The Fun of Kindergarten
By Veronica MacDonald Ditko
An Accidental Anthropologist
May is the month most college students run screaming from the hills that they are off for the summer. High school seniors have serious cases of Senioritis by now. And Kindergarteners, well, do they know what summer is yet?
It only recently occurred to me that all grades have an assigned number except for Kindergarten. Does that mean that back in the day, kids only started school when they were 6 or 7 with 1st Grade? The answer is yes, if there was a school nearby.
Kindergarten is a German phrase meaning “Children’s Garden.” And granted, I don’t know if Kindergarten is a real grade, with shorter days and less classroom structure and lots of fun. Hopefully they are still learning something. But I imagine them dancing around like little nymphs in a garden.
I remember what a shock it was going from a few half-days of Kindergarten to a full-time, five-day week in 1st Grade. Man that was rough. And I liked school. But it was harsh.
The way school is structured today is largely a sign of our times. Parents tend to work more and need their kids to be entertained / watched throughout the day. Some schools have the option of part-time or full-time Kindergarten.
Kindergarten was created around 1815 in Scotland and later in Hungary for the middle and upper classes, not really for working parents. It wasn’t until a German named Friedrich Fröbel opened a Kindergarten in Blad Blankenburg, Germany in 1840 that the idea gained worldwide recognition. A German woman by the name of Margarethe Meyer Schurz brought the “Fröbel Method” to Watertown, Wisconsin in 1856, the first Kindergarten in the United States. It was German-language only and in her house. In 1859, an English-language Kindergarten was founded in Boston. The first publically-funded Kindergarten appeared in St. Louis in 1873.
Not all states require kids to attend Kindergarten. New Jersey does. That’s no surprise because working moms have probably already re-entered the workforce anyway.
I do hope my kids can relive the fun I had in Kindergarten. The only rule I remember was to not to stack building blocks above my head. Not that the boys ever listened. Oh, and that is when the crushes began. Everyone liked little Johnny. And we were all integrated in one class, people with disabilities and emotional issues and all.
Kindergarten is vital that way, as a transitional place between toddlerhood and school-age, where you still have fun and you learn that not everyone is alike, but it doesn’t matter. And oh, if a boy likes you, he will chase you at recess. Important lessons learned!
Hopefully the Kindergarteners won’t forget all that over the summer…!
Veronica MacDonald Ditko is originally from the Jersey Shore, but married and settled in northern New Jersey. Her journalism career started a decade ago after studying Psychology and Anthropology in Massachusetts. She has written for several newspapers and magazines including The Daily Hampshire Gazette, The Springfield Union News and Sunday Republican, Happi, Chemical Week, The Hawthorne Press, The Jewish Standard, Suite101.com and more.