Friday, April 1, 2016

April Fools' Day letter sent to the Los Angeles Times


The unfortunate tendency of children to want to play and enjoy themselves must stop,

How can we maintain our economic and military superiority if preschool and kindergarten children waste time "learning about being a member of a community" and "how to get along with others"?  Contrary to June Sholnit Sale's assertion (letters, March 25), the problem is that we are not dedicating more of preschool and kindergarten to academics.
   And we need to start academics even earlier: We need preschool readiness testing to ensure that parents teach their toddlers to count and develop pre-phonics skills to prepare them for preschool.  I have recommended even earlier intervention: See my paper,  "Phonemic awareness training for prelinguistic children: Do we need prenatal PA?" (Reading Improvement 35: 1998.)
   The unfortunate tendency of children to want to play and enjoy themselves must stop, despite claims of mushy-minded "experts" who claim that play improves "social and emotional development," whatever that is.
   Children should not be allowed to behave like children.
Stephen Krashen
President, Kindergarten Kalculus Association

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