What I Learned in Kindergarten

I spent two mornings this week volunteering in Jacob's Kindergarten classroom. While I can't honestly say I'm exhausted from the experience, I will say that kindergarten teacher moved down on my list of "What I Want to Be When I Grow Up."

(Yes, I am still trying to figure that out.)

Anyways, there are 25 children in the classroom. There is 1 teacher.

I'm not sure I ever really gave this much thought before my own kid was ready to start school, but that is insane. I don't understand how, as a society, we have decided that this is ok. In this season of political discussions, it's pretty infuriating to NOT hear more about education. All I'll say is that perhaps we could take a closer look at how we can make better Americans? I could go on...but I won't.

Since this whole school thing is new to me and I'm spending a lot of mental energy thinking about it, I feel compelled to organize my thoughts here.

• I was unprepared for the range of abilities that children have within the same classroom. Maybe I'm just out of touch with reality, maybe I was just sheltered in my private school education, but I didn't know there would be so many kids with disabilities in the classroom. I had no idea. While there is an aide that works with one or two of the more severe cases, it just seems like such a challenge for that ONE teacher in the room of 25 kids to have to try to teach them all. Teaching 25 really smart kids would be hard. This seems really hard. I am by no means suggesting that these children shouldn't be in the classroom, and I'm sure that I would have a lot more perspective on this if I were the parent of one of these children. But wow.
• On a related topic, it is remarkable the way the other children in the classroom don't seem to even notice that some of the children are different. I, as an adult, was incredibly distracted by a child who was clearly unable to sit down at a regular desk. The aide followed him up and down the rows of desks, all around the room, during the middle of a morning lesson. None of the other kids even seemed to notice it was happening.
• School is probably easier for little girls. Not necessarily the subject matter, but the whole "sitting still and paying attention" thing. Obviously this is not a rule, but I think it's pretty true to say that in general, girls are better able to sit down and work quietly on something than boys are. Watch kids playing sometime. I think it's really hard to sit still for that long when you are five. And a boy.
• Girly meanness starts much earlier than I thought. I worked with the kids one morning on their "October Notebooks." Each school day, they draw a picture and write a sentence relating (hopefully) to that picture. I've seen Jacob's notebooks. This morning he wrote about fires, I think. (I like the fire. It is really hot." He has written about tanks, dogs, trees, whales...nothing that seemed remarkable. Most of the boys wrote about similar things. And then there were the girls. "We are not friends." "You are so mean because...(I can't remember why)." Yesterday, one girl told me that her friend had said, "I don't want to be your friend anymore," earlier in the morning. They had been sitting together playing a game with me for 20 minutes already, laughing and chatting, so I suggested that she might not want to say that since she obviously didn't mean it and it hurt her friend's feelings. What the hell? Is this seriously how girls talk to each other? I get boy nastiness. Get mad, punch each other, done.
• Kindergarten handwriting is hilarious. A friend of mine said it looks like a ransom note, and I think that very aptly sums it up. I kind of want to create a font from one of Jacob's papers.
• It is very interesting to watch your own kid while he is in school. Thankfully, I don't seem to distract Jacob from what he should be doing while I am in the classroom. This is largely because he's plenty distracted by all of the other kids already. I'm already anticipating the parent-teacher conference. I am certain that his teacher will identify his greatest weakness as spending too much time "socializing." He does. From the minute we get there until (I assume) the minute we get back in the car, there are other kids around him, talking to him, giggling with him, pulling on his arm to drag him here or there, whispering things to him, hugging him. Kids really seem to like him. And he really, really likes his classmates. So much so that he sometimes has a really hard time paying attention to the on-socializing part of school.
• My kid is smart. Yes, I know, everyone's kid is smart, right? But really, being able to compare him to all of the other kids in his class, I feel like I have a better ruler by which to gauge him. I didn't say he was the smartest in the class. He's definitely not the best writer, speller or reader. However, when the teacher asks a question, he knows the answer. He can formulate a complete thought and write it down. His writing is legible, though, as I mentioned, hilarious. He knows the alphabet, can follow directions...he's going to be just fine in school. I wasn't worried, but it's nice to have confirmation of that.
• Jacob is the kid who jumps up out of his seat to raise his hand when he knows the answer. In the course of a 20 minute lesson, I watched him accidentally flip his chair over twice. I also heard him, while raising his hand, shout out the answer to a question. I think he even surprised himself when the word just seemed to fly right out of his mouth. At least he's enthusiastic!
• There is much greater cultural and ethnic diversity in San Diego public schools than there is in East Aurora private schools. This is not a surprise, of course, but it IS one of the things that I like about this whole "school" thing.
• Kindergarten teachers deserve to be paid a whole lot more than they are being paid. I'm absolutely certain this is true of all teachers, but man...kindergarten teachers have a difficult job.
• "When I go to college" has become a regular part of Jacob's vocabulary. His teacher stated her goal of creating "little scholars" out of the children at the beginning of the year. I think she's well on her way, at least with some of them.

There are so many new and exciting experiences that we've had since school started, for both Jacob and me. And Ryan, too. I'll dedicate another post to the little guy's preschool experience...but for now I will say that, taken as a whole school is great.

I don't love that I have to send my kid away for such a long day, 5 days a week, to learn from someone else and be in the company of so many other kids who may or may not have values in line with ours. But, my boy is happy. He is doing well and learning new things. His teacher is very, very sweet.

I think my only real complaint is that I miss him.