[NYC Skool Boss] KLEIN SEES 3 R'S FOR 3-YEAR-OLDS

NY Post ^ | 7/19/7

[NativeNewYorker]

August 19, 2007 -- As Joel Klein reminisced about his first five years as the city's schools chancellor last week, he envisioned a future with kids starting school sooner - as young as age 3.

"There's no question in my mind we ought to start our students much earlier," said Klein, a self-proclaimed "public school guy" who took his job exactly five years ago today.

[Popman]

This man needs to be arrested for child abuse.

[RC2]

Children could be educated earlier if and only if, the parents want that for their children. Along with that, they don’t need the States to do this. There are plenty of private schools that can accomplish this. The States, like California want to do it in the public school system so they can get more of the peoples tax money, and so they can get the kids indoctrinated earlier into their way of thinking.

[Paperdoll]

The indoctrinators must be frothing with excitement at the very idea of getting toddlers away from mommy earlier. It will make their jobs soooooo much easier to work on little psyches before loyalty to family gets too deeply imbedded.

[Chode]

so, the parents are tooo stooopid to teach their own spawn their colors and numbers and shapes etc...? is that it???

[Mygirlsmom]

Children could be educated earlier if and only if, the parents want that for their children

If parents really knew anything about their children, a full-time structured "school" environment is the LAST thing they should want for their children. Little ones need to PLAY. That's how they learn. All these folks who think they can get 1,2 or 3 year olds to "learn to share" and other rot by putting them in school are doing more harm than good.

Little ones belong in the sandbox, not in school.

[uncbob]

I guess if you can’t get the high schoolers in NYC to be proficient in the 3Rs you might as well try 3 year olds

[HitmanLV]

Seems to me school starts at a good age, but we should really consider a longer school year (summer vacation of about six weeks instead of 12 or so), and longer school days (8-5 or so). Makes sense considering more parents are working.

The sooner children understand that work is an all-day affair, the better. Plus there is a lot more to learn these days.

I also think that homework should be integrated into the school day - say 90 minutes between 2:30 and 4pm, and 4-5 should be some kind of physical activity or pursuit of a hobby.

I see High Schoolers here in Las Vegas get out of school very early in the afternoon - way too much unsupervised time on their hands. And they have a lot to learn academically.

It’s time we fine-tune education, starting in grade school.

[cubreporter]

Tell ya what dude...YOU start YOUR kids at 3...we’ll stay with the norm. IDIOT.

[goodnesswins]

There’s an article in the Tacoma News Tribune today about this also....they keep repeating....kids are not “ready to learn” when they show up at age 5-6....so they need to help them get ready at 3......what KID is NOT ready to learn? I’d say education REMOVES the desire to learn, as well as certain cultural norms (no Daddies at home, so no discipline.)

[Alberta's Child]

From a formal testing standpoint, some of the top-performing countries in the world are Scandinavian countries. In many — if not most — of those places children typically start school at the age of SEVEN.

[HitmanLV]

Works for me. I think it has more to do with what they are studying, the quality of the teachers, the quality of the materials, etc.

I do advocate longer school days and a longer school year, though. The sooner children realize that life doesn’t have a 3 month vacation every year, the better.

I’m mean.

[Alberta's Child]

I disagree with your idea about more time in school. While school subjects themselves are important, I am absolutely certain that my life and career has been influenced more by the things I did after school and during my summers than by what I did in school.

In fact, I can directly attribute my career choice (civil engineering) to the hours I spent as a young kid watching Giants Stadium -- and later the Meadowlands Arena -- get built in the New Jersey meadowlands.

[LWalk18]

In many — if not most — of those places children typically start school at the age of SEVEN.

I learned how to read at age three. Waiting another four years to even begin school would have been a waste of time. They should make the mandatory age for school seven or so but those children ready for school at five or six should not have to wait.

[LWalk18]

Children are not adults- they need more sleep for instance. In addition, children need to spend more time with their parents and siblings, not less.

[HitmanLV]

I agree with you and feel the same way about my education.

That being said, these is just more stuff for children to learn these days. I never had a problem, for instance, with new things being added to a curriculum - modern authors or poets, for example. My problem was that the older quality stuff was removed to make room for the new stuff. Keep it all in.

Also, I would incorporate homework into the school day, so the kids would be free after school ended with no homework, plenty of time to cultivate their own interests on their own. Or squander that time. I did both, so fair is fair.

Also, I wouldn’t do this for very young kids. Seems to me this approach can start in Junior High School, or even High School.

[Alberta's Child]

Keep in mind that a country where kids don't start school until the age of seven isn't necessarily filled with 4, 5, and 6 year-old kids who can't read. Kids from families that I would describe as "normal" have always learned at a pace that was comfortable for themselves and their parents -- regardless of where that learning took place.

What the NYC chancellor of schools is basically saying here -- though he can never come right out and say it -- is that his schools are filled with young children whose families are so culturally dysfunctional that the childrens' odds of succeeding in life are inversely proportional to the amount of time these kids spend AT HOME.

Mark my words on this one . . . within a couple of decades, public education in the U.S. is going to resemble the kind of missionary/residential schools that were used in a vain attempt to deal with Native Americans on reservations who were incapable of adapting to a modern social order. Kids will be taken away from their parents -- even against the parents' wills -- at the age of 6-12 months and basically raised by the state with minimal interaction with their own families.

[durasell]

FYI: NYC Schools are what they always have been — though there are now more specialized high schools and some Catholic schools are shutting down for lack of funds.

[HitmanLV]

I know - I keep in touch with what goes on in NYC. My old Catholic grammar school closed a couple of years ago. The annual street fair ended its longtime run about the time I left town.

[durasell]

One of the more interesting high schools they opened was in the “hospitality arts.” The kids get an internship in a hotel or restaurant their last year and can either go on to college for hotel/restaurant managemnent or get a job with one of the participating hotels/restaurants.