Gov. Mitch Daniels plans on making full-day kindergarten his top priority during the 2007 General Assembly, despite unsuccessful attempts from two previous Indiana governors. With budget and campaign issues no longer factors, this initiative is being hailed by the House Education Committee and the state school superintendent - but at a major cost to the children this will affect.
The plans to make full-day kindergarten mandatory across the state - apparently eliminating any option of half-day kindergarten - could lead to parents losing the privilege to decide what is best for their children. More importantly, this lack of control might lead to developmental issues.
On the surface, many families favor the proposal because it can be difficult to schedule both kindergarten and child care during an average day. Schools favor it because buses and crossing guards would no longer be needed in the middle of the day, not to mention that more time would be spent on class activities instead of transportation and transition activities.
The problem is educators are focused on financial issues and on unfounded research, which claims that there is a positive result when students attend full-day kindergarten. But in reality, children might suffer when it comes to development and their social relationships at home.
A widely stated benefit of full-day kindergarten is that teachers will be able to form a more meaningful relationship with students - but this is excessive and irrelevant, especially if the students have lost the close and trusting relationship they should ultimately have with their parents. With half-day kindergarten, parents are able to bond with their children and teach them everyday lessons they do not receive in the classroom. During the critical ages between two and seven years old, children need to form attachments with their primary caregivers - usually their parents - in order to develop trust and independence.
Kindergartners should also not be subjected to forced learning, where they are being taught lessons more appropriate for older students. Research shows that students who are overwhelmed with academics very early in life do not have any greater academic success than their peers by the time they reach middle and high school. A greater focus on academics paired with longer hours might appear to give students an intellectual advantage, but it could actually have quite the opposite effect.
Students in full-day kindergarten are not just affected in the intellectual sense, though. By being exposed to many peers and superiors throughout a typical day at school, children can become inundated and unsure of the peers they should associate with and trust.
It is also a lot to ask of five- and six-year-olds to socialize with others for more than a few hours at a time; at such a crucial stage when language and behavioral skills are being acquired, children have enough developmental tasks to complete without the need to simultaneously form close personal relationships with peers. After all, students have another 12 years of schooling to socialize and build friendships.
While supporters see mandatory full-day kindergarten as the future of Indiana's educational system, critics of the program will likely continue to be ignored. In attempting to look out for students' welfare, the government has seemed to take little notice of how this will affect kindergartners, their parents and the social and academic growth these children must experience naturally.
Full-day kindergarten - if it must exist at all - should be completely optional. It should be the parents' responsibility to determine what type of attachment they want to have with their children and how they want their children to succeed in the developmental sense.
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