A reader writes:

 

In my daughter’s Kindergarten class here in Palm Beach County, Florida, she just had her first test–in Kindergarten!!! Each student was separated by a cardboard wall of blinders around them and they were given a five page test on numbers one through five. They had to write the number, the word for the number and draw how many dots represented the number. At a local union meeting, I asked a Kindergarten teacher from another school if she did that in her classroom–surround each student by blinders. She nodded in affirmation. We’re told “They have to be prepared to be tested in first grade.” I remember when I went to Kindergarten in the sixties. Kindergaraten was a half a day. We played with blocks, wooden choo choo trains, had snack and naptime. The teacher tried to teach us how to tell time, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. I never went to preschool. About midway through first grade, my learning clicked and I took off and I haven’t stopped learning ever since. What’s the rush? Why can’t the kids have a chance to be kids? We’re told they have to be prepared for 21st century jobs, for a global workforce? You mean, the global workforce that ships American jobs over seas for dirt cheap wages? You mean the global workforce that hides their money overseas in various tax shelter schemes to avoid paying taxes to help the American people (or people in any country!). You mean the global workforce that exploits people rather than serves them? You mean the global workforce, led by bankers, that created a casino economy, wrecked the entire global economy and received a bailout at public expense while people who purchased homes were left with underwater mortgages? Is that the global workforce we’re preparing our kids for? No thanks. I want my daughter to develop a kind heart, to think of others and to make the world a better place for all, not to be a pawn for profit-making schemes of education testing vultures.