Dr. Charles E. Pascal prepared the report With Our Best Future in Mind (pdf), outlining a proposal to start full day kindergarten in September 2010 in Ontario. The report also recommends having extended-day programs year-round, better programs for younger children and an enhanced parental leave. The last part serves two primary purposes: strengthen the relationships between parent and child and reduce infant care expenses.
The report is well designed and not just a long academic-like text; it’s readable and approachable by a wide audience and I would encourage people to take a look as it goes into great detail with justification for the various recommendations.
Aside from the financial side of things – I don’t personally know what sort of costs would be involved and if the province needs to come up with more money – the main issue I see in regards to full day kindergarten is a question of who should be responsible for our youngest students. That is to say, is it the school’s and province’s responsibility to educate and care for our children all day, or is half day kindergarten sufficient and parents should be in charge of deciding who, where, when, etc the rest of the day’s care or education comes from.
Personally, I like the plan. Knowing where my child will be all day, and that s/he will be cared for, educated and otherwise enjoying the benefits of the school community sounds far better than having to find an outside daycare or nanny to take care of my child until I am done with work for the day.
Does anybody already have a program like this one that they use for their child? Is it good or bad? Is full day kindergarten a good idea?
We send our daughter to a montessori preschool. At 2 1/2 she started half days and since January (when she turned 3) she has been attending the school from 8:30 until 5:30. It’s a long day for her but she loves it and her vocabulary and skills have skyrocketed.
If the full day kindergarten program is introduced, I think that we’ll continue sending her and our younger son to montessori school, we love it.
I wrote a blog post about this very report and subject. I am still torn on a personal level what I think about full time JK/SK (I think it may be too much) but I do like that we have the option as parents and I certainly understand the benefit that this will bring to many families.
I am very interested to see how this report is acted on/followed up.