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On kindergartens
THERE’S A SIMPLE way to guarantee a debate in any Virginia community. Somebody proposes something to do with schools and everybody is up in arms. It doesn’t matter particularly what the subject is; if it has to do with schools, or more specifically, with school children, then a public uproar is a certainty.
Take the situation in Rappahannock right now. Somebody said something about kindergartens, and while the result isn’t precisely an “uproar,” emotions have been stirred, as witness the letters-to-the-editor of recent weeks.
Frankly, we still think the School Board is pursuing a sensible course in seeking to expand the summer preschool program which it has had for some time, instead of instituting a full-fledged kindergarten program. If the State Board of Education contains a grain of common sense, they’ll agree that rural counties pose a special problem in kindergarten programs, and they’ll give Rappahannock and similarly situated jurisdictions a little more leeway in setting up these early education programs.
WE STILL FEEL that if some parents wan t their children to attend kindergartens, and they’re willing to pay for it, then there are ample programs available. And we also feel fhat the parents who don’t especially care for an educational philosophy which seems to want to push youngsters into institutionalized training at even younger ages are entitled to their prerogatives, as well. And from past experience with government at all levels, people are well grounded in their fears that today’s “optional” program will become tomorrow’s “mandatory” program, and then all questions of individual choice are really beside the point.
For every “expert” who says kindergarten is worthwhile, another “expert” can be found to say it isn’t. There have been some disturbing reports in recent months, for that matter, about how the American educational system isn’t satisfactorily performing even a basic task in preparing people to be useful, productive citizens. A survey which concluded that one out of every five adult Americans is “fuctionally illiterate” raises serious questions about the whole educational establishment.
If a more workable, less costly, less tiring—for the youngsters—alternative to a public kindergarten program can be worked out for rural Rappahannock County, then by all means let us Dursue that eoal.D
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