VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: The social pathologies of all-day kindergarten

Las Vegas Review-Journal ^ | 4 Feb 07

[rellimpank]

Does the defeat of Democratic state Sen. Dina Titus in last fall's gubernatorial election mean her pet scheme -- spending millions more in tax money to dragoon all Nevada's kids into the state compulsion school system at age 5 -- is dead?

Oh, please.

Victorious Gov. Jim Gibbons' weak-kneed "Let's study it" may postpone the inevitable for a few years, but government-funded mandatory schooling from age 4 to 18 (or will it be 22?) will arrive -- and bankrupt us -- in our lifetimes.

What will the "studies" show? The same thing studies of the federal Head Start program show: universal government-run kindergarten improves academic performance in first grade among the kind of kids who didn't used to attend kindergarten, but all such improvement washes out by the sixth grade.

[rellimpank]

--the weekly Vin--

[BenLurkin]

"At no point in this "study of the results" of all-day kindergarten will anyone mention the ongoing growth of social pathologies among the young -- violent crime, vandalism, unwed pregnancy, drug use, a thorough scorn for their parents' beliefs and standards, and a total absence of historical context as they're led by the nose to demand a new government "program" to solve each new manufactured "crisis."

BINGO!

Everyone should face the truth -- young children belong at home with their mothers during the day and with both parents in the evenings. The sooner they are forced into 'communal' settings the more quickly they become sociopaths.

[Sherman Logan]

I am most definitely no fan of the public education system.

But the idea that adding another year to the curriculum will bankrupt the nation is just a little silly.

[gas0linealley]

" -- Children who lack compassion for misfortune, who laugh at weakness, who betray their friends and families, who show contempt for people whose need for help shows too plainly. Children condemned to be alone, to age with bitterness, to die in fear.

Several replies came to mind, made here recently, on a thread concerning a boy who was killed crossing a road while on a school outing.

[Shimmer128]

It would bankrupt us in ways that are not financial.

[gas0linealley]

Everyone should face the truth -- young children belong at home with their mothers during the day and with both parents in the evenings. The sooner they are forced into 'communal' settings the more quickly they become sociopaths.

I agree but apparently the majority of Americans do not. To their way of thinking it is more important to give their children "all the things they never had", like a McMansion, their own car, vacation trips (without parents) to exotic places, etc..

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Follow the money. Democrats do everything they can to manufacture any new government employee they can, knowing full well, it's more money for them to use the next election.

[DuncanWaring]

" -- Dependent children who grow up to be whining, treacherous, terrified, dependent adults, passive and timid in the face of new challenges.

Democrat voters and "soccer moms".