As kindergarten ratchets up academics, parents feel the stress.
'Jo Ann Bjornson spent her early childhood in the care of babysitters until it came time for her to board the bus to school for half-day classes, an event that came with little fanfare. For her daughter Isabella, the days before kindergarten started this month included structured preschool, a bevy of summer camps and months of agonizing over whether the smart, sensitive 5-year-old was academically and socially ready to start school.
Kindergarten, where children were once encouraged to play and adjust to the rhythms of the school day, has long been evolving. But many parents new to modern-day elementary schooling say they have been shocked to find their children in a pressure cooker of rigorous academics, standardized tests, homework and what seem like outrageous expectations.
The nation’s earliest grade — if you don’t count pre-K — now comes with packed orientation nights, school tours, Twitter chats, warnings to make sure children brush up on their skills and “dress rehearsals.” Some parents have come to view the first year of school not as a transition but as a make-or-break gauntlet that will shape their child’s academic career.
Many worry that their children are ill prepared for the more strenuous environment, that their kids, not far removed from their toddler days, will burn out.
“What if I make the wrong decision and I send her too early?” said Bjornson, of Arlington, a vice president of human resources at Leidos. “I don’t want to screw my kid up for forever. Am I going to set her up for failure for the rest of her life?”
New research from the University of Virginia published this year confirmed the shift parents have been feeling: Kindergarten has grown far more academic, with an increasing emphasis on literacy and math and additional exposure to standardized tests in preparation for more later in their schooling.
The study, based on teacher surveys from 1998 and 2010, found that kindergarten shifted dramatically in just those dozen years. More teachers were using worksheets and having children compose and write sentences. Fewer teachers had art, science and dramatic play areas or water tables. In 1998, 31 percent of teachers said they believed that most children should learn to read in kindergarten, but by 2010, 80 percent held that belief.'>>>
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/as-kindergarten-ratchets-up-academics-parents-feel-the-stress/2016/09/25/555fa584-7519-11e6-b786-19d0cb1ed06c_story.html?
= new reply since forum marked as read
I taught first grade for over 15 years until recently and first grade is what third grade used to be. The kids CAN NOT DO IT! It is like asking a newborn baby to stand up. It is developmentally nearly impossible. There is no art, music, etc. There is barely math. It is all "teach to the test". First graders are not even able to learn the content that is to be tested since teachers spend so much time on teaching them how to take a damn test and not just one test a year but several per year. We have to do the dirty job of trying to explain this nonsense to parents when we do not agree with it in the first place. I would have to go home and spend my nights and weekends transferring students' answers to test forms and then transfer that into the computer system. These are 6 year olds and this system is wrong. No wonder our country is so far behind most other advanced countries in education. 
so did my daughter, who tho studied education (early childhood+) decided NOT to teach in schools; is home-schooling her son/my grandson.
My older other daughter posted a concern/complaint about 'common core,' and a teacher friend of hers said she'd help my daughter helping her own kids; her son is almost 5, so is getting ready for 'school,' I guess. 