I'm not opposed to anyone doing graduations for kindergarten or pre-school, but I do not like them for my kids. I see even Kindergarten as socialization and learning through play. It's not the same thing as when you're older and force yourself to work problems and mug up notes, and you know there's a real chance you won't succeed. If you fail, you have to take the class again or try a different subject. If you succeed, you can celebrate.

Even though kindergarten requires forcing yourself to sit down and write letters or read words, it just doesn't seem like something worthy of a celebration.

My kid just had her kindergarten graduation. Kindergarten graduation per se means nothing to me, but I found myself afraid to look away, feeling like if I looked away and blinked I might look back and see her graduating from college.

"yes"
ha-ha I clicked Reply intending to offer this same one-word response. Now I'll give a long-winded one in another reply. lol

Having once been one, it looks like $omething a professional photographer would dream up.
The only time now age 69 me wore a cap and gown was at the end of the 12th grade.
Later had Troy State mail me my diploma.
I was already too busy working a job.

Isn't the only reason we have pre-school and kindergarten is that the grades 1-12 were fixed in the hierarchy of education? We could have grades 1-14 instead, with "graduations" at intervals such as third grade (now first), eighth grade, and fourteenth grade (high school). Graduation ceremonies are celebrations of achievements, running the gamut from the basic ability to think to being a valedictorian, class president, etc., but moreover a celebration of self-esteem, of setting and achieving one's own goals. Had I homeschooled any of my children, there would have been graduations, which are a system of measurements used to mark the achievement of one set of goals and the commencement of another set of tasks. The traumatization sets in when the expectation is of equality.

If one looks at the results of our educational system, its a total failure in most cases. I say the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

I didnt even have "pre-school" in a government indoctrination center or any other school- and I turned out just fine.

Kids should be allowed to study pretty much what they are interested in, not what the indoctrination center determined they "need" to learn.

Any graduation celebrations other than high school or college are just money grab schemes!

"In Atlas Shrugged the heroine Dagny Taggart encounters a young woman and her husband who have retreated from the world with their two young sons..." That's pretty powerful to me.

I have two little ones and I never understood preschool graduation celebrations blown out of proportion like they typically are. I think the kids are even confused by it, honestly. Not everything is a party. People, kids especially, need to learn to find joy in basic life. This, believe it or not, is a challenging lesson for parents these days. My kids get bored and I respond with a long, goofy list, "Do pushups, sit-ups, math, read, let's go on a hike, let's play catch..." Not everything is a bounce house and cupcakes. Jezuz...I look back on my youth when I was 7,8,9...I'd steal a piece of bacon from the table, sneak down to the bridge with my little fishing pole and spend the whole morning catching bullheads. Wanna see the bridge? She's due for replacement...

http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pdf/bridge...

Wrong, to the post above that pre-school is just baby-sitting. Do you have kids in pre-school! In my post below I explain that in our pre-school the kids have fun but there are sets of motor coordination and intellectual skills that the teachers are helping the students develop. We get a detailed report each semester. Ability to follow through on instructions on a project, for example, is one measure. That's the ability to focus or concentrate. So the kids are told "Let's make a little dragon fly! Here are the materials! Here's how to do it!" It is a training exercise both in motor skills and ability to focus. And we have been able to gauge the progress of our girls from ages 3-5 and see the strengths of each and areas where they need some work (fortunately not that much). Watching a mind emerge in a child is a most wonderful thing!

FYI, see my response to another post above. In our pre-school the kids have fun but there are sets of motor coordination and intellectual skills that the teachers are helping the students develop. We get a detailed report each semester. Ability to follow through on instructions on a project, for example, is one measure. That's the ability to focus or concentrate. So the kids are told "Let's make a little dragon fly! Here are the materials! Here's how to do it!" It is a training exercise both in motor skills and ability to focus.

Actually, our pre-school focused on both. Socializing is important. But the teachers give us evaluations of progress in skills--counting, following instructions for making projects, etc. Of ability to take a little story idea and add to it. Of the ability to focus and concentrate. As a child grows from age 3 to 5, obviously this latter is a crucial intellectual skill. Pre-school is not just play though part of the idea is to have them do fun things that develop motor and intellectual skills.

when I was in HS, and a Girl Scout, they let me run a pre-K program during a GS program called "Day Camp.". it ended up as babysitting and the children were anywhere from 2-5. anyway, we marched across corn fields and along the river. If I think about it, I'm pretty sure I should not have been in charge of 10 little ones next to a river. anyway, no one died. at the end of the two weeks, I set them up at picnic tables and let then make their own "ribbons of achievement." they were pretty clueless.

so here's a funny story. Have a lifelong friend who was traumatized in preschool over cleaning out her Prang water color set. seriously, those things don't clean up well. then years later, she had dreams about it. LOL

and why aren't you coming to see me at the Summit? :)

it is play time. getting some sort of acknowledgement for play time sends the wrong message. now, kindergarten is a different story. children have to actually focus and maintain certain behaviors for extended periods of time. you can see that children have to work at composure and complete exercises within a set period of time. it's tough for them. Preschool is a socialization mechanism, IMO

Interesting question. Can't imagine a kid failing prekindergarten.

For the reasons stated in the article...yes; but sadly, in the mainstream of society, It's to show off or justify the effort of the parents, not the kids.

Yes, a thousand times, yes. I even think that pre-school is going top far. It's just what used to be called baby sitting.

Edit for spelling.

Does anyone fail Preschool? I understand wanting to have a good time. Graduation ceremonies for Preschool seem over the top. Just my opinion.

Any reasons why, as per my argument in the piece?

yes