My Kindergarten Story - NOT!!! In his post announcing this contest, Charles Beull theorizes that none of us are too old to have not gone to kindergarten! I have to disagree. I grew up in a wonderful working class neighborhood in what today is known as Lower Northeast Philadelphia. Ours was a very parochial neighborhood - in both senses of the word. Most, not all, of the children in the neighborhood attended the local Catholic elementary school - St. William. It was the same school my Mother had attended in the late 1930's and early 1940's and my nieces and nephew attended in the 1990's and 2000's. Kindergarten was not offered in our school at that time. I cannot remember whether kindergarten was offered in any Catholic School in the Philadelphia Archdiocese at that time. Today, of course, it is offered and many children attend.
My parents' other option would have been having us an attend Kindergarten at the local public school - Lawndale School, an excellent school with wonderful teachers. However, that school was 10 blocks from our home. We had five children in our family and since it was a simpler time, our family did not have a second car to ferry kids back and forth to school and even the ubiquitous activities that kids attend today. Since most of the children in my immediate neighborhood walked two very short blocks from my house to St. William School, there were no older "publics" as we so kindly called them, that a parent could hire to walk their kindergartner to school. So, no Kindergarten for me.
In those days, toward the end of the Baby Boom, the Catholic schools were overcrowded, as I assume were all schools. My first grade class had 85 children in the class, with one teacher, no aide. Needless to say there was very little extra space in those classrooms. My older sister, who started first grade three years ahead of me actually had 100 children in her class. In those days, most of the teachers were Religious (Sisters), who dedicated their lives to educating children. In these days of classrooms limited to 40 children, these huge class sizes are hard to fathom. And with all of issues that many kids are dealing with and sometimes bring to school with them, I doubt any educating would be going on.
Still, we learned. We spent first grade learning our letters and numbers and maybe how to tie our shoes. (my shoes may have had buckles, I can't remember). It was a simpler time. Many of today's first graders are reading when they arrive at first grade - or even kindergarten. My oldest son was reading by the age of three and entered first grade with a 6th grade reading and comprehension level. Also, there would be no tolerance today for the mimeographed sheets and home made flash cards that were the staple of my early education. I remember proudly telling my Mother that her homework was the take the sheet with all those letters on it, paste it to a piece of cardboard and cut out the letters to make flashcards. Then she was to review the flashcards. At which point Mom reminded me that she knew her letters and I needed to review them and learn them with her. Oh!!!
How many children enter school today computer savvy? And let's not discount the role of Sesame Street and other educational programming teaching pre-schoolers to recognize letters and numbers, count, etc.
My Kindergarten Story - NOT!!! Today's post is brought to you by the letter A and the number 7.
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