New curriculum for kindergarten: full-day

Today, the bill to extend the kindergarten day has been passed.

Basically, this bill says that instead of having the choice of choosing morning or afternoon kindergarten sessions for a toddler, the normal kindergarten day will be from 9am to 3pm.

In a way, this is good because this makes teaching primary/junior grades much more attractive: the pay should be higher while you retain the same amount of education you have gained in your post-secondary institutions, the children will definitely learn more (assuming the teachers are consistent with their style of teaching) and the school staff can formulate better curricula in the future because they have more resources to work with. All in all, it seems like a pretty good deal.

Before this bill was passed, some parents were concerned about the "new kindergarten" being a type of watered down Grade 1, with tests and evaluations. In reality, this new curriculum is going introduce the basics of language, math, science, arts, physical and personal development through play.

Contrary to the new sex ed curriculum (which has been brought down "from the shelf", as McGuinty cleverly worded) of adding new content, the newly introduced kindergarten curriculum does not add extra material, but it offers more opportunities to learn "more broadly and deeply".

The new curriculum, which was posted on the Ministry of Education's site, is a mix between the existing kindergarten curriculum and a document signed in 2007 designed for the Early Learning for Every Child Today (ELECT). Both emphasize play as a medium for discovering the basics of learning. Full-day kindergarten classes will be led by the teacher and an early childhood educator, where the child will learn the concepts expected to be grasped by the time they reach grade one, and also real-life teaching tips found in the ELECT guidelines.

The new program highlights the significance of oral language to catapult the children into learning reading and writing, and using literacy materials throughout the class to keep the information fresh and consistent.

The Ministry will be training teachers and early childhood educators near the end of April, which is approximately now.

Once again, I believe that this is a great leap forward for the Ministry of Education, so this probably evens out with the remark I made about the establishing of Africentric schools. Other than that though, I think we really need to focus on some important aspects of this curriculum. It doesn't seem that the bill has mentioned anything about nap times for the children. Nap times are important, particularly for children because they do need to have a quiet time to themselves. Not trying to do a comparison check, but in France, they have nap times for adults as well because it has been proven that nap times in the middle of the day prove to be beneficial for the psyche and for the body, thus leading to more productivity.

Some parents worry about the length of the day for children. Actually, there are children who have been attending daycare, and they are there from hours as early as 7am to hours as late as 6pm if their family happens to be a dual-income family. If children as young as 3 can handle it, then I personally do not see the problem with a 4 year old attending a 9 to 3. The skills they learn in full-day are going to benefit the children in the long term, and they will be much better prepared for grade one.

Also, the results, as some parents argue, won't take as long as they think. Just measuring their progress from 10 years ago to now for at least a 5-year curve will be enough. Did the kids really attain these skills? Did they seem to absorb more in the full-day than the half-day?

Besides, I thought half-day kindergarten was pretty much daycare itself. Mine was in Hong Kong, and we didn't have as many playthings like sandboxes and things like that. We did mostly school stuff, like dictations, small tests, writing stories, drawing, etc. Aside from proficiency in English, I was well prepared for grade one regarding math, art, and science skills. Although there will most likely be a difference in progress for children whether the kindergarten is half-day or full-day, I don't believe it's a make-or-break factor. It all depends on how well the teacher can the kids, whether through play or not.