[quote=Kaga]o.o No... Kindergarten here (at least as I remember it) a bit more than just daycare. While there was quite a bit of playtime (I mean, you're dealing with 5-year-olds), I also remember learning the basics of how to read and write in kindergarten. Plus, I think it's supposed to warm kids up to the idea of what it's like to be in a school environment (you know, lots of other kids around, one adult who's in charge, etc...).

So yeah, there's kind of an important first step happening there. It's not just a place for parents to drop their kids off during the day.[/quote]

That's what the "minimal time set aside of sitting children done and directly teaching them something in an academic manner" part was referring to. They take about 30 minutes - 1 hour (total) a day to try to teach basic math and english to children, at least in a way they sit the child down and have them work on it. Anything else is the teachers either 'hoping' that the student will find a toy that they can connect to math and english, or changing the toys available to such an extent that everything available connects to it.

Now, go to most Canadian ECE's and they've try to sugar-coat it with stuff such as "We scaffold the child, letting them learn when they want to, and when they're engaged etc." which is true, but it also means a lot of their learning is luck of the draw because so little time is spent running actual lessons. While Grade 1 and up is far more "Children sit for a number of hours and are given lectures and worksheets" sort of learning going on.

[quote=Kaga]No, it's basically a new set of standards that politicians are trying to force onto schools, making kids learn English, math and science "better" and "faster".The reason why there's such an uproar about it is because and they're forcing standards onto students faster than the teachers can re-work their entire system to keep up. Not to mention, this also worsens an already very broken education system for more complicated reasons... Boy am I glad I managed to graduate high school as all that was starting, so I didn't have to suffer through much of it.[/quote]

Ah I see.
They're trying to rush learning even though tons of students struggle greatly in school as it is. :/

That's even worse than them trying to push in another "One size fits all" method.