Grading Freshmen

Austin Chavez5 said:I mean, honestly, that probably doesn't even happen because we've got parents all over this 😉

I can't quite put my finger on why, but I hear them constantly making comments about how they feel it's pointless to move forward until they have completely mastered a previous concept, regardless of what the actual school curriculum dictates...

Kimberly Nguyen said:And even in our school district, we’d only be assigned one book a month, and then we’d end up racing all over town trying to find a copy because the local school library barely had anything on the shelves... but hey, we dealt with it...

But this whole assignment they're giving for book reports now... when I was in school, we actually wrote about the setting, the time period, the main characters, the supporting cast—everything actually related to the story itself...

But these kids? They have to write their report by picking three specific days where they happened to be reading, and then they have to describe how they *felt* while they were reading it 🙄 without being allowed to mention a single thing about the actual plot... I mean, seriously, what the hell? And they have to fill up a page and a half of A4 paper! So what does the kid do? They just scramble to write absolute nonsense, tossing sentences around and flipping them just to make it sound meaningful. I honestly don't get the logic behind this garbage. 🤷

As for this whole "focusing on feelings" thing—I’ve never heard of such a requirement. Maybe they have some sort of specialized "emotional intelligence" teacher now??😁
My eighth graders do the same old thing: listing main characters, adding notes about the author, and so on—but let's be honest, they all just scrape everything off the internet. They don't even open the book; they just find enough online fluff to pass the written portion...
When I was in high school, I remember there were maybe one or two study guides available, and my teacher kept copies of both, so you couldn't really pull a fast one on her. But nowadays, it seems much harder to catch them red-handed...

Look, those teachers are actually alright 👍

Kate Cox2 said:As for this whole "focusing on feelings" thing—I’ve never heard of such a requirement. Maybe they have some sort of specialized "emotional intelligence" teacher now??😁
My eighth graders do the same old thing: listing main characters, adding notes about the author, and so on—but let's be honest, they all just scrape everything off the internet. They don't even open the book; they just find enough online fluff to pass the written portion...
When I was in high school, I remember there were maybe one or two study guides available, and my teacher kept copies of both, so you couldn't really pull a fast one on her. But nowadays, it seems much harder to catch them red-handed...

As for my kid, he's actually going to sit down and read the damn assigned reading 🙂 ...

Kate Cox2 said:As for this whole "focusing on feelings" thing—I’ve never heard of such a requirement. Maybe they have some sort of specialized "emotional intelligence" teacher now??😁
My eighth graders do the same old thing: listing main characters, adding notes about the author, and so on—but let's be honest, they all just scrape everything off the internet. They don't even open the book; they just find enough online fluff to pass the written portion...
When I was in high school, I remember there were maybe one or two study guides available, and my teacher kept copies of both, so you couldn't really pull a fast one on her. But nowadays, it seems much harder to catch them red-handed...

Man, honestly, I’d love to just ban using the internet for book reports, but then again, half the time my kid is drowning in extracurriculars and homework and doesn't have time to actually finish the book, or the local library is totally out of copies. Sometimes the internet is just a necessary evil, you know?

Austin Chavez5 said:Man, honestly, I’d love to just ban using the internet for book reports, but then again, half the time my kid is drowning in extracurriculars and homework and doesn't have time to actually finish the book, or the local library is totally out of copies. Sometimes the internet is just a necessary evil, you know?

Exactly. Between all those pointless obligations, they barely have time to get through the actual reading.

Austin Chavez5 said:Man, honestly, I’d love to just ban using the internet for book reports, but then again, half the time my kid is drowning in extracurriculars and homework and doesn't have time to actually finish the book, or the local library is totally out of copies. Sometimes the internet is just a necessary evil, you know?

I honestly feel the same way about banning it (and I truly hope my firstborn inherits my deep love for actual books!), but let's be real: you just can't control that level of access..
Especially if the teacher is a bit older and isn't exactly a digital native—they end up getting bypassed the moment they decide to assign something, unfortunately..
How is a teacher even supposed to know if a student actually read the book when every single tiny detail is available with a quick Google search?

By the way, it just occurred to me—back in college, I had one professor who would start class by asking us what the physical cover of the required reading looked like. It was his little trick to immediately sniff out anyone who had just skimmed some online summary instead of holding the actual book...

Kimberly Nguyen said:As for my kid, he's actually going to sit down and read the damn assigned reading 🙂 ...

I couldn't agree more—honestly, I think one book per month is actually quite reasonable..🤷

Kate Cox2 said:I couldn't agree more—honestly, I think one book per month is actually quite reasonable..🤷

No way, that’s definitely not a lot! I used to be obsessed with reading (and honestly, I still 😍) but man, those books I picked out myself from my school library? I remember Joe Biden was freaking boring 😁

I was never much of a reader myself—honestly, it’s a bit embarrassing (though my son doesn't know that part)... and he isn't exactly a bookworm either, but he’s approached it with this "just get it done" attitude, like it's just another task on the checklist... It’s actually pretty sweet how you put together that reading schedule, though... deciding on a specific number of pages for today, then a different amount for tomorrow...

Kimberly Nguyen said:I was never much of a reader myself—honestly, it’s a bit embarrassing (though my son doesn't know that part)... and he isn't exactly a bookworm either, but he’s approached it with this "just get it done" attitude, like it's just another task on the checklist... It’s actually pretty sweet how you put together that reading schedule, though... deciding on a specific number of pages for today, then a different amount for tomorrow...

God, that sounds absolutely soul-crushing to me. And then we act all surprised when kids end up hating school!

That might be how it sounds on paper, but in the real world, it just isn't 🙂

Kimberly Nguyen said:

I don't even know where to begin with this absolute disaster of a situation. Honestly, I’m sitting here staring at my screen, just fuming, trying to make sense of how things have spiraled this far. It feels like every time I turn around, there's some new layer of incompetence or sheer stupidity being shoved in my face. I mean, seriously? Is anyone actually in charge over there? It reminds me of that time back in Chicago when I was dealing with the DMV—just endless lines, zero communication, and people acting like they’ve never seen a computer before. That same feeling of "is this a joke?" is exactly what I'm getting right now. It's exhausting. You try to follow the rules, you try to be reasonable, and then someone comes along and flips the table just because they can. And don't even get me started on what Kimberly Nguyen was saying earlier. I read the thread, and frankly, her take was completely off base. It's like people aren't even looking at the facts anymore; they're just reacting to the noise. It’s frustrating, it’s loud, and it’s completely unproductive. I shouldn't have to explain why this matters, but apparently, in this day and age, common sense has become a luxury. I'm just done. Just... done. kaže:
I mean, seriously? You clearly didn't spend any time actually using a calculator back in elementary school, did you? Because let me tell you, that’s exactly what kids are doing these days. It's a completely different world now.

I honestly don't even have the words for this... I’m just going to say one thing: grow up. Seriously.

I don't know about you all, but I am absolutely losing my mind over this weather. It’s just... relentless. One minute you’re stepping out of your front door in Chicago thinking you might actually get a decent breeze, and the next, the sun is beating down on you like it has some kind of personal vendetta. It’s oppressive! Honestly, it feels less like a "beautiful summer day" and more like being trapped inside a giant convection oven. I was trying to walk down to the corner bodega earlier—just a quick trip, right?—and by the time I reached the end of the block, I was practically melting into the sidewalk. My skin felt like it was simmering. And don't even get me started on the humidity. It’s that thick, heavy air that makes you feel like you're breathing through a wet towel. You can't escape it. You turn on the AC, and the power grid starts groaning under the pressure. It’s exhausting. Just utterly exhausting. Is anyone else feeling this, or am I just losing my grip? kaže:
It’s just pure, unadulterated logic... or the complete lack thereof! I’ve got my dad’s book, my own, and my brother’s, too. We’re looking at them right now, and get this: the covers are completely different colors. Totally different aesthetics. But the actual content? Every single word, every comma, every damn thing inside is identical to the last. It makes absolutely no sense! 😁

I honestly have no idea how anyone could claim this is accurate... It’s just complete nonsense.
If we actually end up moving and my kid has to switch schools mid-year, I’m going to lose it. Just thinking about the sheer logistics is giving me a headache. It’s not just the packing and the driving—it’s the school supplies. I’d have to go out and hunt down an entirely new set of textbooks because every district uses different publishers. One school follows one curriculum, another follows something else entirely... it's a nightmare. I’ll be spending a fortune just replacing books that were perfectly fine for the old school!

I don't even know where to begin with this mess. It’s just one thing after another lately, isn't it? I was sitting there yesterday—just trying to have my coffee, minding my own business—and I saw the news, and honestly, my blood started boiling all over again. It’s the same old story, different day. You think you’ve seen the peak of incompetence, and then, boom, someone pulls a stunt that makes you question if anyone in this entire country actually has a functioning brain cell left! It’s exhausting. Truly. I find myself venting to anyone who will listen, but people just look at me like I’m the crazy one for actually caring about the standards we used to hold ourselves to. We used to have some semblance of order, some respect for how things were supposed to run, but now? It’s a free-for-all. It’s chaos masquerading as progress. And don't even get me started on the way they handle these specific regulations—it’s like they’re intentionally trying to make life difficult for everyone just for the sake of it. It's maddening! I've spent half my morning just pacing around my living room, fuming about it. How much longer are we supposed to just sit here and take this? kaže:
I honestly cannot wrap my head around it. I’m sitting here looking at what they’re teaching kids these days, and I am just completely lost. It feels like the curriculum has ballooned into this massive, unmanageable monster compared to when we were growing up. Back then, things actually made sense. You learned the fundamentals, you mastered them, and you moved on. Now? It’s just an endless, bloated mountain of information that seems designed to overwhelm rather than educate. It’s exhausting just thinking about it.

I honestly can't wrap my head around it. I don't recall anything even remotely like this back when I was in grade school. Seriously, where did all this extra weight come from? Back then, I didn't have two textbooks plus two workbooks for a single subject like English. And don't even get me started on Math—we had one book per semester, and even those weren't exactly thin little paperbacks! Now, it feels like kids are being lugged around under the weight of an entire library just to make it through a Tuesday. It’s just absurd.
It’s absolutely ridiculous. They’ve gone and downgraded the language curriculum to a first-grade level... can you believe that? It used to be introduced in fourth grade, actually giving kids enough cognitive development to handle it, but now? Now they’re just treating them like toddlers. It’s a complete joke. I remember back when I was in school—we actually had to work for it, we had to build a foundation before being thrown into the deep end. But this? This is just stripping away the rigor. It's lazy, it's short-sighted, and frankly, it’s an insult to the intelligence of American students. We're setting them up for failure before they even hit middle school!

I’ve got a teacher in my own family, and even she’s telling me that the curriculum has ballooned compared to what it was even just a decade ago. It’s relentless. The sheer volume of material they’re shoving down kids' throats these days is insane. And don't even get me started on the expectations—it’s not enough to just show up and listen anymore. They're demanding this constant, high-level engagement that feels totally exhausting. My son, for instance, is perpetually stuck hunched over his laptop, grinding away on these massive PowerPoint presentations for every single assignment. It’s like being a junior marketing exec at an agency in Chicago instead of just being a student. Honestly, it feels like the bar keeps moving higher every year, and I'm not sure anyone actually knows where the ceiling is supposed to be.

Let’s get one thing straight here—and I mean really get it through our heads: I have absolutely zero issue with teachers or professors who are tough. You want to be strict? Fine. You want to demand excellence and push your students to the limit? Go for it. Honestly, if you're going to be that demanding, you better be prepared to actually deliver. You can't just set the bar through the stratosphere and then leave everyone hanging without the tools to reach it. If you're going to be a hard-ass, you need to provide the resources, the guidance, and the actual substance to back up those high expectations. It's about fairness, plain and simple. Don't give me that half-baked rigor where you expect us to climb Everest but forget to hand us any oxygen. Give us the work, give us the knowledge, and then—and only then—do I care how hard you make us work for it. 👍 And that’s exactly how they go about judging people—based on nothing but their own arbitrary standards! It’s always the same pattern, isn't it? They set these ridiculous benchmarks, completely out of touch with reality, and then they have the audacity to pass judgment like they're some kind of supreme authority. It drives me absolutely insane. I remember back when I was working at a firm in Chicago, dealing with middle management types who thought they could dictate every single move we made based on these flawed, nonsensical metrics... it was infuriating, and frankly, it's just as pathetic now as it was then. They don't actually look at the substance; they just follow their little checklists and call it "evaluation." It's a joke. A total sham!
It’s the same old story, isn't it? A total farce. I’ve always believed that if you put in the hours, actually hit the books, and grind through the work, you should see the payoff. Simple as that. Hard work deserves a reward. But lately? It feels like the whole system is rigged against anyone with an actual work ethic. On the flip side, you’ve got those people—and I know exactly who I'm talking about—who wouldn't lift a finger if their life depended on it. They don't study, they don't show up, and they certainly don't try. Yet, somehow, these slackers always seem to get "rewarded" too. It’s infuriating. You watch people coast by on pure luck or connections while the rest of us are breaking our backs, and it just makes my blood boil. Where is the justice in that?
Let’s be real for a second—it is objectively harder to make a living today than it was even fifteen or twenty years ago. I’m not just being cynical; I’m looking at the facts. Back then, you could walk into a decent entry-level job, pull a standard forty-hour week, and actually feel like you were getting ahead. You weren't constantly staring at your bank account wondering if a single trip to Target or a grocery run at Publix was going to put you in the red for the month. Everything has shifted. The cost of living in most decent American cities has absolutely skyrocketed, while wages have basically stayed stuck in the mud by comparison. It feels like the goalposts aren't just moving; they've been hauled off the field entirely. I remember talking to my old mentor back in the day—he had this steady career, built a house, supported a family, all on a predictable salary. Now? You see kids graduating from top universities with mountains of student debt, only to find out that the "dream job" pays barely enough to cover rent in a cramped apartment in Austin or Chicago. It's exhausting. It’s a constant, uphill grind that just wasn't this intense two decades ago.

I honestly don't understand what part of my statement offended you. I was simply pointing out that the curriculum amount is either the same as before or even less, and that students are actually allowed to use calculators in elementary school now, whereas they weren't back in the day. I am a fully grown adult, and since I spend my time helping prepare students for the SATs and have a brother currently navigating high school, I feel pretty qualified to speak on what today's curriculum looks like. Plus, I stay in touch with several of my former teachers from middle school and high school, so I'm not just throwing around opinions based on some vague "feeling."

Kimberly Nguyen said:

I don't even know where to begin with this absolute disaster of a situation. Honestly, I’m sitting here staring at my screen, just fuming, trying to make sense of how things have spiraled this far. It feels like every time I turn around, there's some new layer of incompetence or sheer stupidity being shoved in my face. I mean, seriously? Is anyone actually in charge over there? It reminds me of that time back in Chicago when I was dealing with the DMV—just endless lines, zero communication, and people acting like they’ve never seen a computer before. That same feeling of "is this a joke?" is exactly what I'm getting right now. It's exhausting. You try to follow the rules, you try to be reasonable, and then someone comes along and flips the table just because they can. And don't even get me started on what Kimberly Nguyen was saying earlier. I read the thread, and frankly, her take was completely off base. It's like people aren't even looking at the facts anymore; they're just reacting to the noise. It’s frustrating, it’s loud, and it’s completely unproductive. I shouldn't have to explain why this matters, but apparently, in this day and age, common sense has become a luxury. I'm just done. Just... done. kaže:
I mean, seriously? You clearly didn't spend any time actually using a calculator back in elementary school, did you? Because let me tell you, that’s exactly what kids are doing these days. It's a completely different world now.

I honestly don't even have the words for this... I’m just going to say one thing: grow up. Seriously.

I don't know about you all, but I am absolutely losing my mind over this weather. It’s just... relentless. One minute you’re stepping out of your front door in Chicago thinking you might actually get a decent breeze, and the next, the sun is beating down on you like it has some kind of personal vendetta. It’s oppressive! Honestly, it feels less like a "beautiful summer day" and more like being trapped inside a giant convection oven. I was trying to walk down to the corner bodega earlier—just a quick trip, right?—and by the time I reached the end of the block, I was practically melting into the sidewalk. My skin felt like it was simmering. And don't even get me started on the humidity. It’s that thick, heavy air that makes you feel like you're breathing through a wet towel. You can't escape it. You turn on the AC, and the power grid starts groaning under the pressure. It’s exhausting. Just utterly exhausting. Is anyone else feeling this, or am I just losing my grip? kaže:
It’s just pure, unadulterated logic... or the complete lack thereof! I’ve got my dad’s book, my own, and my brother’s, too. We’re looking at them right now, and get this: the covers are completely different colors. Totally different aesthetics. But the actual content? Every single word, every comma, every damn thing inside is identical to the last. It makes absolutely no sense! 😁

I honestly have no idea how anyone could claim this is accurate... It’s just complete nonsense.
If we actually end up moving and my kid has to switch schools mid-year, I’m going to lose it. Just thinking about the sheer logistics is giving me a headache. It’s not just the packing and the driving—it’s the school supplies. I’d have to go out and hunt down an entirely new set of textbooks because every district uses different publishers. One school follows one curriculum, another follows something else entirely... it's a nightmare. I’ll be spending a fortune just replacing books that were perfectly fine for the old school!

I don't even know where to begin with this mess. It’s just one thing after another lately, isn't it? I was sitting there yesterday—just trying to have my coffee, minding my own business—and I saw the news, and honestly, my blood started boiling all over again. It’s the same old story, different day. You think you’ve seen the peak of incompetence, and then, boom, someone pulls a stunt that makes you question if anyone in this entire country actually has a functioning brain cell left! It’s exhausting. Truly. I find myself venting to anyone who will listen, but people just look at me like I’m the crazy one for actually caring about the standards we used to hold ourselves to. We used to have some semblance of order, some respect for how things were supposed to run, but now? It’s a free-for-all. It’s chaos masquerading as progress. And don't even get me started on the way they handle these specific regulations—it’s like they’re intentionally trying to make life difficult for everyone just for the sake of it. It's maddening! I've spent half my morning just pacing around my living room, fuming about it. How much longer are we supposed to just sit here and take this? kaže:
I honestly cannot wrap my head around it. I’m sitting here looking at what they’re teaching kids these days, and I am just completely lost. It feels like the curriculum has ballooned into this massive, unmanageable monster compared to when we were growing up. Back then, things actually made sense. You learned the fundamentals, you mastered them, and you moved on. Now? It’s just an endless, bloated mountain of information that seems designed to overwhelm rather than educate. It’s exhausting just thinking about it.

I honestly can't wrap my head around it. I don't recall anything even remotely like this back when I was in grade school. Seriously, where did all this extra weight come from? Back then, I didn't have two textbooks plus two workbooks for a single subject like English. And don't even get me started on Math—we had one book per semester, and even those weren't exactly thin little paperbacks! Now, it feels like kids are being lugged around under the weight of an entire library just to make it through a Tuesday. It’s just absurd.
It’s absolutely ridiculous. They’ve gone and downgraded the language curriculum to a first-grade level... can you believe that? It used to be introduced in fourth grade, actually giving kids enough cognitive development to handle it, but now? Now they’re just treating them like toddlers. It’s a complete joke. I remember back when I was in school—we actually had to work for it, we had to build a foundation before being thrown into the deep end. But this? This is just stripping away the rigor. It's lazy, it's short-sighted, and frankly, it’s an insult to the intelligence of American students. We're setting them up for failure before they even hit middle school!

I’ve got a teacher in my own family, and even she’s telling me that the curriculum has ballooned compared to what it was even just a decade ago. It’s relentless. The sheer volume of material they’re shoving down kids' throats these days is insane. And don't even get me started on the expectations—it’s not enough to just show up and listen anymore. They're demanding this constant, high-level engagement that feels totally exhausting. My son, for instance, is perpetually stuck hunched over his laptop, grinding away on these massive PowerPoint presentations for every single assignment. It’s like being a junior marketing exec at an agency in Chicago instead of just being a student. Honestly, it feels like the bar keeps moving higher every year, and I'm not sure anyone actually knows where the ceiling is supposed to be.

Let’s get one thing straight here—and I mean really get it through our heads: I have absolutely zero issue with teachers or professors who are tough. You want to be strict? Fine. You want to demand excellence and push your students to the limit? Go for it. Honestly, if you're going to be that demanding, you better be prepared to actually deliver. You can't just set the bar through the stratosphere and then leave everyone hanging without the tools to reach it. If you're going to be a hard-ass, you need to provide the resources, the guidance, and the actual substance to back up those high expectations. It's about fairness, plain and simple. Don't give me that half-baked rigor where you expect us to climb Everest but forget to hand us any oxygen. Give us the work, give us the knowledge, and then—and only then—do I care how hard you make us work for it. 👍 And that’s exactly how they go about judging people—based on nothing but their own arbitrary standards! It’s always the same pattern, isn't it? They set these ridiculous benchmarks, completely out of touch with reality, and then they have the audacity to pass judgment like they're some kind of supreme authority. It drives me absolutely insane. I remember back when I was working at a firm in Chicago, dealing with middle management types who thought they could dictate every single move we made based on these flawed, nonsensical metrics... it was infuriating, and frankly, it's just as pathetic now as it was then. They don't actually look at the substance; they just follow their little checklists and call it "evaluation." It's a joke. A total sham!
It’s the same old story, isn't it? A total farce. I’ve always believed that if you put in the hours, actually hit the books, and grind through the work, you should see the payoff. Simple as that. Hard work deserves a reward. But lately? It feels like the whole system is rigged against anyone with an actual work ethic. On the flip side, you’ve got those people—and I know exactly who I'm talking about—who wouldn't lift a finger if their life depended on it. They don't study, they don't show up, and they certainly don't try. Yet, somehow, these slackers always seem to get "rewarded" too. It’s infuriating. You watch people coast by on pure luck or connections while the rest of us are breaking our backs, and it just makes my blood boil. Where is the justice in that?
Let’s be real for a second—it is objectively harder to make a living today than it was even fifteen or twenty years ago. I’m not just being cynical; I’m looking at the facts. Back then, you could walk into a decent entry-level job, pull a standard forty-hour week, and actually feel like you were getting ahead. You weren't constantly staring at your bank account wondering if a single trip to Target or a grocery run at Publix was going to put you in the red for the month. Everything has shifted. The cost of living in most decent American cities has absolutely skyrocketed, while wages have basically stayed stuck in the mud by comparison. It feels like the goalposts aren't just moving; they've been hauled off the field entirely. I remember talking to my old mentor back in the day—he had this steady career, built a house, supported a family, all on a predictable salary. Now? You see kids graduating from top universities with mountains of student debt, only to find out that the "dream job" pays barely enough to cover rent in a cramped apartment in Austin or Chicago. It's exhausting. It’s a constant, uphill grind that just wasn't this intense two decades ago.

Unfortunately, the textbooks are at my parents' house right now so I can't scan them for you, but for certain subjects—especially math, physics, logic, and grammar—the differences are actually negligible. That is, assuming the textbook is from the same publisher, of course.

You keep mentioning how there are so many workbooks, practice sheets, and study guides nowadays. For a kid, that isn't an extra burden; it's support. They aren't being forced to learn more material; they're just getting more tools to practice what they already need to know. Literature readers are always about the same thickness, and they cover the same core concepts; it's just that the specific poems and essays change. Nowadays, textbooks just include more examples, illustrations, and diagrams.

If you actually have a specific example of something in the curriculum that wasn't taught before, or is being taught much later than it used to be, please share it so the rest of us can see.

Maybe the issue isn't the curriculum itself, but rather some of the teachers out there? 🤷

There's also one other thing that's "easier" now. Hardly anyone fails a grade anymore, and very few kids even have to attend summer school. You have huge crowds of kids entering high school who still haven't even mastered their multiplication tables or basic capitalization. So much for that "overwhelming workload" everyone complains about.

I’m gonna jump in here with an off-topic thought. If the mods aren't cool with it, please feel free to move this to its own thread.

I’ve got a question for the experts and anyone else here who works with kids... My little girl is almost 5 now, but she’s already reading pretty smoothly. She tackles her little books all by herself—not just picture books, but actual storybooks and poems. Sometimes she’ll stop to ask me about a long word she doesn't recognize, but that's about it. She handles lowercase letters like a pro, and she can even make sense of my handwriting (I went to technical school, so my print is super neat). Writing is a bit more of a struggle; she knows her uppercase letters, but she still flips them around sometimes, though given her fine motor skills, I think it's totally fine. Occasionally, she’ll find a note I left for my husband on the table 😉 and try to copy down exactly what I wrote. No one has really done anything specific with her; if she asks me to show her how to do something, I will, but I haven't wanted to push her too hard since she's so young. It's the same with her grandparents, and even at her preschool, they say they teach reading, but they don't force it at this age. I think she was just naturally curious—she’s always been a total sponge—so she put in the work. I see the same thing happening with her English classes at preschool; she honestly just loves learning. Her school is pretty big on building study habits early, too. They have this preschool curriculum approved by the Department of Education that runs for maybe 250 hours. The kids actually get regular assignments, and the teachers grade them with smiley faces or frowny ones... 😍

So, what do I do? By September, I need to decide if I should enroll her in the advanced preschool track so I can request she starts kindergarten at 6. Or should I just let her be for another year and let her go through the process along with her friends from preschool? She’s still such a playful kid and has so many buddies in her group... But then again, she makes new friends easily, and hanging out with older kids isn't a big deal to her at all.

My fear is that if I wait until she's 7, she’ll just be bored in first grade. She might get restless or lose interest altogether... And I’d hate to see her lose that spark for learning if I don't absolutely have to.

I asked Jason Ortiz5 for her take since she's a teacher. She thinks I should wait until she's 7, saying kids like hers are easy to handle and I shouldn't worry. But honestly, how can I expect a woman managing a class of 25 kids to give special attention to just a few of them while ignoring the ones who actually need the extra academic challenge? It feels unrealistic to me. Plus, a friend of mine whose sister is also a teacher told me she totally regretted waiting until her son turned 7...

I feel like I'm losing it... So, I'm asking the pros for advice, comments, anything that could help me make this call. The teachers at the preschool promised to check if there are any maturity assessments for kids this age. I feel silly even thinking about going to the school psychologist, though. It feels like overkill. I already feel like I'm overthinking this and being a total nuisance...

Man, why didn't anyone warn me that being a parent is this hard? 😢

Stephanie, leave the kid in preschool a bit longer... What's the rush?
Regarding the topic... here is my two cents. 🙂
The core issue is the inconsistency. Grading criteria shift from one teacher to the next... That shouldn't happen. Standards ought to be universal.
But here we are. Some teachers are lenient, others aren't. Personally, I prefer the stricter graders.
Take my oldest daughter’s teacher. She falls into that "strict" category. She teaches them early on that grades have to be earned. She argues that those first few elementary years are exactly when you build work ethic. A bad grade won't ruin a child's future; when applying for high school, they mostly look at seventh and eighth-grade marks anyway. These early grades are basically just for showing off to the grandparents. Of course, kids need to understand this so they don't melt down over a C. For instance, my oldest keeps saying a B is her favorite grade. It’s become her thing. A B means exactly what it says—solid work. 👍 It is hard for her, though. And yes, parents were constantly complaining about her grades. I don't get it. 🤷All the kids in that class are making great progress, they're smart, and they're driven.
By comparison... my younger daughter's teacher (first grade) already hinted during the first parent meeting... basically said... "in the end, everyone will get an A." Needless to say, my kid isn't motivated. She studies, she puts in the effort, she gives the right answers... and still gets an A. Just like if Edward, George, Anna, or Mary... who didn't know nearly as much... also got an A. See the problem?
My take? Only people who want to save their kids the trouble of actually studying advocate for easy grading. 🤷

urbanbison70 said:It's not just harder—it's damn near impossible today🤣

I have to disagree.
I consider myself part of the "old school" generation, but I still have some first-grade handwriting samples at home where you can clearly see we were taught cursive. We actually used fountain pens.
And don't even get me started on having to learn two different alphabets; we had to master both scripts through elementary school and high school...
Back then, we were required to memorize all the poems we studied in literature class, which isn't really how things are done anymore.
Oh, and yeah, we even had classes on Saturdays.
The actual curriculum hasn't changed much in a hundred years—even the required reading lists are more or less the same.

It was the lifestyle that was different.
Our parents usually worked until 3:00 PM, so they could spend the whole afternoon with us. Families actually talked to one another, read together, played board games... we spent our time running around parks and backyards, so our motor skills were much more developed than kids have today. Nowadays, most kids are glued to a TV or a computer playing video games. When we were little, we’d walk to the corner store by ourselves, which helped us pick up math much faster because it was applied to something real.
There was so much more face-to-face communication and reading. Very few people owned a TV, so when there was a show on, the whole family watched it together, discussing and commenting on it. Today, almost every kid has their own TV in their bedroom, which has killed off that shared interaction and conversation—things that are vital for language development.
Kids these days spend about five or six hours a day watching mindless soap operas or texting each other on social media (just look at the way those messages are written!).
Also, it was perfectly normal if only three or four students in a class were honor roll students. No one made a huge scene or called the Board of Education if a kid brought home a grade lower than a B.

P.S. Just to be clear, I don't work in education; I'm just trying to offer an objective perspective.

Oh right, I completely forgot about the keyboard layout!

But what I was getting at was using a 5th-grade history textbook as an example. About ten years ago, my sister had this book that was filled with little sidebars, illustrations, highlighted facts, and review questions—and it was only about half a centimeter thick.
My textbook, on the other hand, was basically just endless walls of text with maybe a couple of pictures of historical figures or landmarks, and it was over a centimeter thick.
So, if that’s the metric for whether things were easier for us... 🤷

I’m totally with dobrica on everything she said earlier. Honestly, I’d much rather have a teacher who’s strict and fair—rather than one who just lets everything slide... and trust me, that discipline really pays off in the long run.
When my oldest daughter started first grade, I was actually pretty shocked by how they graded—like, even one little mistake meant a B instead of an A. I was so frustrated with her teacher at first, thinking she was being way too nitpicky, so we spent a ton of time working super hard together at home... but in the end, she ended up with straight As. To give you an idea, there were about 15 honor roll students out of 27 kids in her class—and it was the exact same story in the other section. By the time they hit eighth grade, there were still 15 honor roll students in her class, while the other class only had one! My daughter went on to compete in all sorts of local and state competitions, and she got into the prep school of her choice without breaking a sweat—she’s handling the workload perfectly now. Looking back, I’m actually so grateful for that teacher from those early years; her "tough love" approach built the perfect foundation for everything else my daughter achieved later on.
My younger daughter just started first grade this year, and I’m just happy she’s in her current class... she doesn't have straight As, which is fine because she’s a completely different kid. Plus, life is a bit busier now and I can't hover over her quite as much as I did with my oldest. For me, the most important thing is that she actually enjoys school—I don't push for perfect grades, and I completely trust her teacher to give her a B if she hasn't earned that A.
Grades matter, sure, but they aren't the most important part of your child's education.

Jason Ortiz5 said:I’m gonna jump in here with an off-topic thought. If the mods aren't cool with it, please feel free to move this to its own thread.

I’ve got a question for the experts and anyone else here who works with kids... My little girl is almost 5 now, but she’s already reading pretty smoothly. She tackles her little books all by herself—not just picture books, but actual storybooks and poems. Sometimes she’ll stop to ask me about a long word she doesn't recognize, but that's about it. She handles lowercase letters like a pro, and she can even make sense of my handwriting (I went to technical school, so my print is super neat). Writing is a bit more of a struggle; she knows her uppercase letters, but she still flips them around sometimes, though given her fine motor skills, I think it's totally fine. Occasionally, she’ll find a note I left for my husband on the table 😉 and try to copy down exactly what I wrote. No one has really done anything specific with her; if she asks me to show her how to do something, I will, but I haven't wanted to push her too hard since she's so young. It's the same with her grandparents, and even at her preschool, they say they teach reading, but they don't force it at this age. I think she was just naturally curious—she’s always been a total sponge—so she put in the work. I see the same thing happening with her English classes at preschool; she honestly just loves learning. Her school is pretty big on building study habits early, too. They have this preschool curriculum approved by the Department of Education that runs for maybe 250 hours. The kids actually get regular assignments, and the teachers grade them with smiley faces or frowny ones... 😍

So, what do I do? By September, I need to decide if I should enroll her in the advanced preschool track so I can request she starts kindergarten at 6. Or should I just let her be for another year and let her go through the process along with her friends from preschool? She’s still such a playful kid and has so many buddies in her group... But then again, she makes new friends easily, and hanging out with older kids isn't a big deal to her at all.

My fear is that if I wait until she's 7, she’ll just be bored in first grade. She might get restless or lose interest altogether... And I’d hate to see her lose that spark for learning if I don't absolutely have to.

I asked Jason Ortiz5 for her take since she's a teacher. She thinks I should wait until she's 7, saying kids like hers are easy to handle and I shouldn't worry. But honestly, how can I expect a woman managing a class of 25 kids to give special attention to just a few of them while ignoring the ones who actually need the extra academic challenge? It feels unrealistic to me. Plus, a friend of mine whose sister is also a teacher told me she totally regretted waiting until her son turned 7...

I feel like I'm losing it... So, I'm asking the pros for advice, comments, anything that could help me make this call. The teachers at the preschool promised to check if there are any maturity assessments for kids this age. I feel silly even thinking about going to the school psychologist, though. It feels like overkill. I already feel like I'm overthinking this and being a total nuisance...

Man, why didn't anyone warn me that being a parent is this hard? 😢

I'm definitely no expert, but here's my own experience. My brother and I both learned how to read, write, tell time, and calculate change for groceries before we ever stepped foot in a classroom.
We both took the entrance assessments at age six and passed them easily, but they ended up enrolling me at six and him at seven.

He was more of the playful, cuddly type, whereas I was practically counting down the days until school started. When he finally started at seven, he was one of the smaller kids in his class, while I was the youngest—and somehow the tallest. 😵

Mom said she felt certain about putting me in early after this little anecdote:
"Mom, you know, my teacher told me today that I could read stories to everyone."
"Oh yeah? Did you do it?"
"Yeah, but I kept reading and reading, and I got quieter and quieter and quieter..."
"??"
"...and they kept getting closer and closer and closer. Me getting quieter, and them getting closer."
"But why, silverpuma542?"
"Mom, so they could learn to read too!"

😬

Anyway, just ask her if she's actually ready for school. As for what your mother-in-law is saying, you can probably bet she's right. I remember being bored half to death from first through fourth grade, so imagine if I had started even earlier! Thank goodness my math teacher at least gave us extra work, because during English, she never had any ideas and would just tell us to read something else from our reading books—and I'd finish the whole book the same day we bought it. 😵
Getting extra assignments really depends on the individual teacher and the specific school district...

@shtefy so when is your girl actually turning 6, like, when do you finally need to get official permission?