I was looking through my school's website, when I saw a few bold links revealing the notification of a full day kindergarten program. I clicked one of the links, and following is its article:



"All-Day K" Coming to Spring Valley and Franklin
Amy Kren

May 10, 2006 -- Elyria City Schools is expanding its successful full-day, everyday kindergarten program, adding seats for the 2006-2007 school year. The new classes will be offered at Spring Valley Early Childhood Center, 1005 Rosealee, and Franklin Elementary School, 446 West 11th St., in Elyria.

The full-day kindergarten program comes at no additional cost to parents and has proven academic success. In fact, research from The Elyria Schools shows that students who participate in Elyria’s all-day kindergarten program benefit from the additional time in class by outperforming their age mates who attended half-day kindergarten, with significant achievement in reading.

Parents must register for the additional full-day classes no later than May 26 at their home school, and must bring their child’s birth certificate, social security card and proof of custody, if applicable. Registrants will be entered into a random lottery, and Elyria Schools will accommodate as many participants as possible. Children whose names are not drawn in the random lottery selection process will attend half-day programs at neighborhood schools; the locations of which will be determined based on student enrollment.

The Elyria Schools half-day and full-day kindergarten programs are taught by highly qualified teachers, and offer a proven curriculum aligned with state standards. The programs feature low teacher-to-student ratios, specialized instruction, age-appropriate computer technology, highly interactive programming and an abundance of student-support services.



Now, I'm particularly flustered over the bolded paragraph. Shouldn't every child be able to get into the program? It doesn't really make sense, the way the article was writen, because you have the statement of "In fact, research from The Elyria Schools shows that students who participate in Elyria’s all-day kindergarten program benefit from the additional time in class by outperforming their age mates who attended half-day kindergarten, with significant achievement in reading" in the second paragraph; then you have that whole raffle speil just below, in the next paragraph. It makes it sound like "Haha, my child is better than yours 'cause we got picked in a RAFFLE and yours didn't!" Get what I mean?

True, but perhaps the sole reason their programs are so successful is they onlt admit a certain number of students, which mean they can devote more effort to those few. It's quite likely that it's logistically impossible for them to admit more kids and still maintain the quality of their work. Sad, but true.

Hire more teachers... yes it cost money but dammit! Kids these days need to learn!

Thats humanitys future. Give them all good education, assholes.

If everyone got the same education then where would the fun be? After all differences arise because of time spent in school, how you were treated in school and what kind of teachers you had. So personally I think the raffle (while ridiculous) may be the way to truly bring an outstanding generation to our world. Or a really crappy one....

Meh, they are little kids. Lets them have fun, they'll catch up eventually.

I was reading books before kindergarten. Meh.

Well, I dunno bout kindergarten. My class had like 4 kids.

I was writing and singing the ABC before kindegarden... I still can't read to well...