The need for "evaluation" in this country is truly disheartening. Now, kindergartners are to recieve report cards. according to Boston.com.
The children will be scored on a scale of 1 to 4 in three dozen categories, from whether they can recognize the rhyme and rhythms in poems, chants, songs, and nursery rhymes to how well they combine two-dimensional shapes to make other two-dimensional shapes.
''We have not always done a good job in communication with parents on what the expectations are in school," Payzant said. ''Kindergarten should be preparing them to be 5-year-olds in the real world.
Obviously, the 5 years old in the "real world" should adhere to the same strict standards as anybody else around here, based on expectations of course. Perhaps we the older generation were never really present in "the real world" and should feel inadequate because we weren't evaluated in kindergarten? And what about us who never even went!
John Zammito's father, John Zammito Jr., said he looks forward to receiving his son's first report card. ''We ask him every day on the way home: 'How do you like school? What did you do in school?' " he said. ''This way we have it right from the teacher.
Parents of low-scoring pupils should not panic, Barry said. ''It's the beginning of the year. Parents should tell these students: 'It's OK you don't know all these skills. If you did, Mrs. Barry wouldn't be here to teach you.' "
That's reassuring! Just let your five year old know that he/she isn't doing that well in the world outside their homes - and then what? Do we really need compare our children in this way? Isn't even childhood off limits anymore...
