the District Superintendent and the School Board Trusties at the board meeting where they were finalizing the budget plan. As I sat there watching the future of mine and classmates' education going down the drain, I was doing everything in my power to not get up and point out the fact that they're cutting $1.5 million from teacher salaries and $300, 000 from classroom supplies and utilities, and we're so desperate that they have to add an extra week onto spring break just to save a little money. I thought of the fact that we are needing to close down entire schools because of the budget, yet somehow they believe that somewhere in that budget shortfall there is still money to be spent on implementing full-day kindergarten. I don't quite see the logic in this situation.
As my friend of the Queen Charlotte Islands pointed out, at an age that young most of your learning is done outside of the classroom; not from listening to a teacher lecture but the real world things. Now if this is true then why is the school district spending the very little money we have on full-day kindergarten that is so unnecessary?
The answer; we might never know.
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