Are Kindergartens ready for kids?

This great question comes from Kentucky Youth Advocates head Terry Brooks. You may need a subscription to read his great post, “Are Kindergarten Classrooms Ready for all Kids?” in Education Week’s blogs.

A key Brooks point:

“Greatness for…any elementary school must include being ready for those kindergarteners as they walk through the door just as surely as greatness for families and communities includes helping get those little ones ready to learn from that first day in kindergarten.”

In fact, I’d suggest Brook’s theme applies at all levels of school, not just in Kindergarten.

We frequently hear about school zero tolerance policies resulting in astonishingly bad consequences for students whose supposed misbehavior is often fairly inconsequential and something the schools should be able to take in stride, working together with parents, as a teachable moment, not a tragedy.

Sadly, too many of our schools have a mindset that it is all the parents’ responsibility. Until that changes, I suspect we’ll be seeing more articles like this new one from Mr. Brooks.