Shopping for Kindergardens - The mad pursuit for academic excellence

Parents have now taken the mad pursuit for academic excellence to a new level ie starting from pre-school or nursery. I went shopping for kindergardens for my 5 year old recently and sadly I found this to be true, in one of them that is.

This is a very established, well known franchised kindergarden with a name. I visited it because I had received a lot of recommendations and good feedback about it. However I do not find this to be true personally.

At the door I was greeted by a kindergarden teacher who asked how old my daughter was. When I said "5" she expressed shock to know that she has never attended any nursery or play school. "Oh No. These days you MUST sent for at least 2 years." Hmmmm....

Soon I was speaking to the principal who showed me their syllabus while she proudly proclaimed that the syllabus was equivalent to the Standard One syllabus in public school. This way the kids will automatically be streamed into the better classes when they start school I was told. Hmmmmm again. What for? So that you can claim that kids "graduating" from your school turn out smarter than the rest and are ahead of the pact?

I spoke to a teacher who like the principal kept on mentioning the word "homework". Hmmmm aren't kids of that age too young to be subjected to lots of homework? What about time for play. My kids learn so much from playing.

Needless to say, I didn't like that established kindy and won't be back.

I'm opting for a newer, less established, less formal kindergarden where the classes are smaller and the teachers more approachable. Thats it.

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