Strange thing, this. I just saw @Frank Sanoica mention in another post about starting kindergarten with a healing thumb... and it reminded me that things were different for me. I didn't go to kindergarten, but I'm pretty sure that's because it wasn't an option. I'll have to ask my Mama or Dad when I talk to them again, but I really don't think there was a kindergarten in my area until my little brothers were ready for school around 1970. I do remember 1st grade registration... I was terrified and had to use the potty something fierce but was afraid to ask. Having to go to school sounded like the most horrifying thing *ever!*
During my time, kindergarten was optional. And although I know of many who have attended kindergarten, I don't remember anyone in my siblings who did. The schooling age was 7 but some children are entered in grade 1 even as young as 5. Those were the glory days of children where a 4-year old or 5-year old can have the luxury of playing all day long. It's a different story now. I can see children as young as 2 years old being enrolled in nursery. The toddler has a complete set of uniform and school bag to boot. I cannot imagine myself attending school at that young age. It is getting to be the standard to enroll a toddler to nursery or prep or kindergarten before going to grade school at age 7. So many years of schooling for the modern child.
Yes, went to kindergarten and don't remember it being an option. I remember it well. I didn't speak a word of English. I was 3 when I moved to the US from Argentina and my parents were Hungarian and that's what I spoke until I learned it in kindergarten. They thought there was something wrong with me because I didn't talk. My mom said they sent a social worker to the house. I'm sure that went well since my mom didn't speak much English either.
It's true, I see it with my grandsons, if they don't go to preschool they're behind in kindergarten. It's not just playing Like when I went. They have to know words and some reading by the end of the year. The school in Illinois where my youngest grandsons are has a pre kindergarten.
I started kindergarten just after turning 5, my mother having walked with me the 3/4 mile to the school, two "busy" streets had to be crossed, as she called them, I too was pretty scared as I watched her leave the school. I can't recall exactly, but it seems she went with me only a few more times, convinced by then there was no problem I allowing me to go alone. Eventually, knowing all the streets and alleys were in a square "gridwork", I began using alternate routes. That winter, overnight we got a 12-inch snowfall, with plenty of drifts. I trudged on out, I loved the snow. Three kids showed up that morning for Kindergarten; the other 2 had been driven to school by their mothers! There were no school buses in the City. Frank
@Chrissy Page My wife turned 5 in mid-December, thus too young that Fall to start Kindergarten. The following September she began school in the First Grade, skipping Kindergarten, which I believe was not mandatory where I grew up, and likely also in Indiana. Frank
I don't remember it working that way, the ones that didn't make the cut off went to kindergarten the next year. It's still that way for my grandsons. You don't skip kindergarten, you go the following year. Obviously kindergarten is very different not only statewide but even city.
There was no kindergarten in my rural area in 1962. Just confirmed it. No wonder I didn't know of anyone who attended until 1970!
That's how it was here, too... but since we didn't have kindergarten, it worked that way for 1st grade. If you were past the cut-off, even by one day like one of my classmates, you had to wait for the following year. If the cut-off was July 1, tough luck if you were born July 2. Some of my classmates were 18 at graduation, and some younger. If older they were probably held back a grade. My best friend and neighbor was born just a month and a half after me and we were in different grades.