How Low Can They Go?
Oklahoma's state constitution originally required compulsory school attendance for children "between the ages of eight and sixteen years, for at least three months in the year." The legislature later expanded the school year and lowered the age to seven, then to five. Today, something like 70 percent of Oklahoma's four-year-olds are in state prekindergarten.
How low can they go? I'm reminded of the fire captain's remark in Ray Bradbury's dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451: "We've lowered the kindergarten age year after year until now we're almost snatching them from the cradle."
Indeed, in this puff piece from the ABC affiliate in Tulsa we learn that one school district, not content with having the state institutionalize five-year-olds and four-year-olds, is now happily snatching up three-year-olds. The reporter puts a happy face on the whole idea of surrogate parenting for three-year-olds, but fails to interview anyone who would cite the research exposing its risks.
How low can they go? I'm reminded of the fire captain's remark in Ray Bradbury's dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451: "We've lowered the kindergarten age year after year until now we're almost snatching them from the cradle."
Indeed, in this puff piece from the ABC affiliate in Tulsa we learn that one school district, not content with having the state institutionalize five-year-olds and four-year-olds, is now happily snatching up three-year-olds. The reporter puts a happy face on the whole idea of surrogate parenting for three-year-olds, but fails to interview anyone who would cite the research exposing its risks.
