Comments on: Also, The Snacks Sucked

By: To Eli on His Sixth Birthday | Live Granades

To Eli on His Sixth Birthday | Live Granades — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:10:11 +0000

[...] a wonderful school. It doesn’t hurt that you love your teacher and she loves you back. I wasn’t so lucky, and didn’t have a very good time that first year at school, so I’m glad that you love [...]

By: moom

moom — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:49:54 +0000

Kindergaarten was fine for me, I got lucky in having a supervisor who didn’t bat an eyelid at my habit of making fairly intricate paintings for my age and then painting them black and insisting the black version be displayed with the other kids’ pics. He also spoke to my Mum and /listened/ to what she said, so my being able to read was picked up early on and I got to bring in my own books instead of learning letters. Big school though… best not mentioned.

Eh, I weigh in on the side of nursey/kindergaarten being beneficial – it socialises kids and builds up their immune systems with all those lovely new diseases they get exposed to in the group setting. Also many of my work colleague have no choice other than nursery as they’ve got to work if they like fancy things like living indoors (my area is so economically depressed that my female co-workers doing low-paid secreterial work are often the main breadwinner while their husbands/partners who got laid off end up doing ‘off the radar’ cash in hand work on the land).

By: Geof F. Morris

Geof F. Morris — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 14:16:30 +0000

I got in trouble for talking in kindergarten because, well, I knew how to read and all that claptrap already. But unlike you, Stephen, I met my childhood best friend that year, and he and I are still friends to this day. Introducing Rick to Josh was a lot of fun when Rick and I went to Ohio a couple years ago to see Over the Rhine play …

By: Lisa

Lisa — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 00:40:00 +0000

Only spotty memories of kindergarten. The first day… what seemed like a huge flight of white marble stairs to the door… not understanding why my mommy looked kinda sad when she had said this was going to be exciting… or why some of the kids were crying … and then not understanding when they said they missed their mommies… my mommy said she was coming back for me so, surely, theirs would, too (And my mommy did! And she was smiling!). I remember show and tell, but not what I showed or told. Were there books in the room???… only the ones the teacher read to us, I think. Naps were on towels on the floor and I didn’t sleep either. The cloak room was kind of scary and it smelled strange. The snacks sucked, then, too. Snacks when I got home were much, much better – sliced apples and cinnamon on thick slices of buttered bread. Yummmm.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:03:01 +0000

I had the same experience in kindergarten re: reading. My kindergarten teacher believed that everyone and everything should be done by the book, at the same pace and in the same order, and no excess levity would be permitted. Since I was already reading when we were still working on letters and colors, I was bored out of my mind and had a short attention span for the material I already knew. My teacher told my parents she thought I had a learning or behavioral disorder because I wouldn’t pay attention.

Luckily, the principal of my elementary school just happened to be a former school psychologist who did a lot of reading tests, so she tested me and I ended up four grade levels ahead of my peers. I got to play a special computer game at the computer lab (oh Apple IIGS, how I miss thee!) and was actually allowed to check out books from the older kids’ section at the school library. The teacher got back at me in other ways (kindergarten was a miserable year), but luckily I got a few good teachers in a row after that and I learned that I actually liked school.

By: Missy K

Missy K — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:52:04 +0000

You should read Brett’s memoir of the few months he spent in daycare when he was four. He also had someone pee on him, though fortunately it only hit his shoe. Unfortunately, he also witnessed some outright physical abuse. I think we still have a long way to go in learning how to best teach our little ones, but I’m thankful we’ve come as far as we have in the last thirty years.

By: Lynnea

Lynnea — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:40:10 +0000

My kindergarten story:
My dad would travel for two weeks to Guam every year as a part of his Naval Reserves Training. I was sad, my mom told my teacher that my dad had just left. She pointed to another girl and said–her dad is dead, he isn’t ever going to be back. Somehow, that didn’t comfort the five year old me.4

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:23:36 +0000

I dunno, I think it’s an argument for homeschooling in the same way someone saying, “My friend in Canada had to wait three months for a nose transplant!” is an argument against a government insurance option: it’s one anecdote that may or may not indicate a trend. I can counterbalance my kindergarten experience with my third and fourth grade experience, where I had one of the most wonderful teachers of my entire grade school.

By: Joyous

Joyous — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 04:27:56 +0000

Wow, I read posts like this and think, “yet another argument for homeschooling!” Good luck to Eli!