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Education

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QED

(2,970 posts)
Thu Mar 12, 2015, 09:55 AM Mar 2015

Kindergartners asked to ‘check out’ college scholarships and ‘select jobs’ [View all]

On the first grade image, they are asked to talk to a family member about their college experience. As if everyone went to college...or could afford it.

This is ridiculous, of course. It's Arizona, of course.


Kindergartners asked to ‘check out’ college scholarships and ‘select jobs’

or some time now, we’ve been watching kindergarten classrooms turn from places where kids learn by playing into places devoted to academics where there is sometimes no time for recess, naps, snacks or much fun. The Common Core includes standards for kindergartners, which you can see here, that many child development experts say are inappropriate for young children. And now we are seeing the spread of “checklists” that young children are supposed to complete that apparently ensure that they are “college- and career-ready.”

One such list, on the Arizona Department of Education Web site, asks kindergartners to “check out scholarships at http://www.finaid.org/scholarships/age13.phtml” for college, start a college savings account and “read picture books about careers and select the jobs I like.” There’s more (see graphic below), including monitoring reading standardized test scores. (What would a college and career road map for kindergartners be without a focus on standardized test scores?) Young kids, of course, like to imagine what they might be and do when they become adults, but should they really be checking out scholarship lists and obsessing over test scores?

More:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/03/11/kindergartners-asked-to-check-out-college-scholarships-and-select-jobs/

This is just the kindergarten image. The first grade image is at link.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484

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