Imagine not knowing the definition of lion and going into a class where everybody knows it and talks about it. You just sit there in a corner listening and trying your best to understand while feeling left out.
Loneliness and lost are some of the psychologically vulnerable feelings a child who has not attended pre-school feels while he/she is in a class with children who had attended and know their answers.
Pre-school is important as it teaches the children the skills they would need to excel in elementary school.
“You have kids coming to school and they are so ready to go and they had pre-school,” Katy Ackerson said, librarian of Sunnyland Elementary school who joined into the conversation. “And then you have kids facing the wrong way and they don’t have a good vocabulary and they don’t have skills for listening.”
As important as pre-school is the parents’ education. Parents are responsible too, in educating their children before sending them to elementary school. Some kindergarteners enter school without skills such as reading or what is known as ‘life experience’. The ‘life experience’ signifies children who are able to go on vacations, field trips, zoos or activities that enable them to learn about general knowledge such as colors, numbers or animals.
The difference between the children who received the ‘life experience’ and the ones who do not have the opportunity is known as an achievement gap.
“I don’t know, I think sometimes parents are working and they don’t have time,” Mary Anne Stuckart said, principal of Sunnyland Elementary school.
As Sunnyland Elementary is a Title 1 school, the Federal Government has given the school more funding to provide one-on-one guidance for children who needs it. Still making up a difference of five years is tough for Sunnyland Elementary. The school is trying it’s best to help the children.
“We do our best to get them caught up,” Stuckart said.
Teachers work with the children in reading and the Title 1 guidance work with them individually.
“Instead of making a year’s growth, you’re trying to make a year’s and a half growth,” Stuckart said.
The school tracks the progress of each and every individual child too. The children are tested when they enter the school in the fall. The test helps to gauge if they require the guidance needed. Gray-area is the standard level for children who enter elementary school with ‘life expereince’. Boards with the different standards are set up in a room of Sunnyland Elementary showcasing the progress of each child.
- Intensive: Children who are below the gray-area. They are seen twice a day.
- Strategic: Children see an extra guidance and are seen every day to work on their reading.
- Standard: Children who are in the gray-area.
- Standing: Children who are really sharp. The school will have to come up with classes that are challenging for them.
The children are tested every three weeks to track their progress.
“Hope they are changing. And if they are not, the discussion is what do they need? Change our instruction? Maybe our instruction isn’t matching what they need and figure out what they do need to learn,” Stuckart said.
Stuckart recommends that children starts attending pre-school or Head Start, a free national school readiness program which is set up the Federal Government. This helps to prepare the children for early education and to learn faster when they are in elementary school.
Sunnyland Elementary school has been trying to advertise and appeal to parents about letting their children join pre-school or Head Start before entering elementary too.
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