Sent to the Los Angeles Times, March 26, 2016
How are we going to maintain our economic and military superiority if preschool and kindergarten children are allowed to waste time "learning about being a member of a community" and "how to get along with others"? Contrary to June Sholnit Sale's assertion (letters, March 25), the problem is that we are not dedicating more of preschool and kindergarten to academics.
And we need to start academics even earlier: We need preschool readiness testing to ensure that parents follow strict, sequential standards in teaching their toddlers to count and develop pre-phonics skills to prepare them for preschool. I have recommended that we consider even earlier intervention: See my paper, "Phonemic awareness training for prelinguistic children: Do we need prenatal PA?" published in Reading Improvement 35: 167-171, 1998.
The unfortunate tendency of children to want to play and enjoy themselves must stop, despite the claims of mushy-minded "experts" who claim that play improves "social and emotional development," whatever that is.
Children should not be allowed to behave like children.
Stephen Krashen
President, Kindergarten Kalculus Association
How are we going to maintain our economic and military superiority if preschool and kindergarten children are allowed to waste time "learning about being a member of a community" and "how to get along with others"? Contrary to June Sholnit Sale's assertion (letters, March 25), the problem is that we are not dedicating more of preschool and kindergarten to academics.
And we need to start academics even earlier: We need preschool readiness testing to ensure that parents follow strict, sequential standards in teaching their toddlers to count and develop pre-phonics skills to prepare them for preschool. I have recommended that we consider even earlier intervention: See my paper, "Phonemic awareness training for prelinguistic children: Do we need prenatal PA?" published in Reading Improvement 35: 167-171, 1998.
The unfortunate tendency of children to want to play and enjoy themselves must stop, despite the claims of mushy-minded "experts" who claim that play improves "social and emotional development," whatever that is.
Children should not be allowed to behave like children.
Stephen Krashen
President, Kindergarten Kalculus Association
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