All day Kindergarten, Good or bad what is your opinion?

pointless and kind of sad. 5-year-olds have lots to learn and school is not the only or always the best place for doing that. so much for childhood. but, at least where i live, that train has already left the station, and full-day is pretty much the only option at this point.

I am think since so many children don't go to preschool it is asking too much for a child to start going to school for that long each day. Kindergarten should be a transition for children. From being at home all day to spending a large amount of their waking hours at school. What quality of learning happens when a 5 year old is in school 7 hours a day?

My children would not have benefitted from it. It's a transitional time, not a compulsory collegiate detriment to go for 3 hrs.

I think that it has much to go for it from a purely practical POV. Back when kindergarten first became the norm in schools, most kids had never been away from home before. So this very gentle and gradual introduction to school (being away from mom, learning to sit still, take turns, hold a crayon, ....) made sense. Today, a majority of kids, by the time they start kindergarten, have already been to preschool or daycare. So switching from an 8-10 hour day at day care to a 2 1/2 hour day at kindergarten is a big step backwards. (And also from a practical POV, for the kids with single parents or both parents in the workforce, transport between kindergarten and daycare/preschool can be difficult. So the reality of the 21st century world means that full-day kindergarten is the most sensible option for most kids, most parents and most school districts.

I think a full day of school at 5 years old is too much at that age. Let them gradually be immersed into school. Unfortunately, today's kindergarten is what 1st grade was when most of us were in school. I think children are losing out on their very short amount of time to be children. Full day kindergarten, over-scheduling after-school sports/extracurricular activities, etc. Let kids be kids.

As a mom who has a son in all day (8 hour) kindergarden... I honestly don't see a point to 8 hours of school for a 5 year old. The reason it takes 8 hours though is because of large class sizes to just 1 teacher. It takes a lot longer to teach each child on their own individual pace when you have 20 kids to teach. I think a half day (3-4 hours) is more than enough for a kindergardener. I think honestly 8 hours a day for *any* grade is a bit excessive, however that's my opinion and a completely separate subject :)

I think it is pointless. A 5 year old stops paying attention after a certain amount of time so the second half of the day is completely pointless, you've already lost them. Half day is much better because school thought of more as a fun place to learn instead of a long drawn out chore.

Hmm, what is all day? Here they go from 7:45am-2:35pm, 7 hours. It's all I've ever known though, I did the same thing 30 years ago.

All Day Kindergarten is SAD. Kindergarten was once fun and games, learning how to follow directions. Now that you have 'all-day', kids can 'learn more'. My granddaughter was EXPECTED to WRITE SENTENCES in Spring of her Kindergarten year. She came home wanting help, in her words, on how to write AN IMPERATIVE SENTENCE! She was so stressed. They pushed phonic sounds before kids fully grasped them and some did not understand. All per 'state guidelines and benchmarks'. Kindergarten of today has become the 1st grade of yesteryear. 'More time to learn' has just become 'more time to push stuff before most kids are developmentally ready". The benefits of all day Kinder for most kids? By the time the child graduates, all day Kindergarten doesn't make a difference in getting into college or not. The benefits ARE free child care for the parents.