Full-day kindergarten sounds good
100 MILE HOUSE FREE PRESS
By Laura Kelsey
February 03, 2009

School District 27 superintendent Diane Wright recently said the Ministry of Education will make a decision about full-day kindergarten for five-year-olds and junior kindergarten for four-year-olds this year.

Now, I don’t have kids, but that sounds like a pretty good idea; I have enough problems looking after a puppy let alone a youngster, so I can understand appreciating any help I could get in a parental situation.

Depending on the age of the child, parents can spend $400 to $700 a month on day care in BC — that’s double rent for some people. And with a shortage of low cost housing, anything to help ease the financial strains of a family should be welcomed.

Parents shouldn’t be the only ones who get a say in the initiative; it’s the system's tax dollars at work, so all tax payers should have input. It takes a village to raise a child, right?

I’m all right with chipping in a few extra bucks so I don’t have to fork over hundreds a month in care for my future kids. But, perhaps, I’m overlooking an important detail: how do you keep kids, who have shorter attention spans than puppies, focused?

A former elementary school teacher I spoke with thinks a full day of school for 4- and 5-year-olds would be a waste of instructional time.

Children that young, she said, can’t stay on task that long and lesson plans have to accommodate that fact; teachers have to have different activities planned every ten minutes.

It’s quantity of time over quality of instruction.

She went on to say nap time is not productive, which made me feel guilty that I had thought the teachers should just let the kids sleep for four extra hours.

The BC Teacher’s Federation (BCTF), however, disagrees with those sentiments and feels full-day instruction is good idea.

“The growing body of early childhood research and practice has demonstrated that developmentally appropriate programs — both all-day junior kindergarten for four-year-olds and senior kindergarten for five-year olds — provide the social, emotional and cognitive support for all preschoolers. They also help narrow the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children giving all of them a better chance for success,” says the BCTF on their website (www.bctf.ca).

Shirley Bond, Education minister, quotes a recent study by the Vancouver Board of Trade on her website that showed a $1 investment in early childhood can save $17 social services in the future.

I figured day care workers would likely not approve of such a move, as they would lose out on client funds. But it seems I’m wrong.

Paula Eigeard, a local child care worker, agrees with the full-day initiative.

“My daughter went full days, years ago,” she says.

She believes it would have a mild impact on the child care industry.

Another local worker who runs a home-based day care agreed, saying she’d like to see full-day kindergarten implemented and wouldn’t mind if it lightened the amount of kids she cares for during the day.

Being a mum herself, she said she knows how tough it can be.

The early years of a person’s life are vital; children are hyper-impressionable. But families need money to survive…