The following is an excerpt from a letter sent by the principal of Greenwood School to the parents of all incoming kindergarteners."We have decided to institute a policy of all-day kindergarten, instead of half-day kindergarten, for all students at Greenw

From his letter to the parents of incoming kindergarteners, the principal of Greenwood school definitely seems be having the best interests of his students in his plan to extend half-day kindergarten to a full-day session. In spite of his noble intentions, the reasons that he states for doing so seem to be old-fashioned and not in tune with the annals of modern theories of education.

Kindergarteners typically refer to children below the age of six, who attend school to get prepared for the rigours of formal education. Though it is true that these children need to be slowly brought out of their parents' sheltering and exposed to the highly competitive world of education, expecting them to do so as soon as they join kindergarten is impractical. Half-day or full-day school, it means little when a child is just discovering the truly alien world of learning and discovery. In fact, at such a tender age, children would only undergo unwanted stress if they are made to do too many things at a time, namely, learning what they are taught at school, overcoming the fear of being away from home and adjusting with peers. That established, it would be cruel to not give the child a break from the stress of attending school, what the Principal refers to as 'wasting time at home and in day care'.

Many educationists today will strongly disagree with this Principal's classification of high-achieving and low-achieving students. It is acommon opinion that kindergarten is too early a stage to decide whether a child is a "high" or "low" achiever. Every child is unique, and has some innate talents that are ideally be fostered and developed gradually. If by "high-achieving", the Principal of Greenwood school is referring to the child'd performance in academics, he has a very narrow-minded view of the wonders that children are capable of - not just in so-called studies, but in arenas like music, the finer or performing arts or sports.

Given that every child is unique, it would be impractical to expect these so called "low-achievers" to perform better when they are made to sit at school the whole day. In fact, though adults don't realise it, such children sense that they are inferior to their "high-achiever" peers, and may even rebel against this special treatment and not perform as expected. This may only create a negative impact on the child's ability to learn.

Though a few of the reasons he gives for instituting full-day kindergarten instead of a half-day session are surely valid, it would do well for the parents of those children to carefully think before enrolling their wards in Greenwood school, because this move could prove harmful to their child's overall development and self-esteem in the long run.